Stephen Baxter "Time (Manifold 1)" PDF

The year is 2010. More
than a century of ecological damage, industrial and technological
expansion, and unchecked population growth has left the Earth on the
brink of devastation. As the world’s governments turn inward, one man
dares to envision a bolder, brighter future. That man, Reid Malenfant,
has a very different solution to the problems plaguing the planet: the
exploration and colonization of space. Now Malenfant gambles the very
existence of time on a single desperate throw of the dice. Battling
national sabotage and international outcry, as apocalyptic riots sweep
the globe, he builds a spacecraft and launches it into deep space. The
odds are a trillion to one against him. Or are they?