Science Fiction

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Science fiction Summary

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Science Fiction

Astronautics is unique among the sciences in that it has its roots in an art form. For nearly 400 years space travel existed only in the minds of those faithful writers who kept the torch burning until engineers and scientists developed the technological ability to realize their dreams.

Early Space Fiction

No fiction written about space travel was written until it was known that there were other worlds to go to. This did not happen until 1610, when Galileo Galilei turned a telescope toward the heavens and discovered that what hundreds of generations had assumed were five wandering stars were in fact worlds. This discovery was immediately followed by a spate of speculation about what those worlds might be like, what kind of life might exist there, and, most importantly, how human beings might be able to travel to them. Most of this speculation took the form of fiction, but until the end of the eighteenth century those flights were the stuff of outright fantasy: Neither science nor engineering knew of any method by which a human being could leave the surface of this world, let alone travel to another one.

The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

The invention of the balloon in 1783 by the Montgolfier brothers changed all that. It was clear that a balloon could never carry anyone to the Moon, but that invention was a watershed in perception. People now knew that science and technology had the potential to make spaceflight possible; surely it was just a matter of time and imagination. Scores of science fiction novels were written about travel to other worlds. Unlike previous stories, however, those written in the nineteenth century were much more inclined to take into account the actual conditions of outer space and the planets.

Paramount among all of these works were the two space novels of Jules Verne:From the Earth to the Moon (1865) and Round the Moon (1870). For the first time the problem of space travel was expressed in terms of a problem in engineering and mathematics: Verne scrupulously worked only with the science, technology, and materials available at the time when he wrote. As a result, he achieved a sense of realism that is still convincing. This realism was instrumental in inspiring an entire generation of young readers who decided to do everything they could to make Verne's dream come true. These readers included future scientists such as Hermann Oberth, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, and Robert H. Goddard, without whose seminal work modern astronautics would have developed decades later than it did. Oberth, for example, said that he had never thought about space travel until he read From the Earth to the Moon. Verne's influence continued well into the twentieth century. The astronomer Robert Richardson said, "There can be no doubt that Jules Verne's Trip to the Moon with all its faults has exerted a powerful effect on human thought in preparing our minds for this greatest of all adventures."

Verne set a high standard for accuracy and believability that influenced the writers who followed him, and space fiction became much more realistic. Dozens of ideas that are thought of as products of modern space science were first proposed in the pages of early science fiction. The space

An illustration from the 1872 edition of From the Earth to the Moon by Jules Verne. Nearly a century later, in 1969, Verne's fiction became a reality when astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first human to walk on the Moon.

station and the navigational satellite were invented by Edward Everett Hale in The Brick Moon (1869), the solar sail by G. Le Faure and Henri de Graffigny in 1889, the space suit in 1900 by George Griffith, the nuclear-powered spaceship by Garrett P. Serviss in 1910 and Arthur Train and Robert Wood in 1915, and the electromagnetic mass driver in 1930 by R. H. Romans. Even the countdown was invented by science fiction, first used in the 1929 film Frau im Mond(Woman in the Moon), by Fritz Lang.

The Modern Era

After World War II the influence of science fiction on the public perception of space travel shifted from the printed page to the silver screen. Although serious fans, including many scientists, preferred the written word, which was light-years ahead of Hollywood's version of science fiction, the image most Americans had of the future of space travel in that period was shaped by what they saw in movie theaters and on television screens. This was unfortunate because, with only a few exceptions, films and television lagged decades behind the literature.

While science fiction writers were working in the present day, Hollywood science fiction was more like what had been published in the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s. Films such as Flight to Mars (1951) and The Terror from Beyond Space (1958) made space travel seem silly and trivial. However, a few films made a sincere effort to combine realistic drama with real science, such as Destination Moon (1950),Conquest of Space (1955),Forbidden Planet (1956), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). More recently, there have been films such as Apollo 13 (1995) and Red Planet (2000). On television the sole exception was Star Trek (1966-1969). Although taking place in the far future, that series made a genuine attempt not only to keep within the bounds of science but to convey a sense of wonder about space travel.

The link between science fiction and the history of astronautics is complex. Science fiction has served as an inspiration. It also acts as a mirror of the technology of the time in which it is written. Jules Verne, for instance, chose a giant cannon over rockets for the launch of his spacecraft, primarily because of the primitive state of rocket technology in his time (he did use rockets to maneuver his spacecraft). Similarly, in 1910 Garrett Serviss recognized that the recently discovered phenomenon of radioactivity could be a potential energy source for space travel. Science fiction also acts as a gauge of public interest in astronautics, since most authors want to tell stories that incorporate subjects of interest to their readers.

Jules Verne (1828-1905)

Science fiction writer Ray Bradbury said that Jules Verne embodies the whole history of humanity. Indeed, Verne lived in an era marked by and obsessed with scientific developments. His novels, filled with technological descriptions, made him one of the founders of science fiction.