Pulp Science Fiction And Its Influence On Interstellar Colonization
People have been speculating on the possibility of travel in space since long before
the publication of Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon (1865). From there, it was only a short step to envision actually going to live on other planets, although it took the pulp magazines of the 1930s and 1940s to bring both possibilities into the popular consciousness-where they have remained ever since.
In fact, the "golden age" of science fiction got its start during the golden age of the pulps, when magazines like Astounding and Thrilling Wonder Stories published the likes of Isaac Asimov, Jack Williamson (one of whose early stories dealt with translating the Martian language), Stanley G. Weinbaum (whose A Martian Odyssey was published in 1934) and L. Ron Hubbard (whose Beyond All Weapons takes Mars colonists from Earth even farther afield, in the quest for freedom-and vengeance). Mars, appearing so similar to Earth, has usually attracted the attention of would-be space colonizers in laboratories and stories alike.
Other authors who found homes for tales about living on other planets were Robert Heinlein, Murray Leinster, Frank Herbert and E. E. "Doc" Smith, whose space travelers journeyed much farther afield; actually, the roster of authors who explored the notion of settling on other planets reads like a Who's Who of the best-known names in science fiction, and the lure has proved irresistible to later authors as well.
The notion of being able to turn to other planets and even other galaxies to escape from war or poverty, recapture a sense of adventure many saw as lost after the western frontier was conquered (hence the Star Trek motto: "Space, the final frontier"), or simply to leave behind a world that some saw as becoming too crowded and restricted was a common theme in the pulps. Other themes were to preserve humanity from some terrible cosmic disaster, such as the strike of a comet large enough to render the planet uninhabitable, or to give mankind a chance to survive if the species was ravaged by disease or famine.
But it didn't stop there. Many of the scientists who worked on man's ventures into space in the 1960s, '70s and later grew up reading about space travel as if it were a given, and approached their work with a confidence that it would be achieved rather than wondering if it were possible.
Their casual acceptance of man's ability to develop the technology required to send people to live on other planets, in other galaxies, has resulted in the reality of devices only dreamed of in the days of the pulps-such as handheld computers; robotic explorers able to crawl around on the surface of a planet millions of miles away, obey orders sent from Earth and transmit findings back to waiting scientists; and telescopes that can see galaxies billions of light-years away as they seek to unravel the mysteries of the universe.
Many still regard the notion of man settling on other planets as inevitable, not improbable. While the government-run programs of NASA took man to the moon and sent exploratory unmanned missions to Mars, space travel has begun its migration from government-sponsored to commercial enterprise: think Virgin Galactic and the mining mission launched by Planetary Resources, Inc., and backed by such luminaries as filmmaker James Cameron and Google cofounder Larry Page.
Since the search for more resources and for profit has always led man far afield-consider spices and silk from Asia and tobacco from the New World, not to mention diamonds from Africa and opals from Australia-it is hardly surprising that a commercial venture could be the force to take the inhabitants of Earth, at last, firmly into the stars.
While the Planetary Resources venture seeks to mine platinum-group metals and water, looking for those assets on nearby asteroids, it can only be a matter of time-whether their venture succeeds or not-until ships set out from Earth for destinations even farther away. And because of the time involved in traveling such great distances, colonization will have to follow for such ventures to succeed on a long-term basis.
In L. Ron Hubbard's Beyond All Weapons, in fact, people disregard the effects of the passage of time on Earth as they journey ever farther into space and find a new planet to call home. In failing to consider that single aspect of their quest, they may have defeated themselves in the final great battle they hope to win.
However, modern scientists and explorer have something those colonists did not: a vast pool of wisdom to draw on from those who envisioned the future long before it came to pass.
by: Lee Barwood
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