Saturn Rukh

Saturn Rukh is a hard science fiction novel written by the United States physicist Robert L.

[1] Like many of Forward's books, the novel is a speculation of the nature of intelligent life in a non-Terran ecosystem, in this case the atmosphere of a gas giant.

[citation needed] In an unspecified time in the future, a multi-national consortium sends six astronauts to Saturn to establish a helium mining factory to produce stabilized metastable helium ("meta"), a powerful rocket fuel, in the planet's upper atmosphere.

And all too soon the crew of astronauts crash-lands on a surface, which is actually the back of an enormous alien life-form.

They dub the bizarre sting-ray-shaped creature that "swims" through Saturn's gaseous upper atmosphere "the Rukh".