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"Science fiction is the very literature of change. In fact, it is the only such literature we have."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Brick Moon | ||
| An artificial satellite or space station with living quarters for passengers. |
The Brick Moon is built on Earth and then launched into orbit; it is approximately 200 feet in diameter.
| Any section through any diameter looked like an immense rose-window, of six circles grouped round a seventh. In truth, each of these sections would reveal the existence of seven chambers in the moon, —each a sphere itself, —whose arches gave solidity to the whole; while yet, of the whole moon, the greater part was air. In all there were thirteen of these moonlets, if I am so to call them; though no one section, of course, would reveal so many. Sustained on each side by their groined arches, the surface of the whole moon was built over them and under them,—simply two domes connected at the bases.
 ('The Brick Moon' by Edward Everett Hale) The chambers themselves were made lighter by leaving large, round windows or open circles in the parts of their vaults farthest from their points of contact, so that each of them looked not unlike the outer sphere of a Japanese ivory nest of concentric balls. You see the object was to make a moon, which, when left to its own gravity, should be fitly supported or braced within. Dear George was sure that, by this constant repetition of arches, we should with the least weight unite the greatest strength. I believe it still, and experience has proved that there is strength enough. |
| Technovelgy from The Brick Moon,
by Edward Everett Hale. Published by Atlantic Monthly in 1869 Additional resources -
|
The Brick Moon is the first known reference to the idea of an artificial satellite, and (since it can be inhabited) a space station. And, if you figure that the first artificial satellite (Sputnik) was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957, that's just eighty-eight years.
Compare to the Transparent Spherical Ship from Schachner and Zagat's 1931 novel The Emperor of the Stars and the battle sphere from The Space Rover (1932) by Edwin K. Sloat.
As a space station, compare to the city of space from The Prince of Space (1931) by Jack Williamson, the New Moon Casino from One Against the Legion (1939) by Jack Williamson, the asteroid space station from Misfit (1939) by Robert Heinlein, the Venus Equilateral Relay Station from QRM - Interplanetary (1942) by George O. Smith, Wheelchair from Waldo (1942) by Robert Heinlein, the space transfer station from Between Planets (1951) by Robert Heinlein, the Sargasso Asteroid from The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester,
the tether space station from Tank Farm Dynamo (1983) by David Brin and the high orbit archipelago from Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson.
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