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Dr. David Brown
The American scientific leader of the Newton mission, who takes over as The Leader after Borzov's death.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Starts to get regrets over the mission's death toll later on, and expresses it to Sabatini, though they both carry on with their plan.
- Jerkass: Very much so.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Stole credit for research from one of his graduate students back on Earth, and married her.
General Valeriy Borzov
The Russian original commander of the Newton mission. He dies aboard the vessel when a seemingly routine surgical procedure goes horribly awry.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Certainly in contrast to Admiral Heilmann and Dr. Brown.
Dr. Nicole Des Jardins
The Newton mission's chief medical and life-sciences officer.
- Badass Bookworm: Nicole uses her knowledge of biology and of the monitoring devices inside the cosmonauts to solve riddles in the second book, leading to her encounter with the main villain. In her case, besides being a bookworm now, she was an Olympic athlete.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Does this with some regularity due to her Senoufo heritage and Poro-awakened abilities. Unfortunately, many times these dreams are extremely cryptic. As a child she dreamt she became a big white bird and flew beyond the moon and the sun into the void. This is foreshadowing of her trip to Rama. She also dreamed that she would be the one to sow the Senoufo seed amongst the stars, which she ends up doing through her children.
- Ethnic Magician: Her mystical side is from the Senoufo heritage, and she awakened it first during the Poro ceremony.
Admiral Otto Heilmann
A German admiral and one of the military officers in joint command of the Newton mission.
- General Ripper: Ends up fully in favour of using the nuclear devices to destroy Rama when it heads towards Earth.
- Number Two: Becomes this to Dr. Brown after Borzov's death.
General Michael O'Toole
An American general, and one of the military officers in joint command of the Newton mission.
- Nice Guy: To a fault. Near the end of the book, he agonizes in lengthy fashion over whether or not to add his code to activate the nuclear devices placed to demolish Rama.
Francesca Sabatini
An Italian journalist selected to report on the mission to Rama.
- Big Bad: As close as the novel has to one, anyways. She masterminded drugging Borzov to induce appendicitis symptoms to sideline him from exploring Rama so that she and Brown could go first, and didn't care that Borzov died as a result. She pushes for the biot hunt to gain dramatic footage of the capture and ensure that it could be brought back to Earth for study, costing Wilson his life. She gladly leaves DesJardins basically for dead in a pit in New York, and claims that she didn't know what happened.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Francesca was sexually adventurous very early and some scarring past experiences - like her boyfriend 'sharing' her with other people - left her callous enough to use everyone and every thing in the present.
- Karma Houdini: Later novels show that she survived to at least centenarian age after the Rama mission, and became both famous and wealthy as she planned.
- The Sociopath: Practically up to eleven. Seduces both Wilson and Brown to advance her plans, and not because she cares about either of them, and essentially shrugs and moves on when Borzov and Wilson both die to threats on or in Rama.
Janos Tabori
One of the cosmonauts on the Newton mission.
- The Bus Came Back: Shows up in a flashback in one of the later novels as an exceedingly elderly friend of the then wealthy and famous Sabatini.
Dr. Shigeru Takagishi
A leading Japanese scientist on the Newton mission, who has dedicated his life to studying the Rama spacecraft.
- Badass Bookworm: He has a heart condition, but he goes on the expedition anyways by lying about it. He is the expert on the previous Rama mission, and knows the old ship down to every detail. When he realizes they have a short time left on Rama, he leaves for a short midnight expedition on his own. Unfortunately, he was kidnapped, and dies because his heart gave out.
Irina Turgenyev
A Russian cosmonaut and pilot on the Newton mission.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Gets one of these in the PC game version of Rama, where she ends up much more chatty and personable.
- Improbable Piloting Skills: One of the two specially trained pilots for the mission.
- The Stoic: Doesn't say much.
Richard Wakefield
A genius engineer recruited to take part in the Newton mission to Rama.
- The Ace: He is this amongst the crew. His record in engineering college is unequalled. His psychological report says he is now well-adjusted, due to counselling he undertook. In the present day he is lively and congenial, unlike the nerd or mad scientist, but he is still daring like an explorer, curious like a scientist, and handy like an inventor. Plus, hardly a mean bone in his body. If Richard were real he would be an anomaly, to say the least.
- Badass Bookworm: Richard walks out multiple times into the unknown, sometimes with nothing on him but his brains, despite being a geek. He keeps supplies, but goes where they're not enough - he walked over to the avian layer after he and Nicole had been expelled in a last attempt to convince them to help, using nothing but a screen with an animation. When in New Eden, and his family is under suspicion during political upheaval while humans are blasting a way into the Avian/Sessile/Myrmicat environment, he hauls out of New Eden with a backpack and falls into the avian environment, where he climbs up rows of spike, ignoring the defenders, both to save his life (from his immediate pursuers) and to warn them so they can save themselves.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Richard's father who abused him and his mother, due to being unable to cope after he lost his job as an engineer and suffering a case of Intelligence Equals Isolation. This lead young Richard to feel very isolated. Adultery from his girlfriend when in college pushed him over the edge, almost driving him to suicide. Only math and Shakespeare saved him. As a father in the present he is intellectually excitable but distant emotionally; and that was before he was kidnapped and probed by aliens.
- The Engineer: The resident one on the mission.
- For Science!!: —>Knowledge, not power or money, seems to be his only goal...
- Gadgeteer Genius: Also one of these.
- The Workaholic: Stays up the night to program an interface with the spaceship and again when the missiles are approaching and they need visuals. Is a recurring character trait whenever there is a pressing technological problem to solve.
Reggie Wilson
An American videographer who accompanies Sabatini on the Newton mission to document the exploration of Rama.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: For most of the book, due to being drugged.
- Ramming Always Works: Tries this with a rover to save Sabatini from the approach of a crab biot during a mission to capture one of the same biots. It does give her the space to escape, but it leaves him trapped in the wreckage, which the crab biot identifies as refuse to be dismantled and cleaned up. A swift death ensues.
Hiro Yamanaka
A Japanese cosmonaut and pilot on the Newton mission.
- Improbable Piloting Skills: One of the two specially trained pilots for the mission.
- The Stoic: So stoic he was asked by a trolling reporter if he was a robot. His answer: "No."
Rama
Designers of Rama
