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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Weather in Space | ||
| The idea that weather concepts could be applied to interplanetary space. |
One of the first science fictions stories to mention this idea. This is one of Ray Cumming's "Tubby" stories; his slow-witted protagonist asks many questions, thoughtfully answered.
| It had been growing steadily colder; and Tubby, discovering that the tiny kitchen which adjoined the store-room held a very decent little gas stove, made them each a steaming hot cup of coffee.
“How cold is it liable to get, perfessor?” he asked, as they sat at an immaculately clean board table and drank the coffee. “Ain’t this house got any heatin’ apparatus ? A nice little furnace now-” “It can be heated,” Sir Isaac [Swift DeFoe Wells-Verne] answered. “But we shall not need it. It will be warm enough presently.” Certainly the weather in space was exceedingly changeable; but that was to be expected when one was traveling from place to place with such rapidity. “But how cold would it get if we stayed where we are?” Tubby persisted. He was beginning to be theoretical also, which, as Sir Isaac had remarked, is the first prerequisite of a scientific mind. “I think I once estimated the temperature of space to be about 250 degrees Fahrenheit below zero,” remarked Sir Isaac. |
| Technovelgy from Around the Universe,
by Ray Cummings. Published by Amazing Stories in 1927 Additional resources -
|
The solar storm of 1859 stimulated interest in how events on Earth, like aurora displays and disruption of telegraph services, could be influenced by events in space, like sunspots and solar flares.
Space weather is now an accepted field of study and is of great interest for practical reasons:
An interesting look at space weather is provided in The Weather in Space by Ben Bova, published in Amazing Stories in 1963. You might enjoy this puckish illustration by FINLAY:
Within the Solar System, space weather is influenced by the solar wind and the interplanetary magnetic field carried by the solar wind plasma. A variety of physical phenomena is associated with space weather, including geomagnetic storms and substorms, energization of the Van Allen radiation belts, ionospheric disturbances and scintillation of satellite-to-ground radio signals and long-range radar signals, aurorae, and geomagnetically induced currents at Earth's surface. Coronal mass ejections are also important drivers of space weather, as they can compress the magnetosphere and trigger geomagnetic storms. Solar energetic particles (SEP) accelerated by coronal mass ejections or solar flares can trigger solar particle events, a critical driver of human impact space weather, as they can damage electronics onboard spacecraft (e.g. Galaxy 15 failure), and threaten the lives of astronauts, as well as increase radiation hazards to high-altitude, high-latitude aviation.
(Via Wiki)
(From Weather in Space by Ben Bova)
Compare to space weather map from The Storm (1943) by AE van Vogt and the cosmic storm from After World's End (1939) by Jack Williamson. See also the poison space cloud from The Poison Belt (1913) by Arthur Conan Doyle for a discussion of the idea of "clouds" of gas or dust in space.
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
