I love space. I love learning about space, and I love reading stories set in space. Many of my all-time favorite novels and series are set in space, and some of the most formative of my reading experiences came from space operas (the Hyperion books and Dune come to mind). As sad as I am that the space shuttle has been discontinued, I would be a whole lot sadder if science fiction that explored the possibilities of space was no longer being written.
Here’s the thing. Economics and politics are always changing. Technology is constantly being developed, and scientists are gaining new knowledge about the world and the universe around us. Our world isn’t a constant–it’s always in a state of flux.
So there aren’t any huge, aggressive space programs right now. Given the present geopolitical and economic climate, this isn’t a huge shocker. But does that mean there never will be a great space program in any country in the world? I don’t think so. The confluence of events, powers, and technologies during and after World War II led to the Cold War and provided the perfect pressure cooker in which the space race could occur. Such a perfect storm could happen again, this time with different political pressures and different emerging technologies.
In the meantime, it is science fiction that keeps the dream of space alive, whether that be in literature, film and TV, or video games. It reminds us of what is possible. Beyond that, space provides an evocative backdrop for storytelling, in which we can enjoy stories of truly epic scope, explore the other (often in the form of an alien race), celebrate innovation and a spirit of adventure, and encounter different cultures and ways of being human.
Just in the past few days, I saw another Tweet from someone who said they were watching Firefly just to see the spaceships. And i09 had an article about how we need more space adventures. It’s nice to know that I’m not alone in my love for and appreciation of fiction set in space. Yes, I’m an optimist in a gloomy time, but I hope I can find space in science fiction for a long time to come.
ETA: Just found another great article on the importance of science fiction that seems relevant to this conversation: China has decided that science fiction is the key to its future success in invention and design of new products.
The Practical Free Spirit 
I feel that Virgin Galactic’s efforts to make citizen space travel more common can only help infuse the culture with yet more dreams of (and, in) Space 🙂
Yes, good point. Virgin Galactic does make me feel more optimistic about the whole thing. 🙂
Space is a fantastic backdrop, and science fiction from the last 60+ years shows us not only that fact, but that our perception and idea of space/space travel/humans in space has morphed significantly over time. I do think it was overused in much 60s/70s scifi, but it’s literally an infinite backdrop – it’s still relevant.
It shows interesting things about our changing ideas and cultures, doesn’t it? I think it’s fascinating to explore the evolution of the sf genre (fantasy, too).
Yes! Always more space! More ships! More voyages! (Note: that’s not more VoyagERS. More VoyagES. The less Voyager the better.)
And I joke about how very Meh Star Trek’s later franchises became, but they did manage to keep spaceships on TV for almost fifteen years (even if I wouldn’t classify some of it as science fiction.) I was glad the new Trek movie did so well. A full reboot there would be welcome, since Hollywood doesn’t seem interested in some new Firefly.
I did hear talk of a new Alien Nation. It’s not set in space, but it’s good scifi. 🙂
I had a sneaking suspicion you’d agree with me on this one. 😉
[…] Or, over at Practical Free Spirit, you can read along as Amy Sundberg considers whether or not outer space has become an outdated topic for SciFi. Finally, I’ve recently started following K.C. Woolf’s blog. She writes about travel, […]
Now that there’s no NASA program soon, we can explore our oceans. They said that we know more about our skies than our oceans. We can remedy that.
Oh, Marilag, you read my mind! I was just talking about deep ocean exploration on the weekend. Another amazing and sometimes mysterious frontier.
I try to look at the situation from a historic point of view.
When the New World was ‘discovered’, the Europeans first used it for raw resources, then eventually they colonized it. It took a long time to settle, however, because though the infrastructure already existed to let them fill up boats with gold and pelts, European society wasn’t ready for people to move there en masse–particularly when no one knew what they’d find, since the maps didn’t exist.
In space so far we’ve managed to put up satellites, an international space station and a space telescope or two–the rough equivalent of skimming a bit of gold out of the New World, setting up a trading post and charting the rough territory.
We managed this in roughly 50 years, which is about what it took the Spanish to do the same things. Cold War rhetoric, however, (and science fiction from the time, yes) seemed to suggest we’d be colonizing the moon and Mars, etc., much more quickly than the New World had been colonized. No wonder some people are disappointed and dissatisfied with the concept of space travel at the moment. From their perspective they got fed a lot of hype that didn’t pay off. If, however, people took a longer-term view, things would look fairly rosy.
Well, except that the US and Europe seem to be playing the old New World exploratory roles of Spain and Portugal, leaving India and China to play the roles of France and England, who got the much better deal in the end–but this is probably taking the historical parallels a mite too far.
Thank you, Rich, for your insights on the matter. Looking from a different perspective certainly puts the whole matter in a new light.
[…] https://practicalfreespirit.com/2011/09/06/to-infinity-and-beyond/ […]
[…] https://practicalfreespirit.com/2011/09/06/to-infinity-and-beyond/ […]