Camelot 30K is a hard science fiction novel written by the United States physicist Robert L. Forward.

The story mainly deals with the concept of human contact and interaction with a kingdom of intelligent alien life that dwells on a frozen world where the ambient temperature is only 30 K or −240 °C (hence the title of the book).

The signal comes from beyond Neptune and even Pluto, on 1999 ZX, a celestial body between comet and planet in size, out in the Kuiper belt at 35 AU from the Sun.

Twenty years later they send a scientific team to this small, ice-bound planetoid in the farthest reaches of the Solar System in the Oort cloud.

Yet on this icy, frozen world, life manages to thrive: the keracks, which are no bigger than a few centimeters in length resemble "large one-eyed prawns dressed in elaborate clothing".