Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"We [science fiction writers] always wanted to believe in "private sector" space -- hucksters make better characters than a government does."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Automated Search For Habitable Planets | ||
| Automated use of telescopes and other devices to search the universe for Earth-like planets. |
Ran Argal gives his dimension shifting apparatus its head after moving out of our galaxy into intergalactic space, heading toward the great Andromeda galaxy.
| I was near enough it now to set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching it for a habitable planet.
These instruments were the wonderful ones our astronomers had perfected. With super-telescopic eyes each one scanned a part of the star field before them. And each mechanical eye, when it found planetary systems in its field, automatically shifted upon them a higher powered telespectroscope which recorded on permanent film the size, mean temperature and atmospheric conditions of these worlds.
 ('Cosmic Quest' by Edmond Hamilton) Tensely I turned the great battery of telescopic eyes upon the galaxy ahead. Then I watched eagerly as the clicking, sliding, impersonal instruments searched that great mass of suns. As each mechanical eye finished its record, I snatched it up and examined it... |
| Technovelgy from Cosmic Quest,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1936 Additional resources -
|
I can't think of an earlier direct reference to this exact idea, but take a look at this manual search for a habitable planet by EE 'Doc' Smith in Skylark of Valeron.
Larry Niven refers to this idea in One Face (1965):
Lourdi spent most of her time at the telescope. It was a powerful instrument, and Chanda told the Brain to find planets of nearby suns and hold the telescope on them while Lourdi looked. But even the nearest were only circular dots.
Can’t you order the Brain to search out a habitable planet and go there?”
“No,” said Lourdi, from across the room. “The telescope isn’t that good, not when it has to peer out of one gravity well into another. The light gets all bent up...”
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Cosmic Quest
More Ideas
and Technology by Edmond Hamilton
Tech news articles related to Cosmic Quest
Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
Automated Search For Habitable Planets-related
news articles:
- Looking For Earth-Like Worlds With Nulling Interferometry
- Europe's Cheops To Look For Habitable Planets
- Automated Planet Finder Telescope Starts The Hunt
- NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) Looks Nearby
- Confirm 100 Exoplanets At Once! (With Video)
- Caltech's ET Laboratory Looks For New Earths
- Rapid Automated Search For Habitable Planets Needed
- Espresso Telescope Searches For Exoplanets
- NASA's Exoplanet Superheroes
- PLATO Spacecraft, Hunter Of Habitable Planets, Now Ready
| The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds |
| Will Space Stations Have Large Interior Spaces Again? |
| Reflect Orbital Offers 'Sunlight on Demand' And Light Pollution |
| Chrysalis Generation Ship to Alpha Centauri |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
'Completely silent, accurate up to about twenty meters. No recoil...'
'He wore spectacles with thick wavy lenses. The spectacles were intended to make him not only half blind, but to give him whanging headaches besides.'
