Isso soa como o romance de 1991 Russian Spring de Norman Spinrad.
Pontos correspondentes:
I read a book in the late 90's
Publicado em 1991
O único planejamento real do espaço exterior está na Europa Comum, então o jovem "cadete espacial" americano Jerry Reed vai trabalhar em Paris.about an American boy who becomes a rocket engineer for the ESA?
He has an accident and some shrapnel lands in his brain and paralyses him then he goes for a ride around the moon in a ship he helped design.I particularly remember that the ships pilots were grateful that he included a joystick to control the ship with so that it felt more like flying a aircraft.
Correto. Ele trabalha para a ESA e projeta naves espaciais e tem um acidente.
As he is dying he arranges to have his brain plasticized so that future doctors can bring him back and fix him. His doctor is sad that he can't "Blue Max" him, but must wait 6 minutes after death before removing his brain.
Eles são incapazes de salvar todo o seu corpo para aplicar técnicas de preservação apenas à sua cabeça.
Se este é o livro, em uma cena particularmente pungente, você pode se lembrar do seguinte:
The last point fulfills a lifelong dream of his to visit the moon which was fostered in him by his father and his uncle during the original moon landings. They allowed him to stay up to watch by allowing him to eat his favorite ice cream so he would remember it. (he was like 3 years old or about that). The ice cream established a sensory memory. When he went around the moon he thought it tasted like a big bowl of ice cream.