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
"I kind of take it for granted that our great-grandchildren will regard us as a sort of precursor species. That they won't think of us as human and if we could see them, we probably wouldn't think of them as human either."
- William Gibson
 |
| Space-Weather Men | ||
| Predictors of the 'weather' in space. |
As far as I know, the first use of this phrase.
| Space-weather men had been placed at their disposal, had plotted their course to take advantage of weather. The four-hundred-inch scope on Rainer had been used for three months previous to the strat (sic) of the flight, radar-electronic recording devices had measured and calculated the exact path they had to take, had looked far enough into the future for them so that they knew just what to expect. |
| Technovelgy from Revenge of the Robots,
by Lawrence Chandler. Published by Fantastic Adventures in 1952 Additional resources -
|
Don't miss the description of a space weather map from The Storm by AE van Vogt, published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1943 (note that the phrase "space weather" does not occur in that story).
Here's an interesting article from Space Weather journal The Origin of Space Weather:
The astronomer John Herschel, the son of William Herschel (the discoverer of infrared radiation and the planet Uranus), appears to be the earliest to use terms similar to space weather. Writing in 1847 of his observations of sunspots, he uses “solar meteorology” and makes an analogy to terrestrial meteorology...
So what about the actual term space weather? There are several instances of the term being used in the 1950s with each instance having a slightly different meaning. We believe the distinction of the first appearance goes to Fred Hague, a junior high school teacher, in an article written for the Journal of Geography in 1953. In “Motivation Via Video,” Hague writes about using a scenario of aliens visiting the Earth as a way of learning geography [Hague, 1953]. In discussing questions the aliens might ask, he writes “would the climate be suitable for us since we are used to outer space weather?” This is unlikely to have been widely read by the space science community, so it is doubtful that this is the source of space weather as we know it today.
However, it appears that Lawrence Chandler got there first!
Although “space weather” is a fairly recent term, there is a rich history of similar terms being used beginning in the middle to late 1800s. “Solar meteorology,” “magnetic weather,” and “cosmic meteorology” all appeared during that time frame. The actual first appearance of space weather can be attributed to the publication Science News Letter in 1957 (with the first modern usage in 1959) and was possibly coined by the editor at the time, Watson Davis...
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Revenge of the Robots
More Ideas
and Technology by Lawrence Chandler
Tech news articles related to Revenge of the Robots
Tech news articles related to works by Lawrence Chandler
Space-Weather Men-related
news articles:
- Space Weather Forecasters Surprised By Strong Solar Storm
- NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory Sees Extreme Flare
| Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside? |
| Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space |
| Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic |
| Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station |
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
'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.'
