![The Brick Moon from NASA archive](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/The_Brick_Moon_from_NASA_archive.jpg)
The concepts of
space stations
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...
and
space habitat
A space habitat (also called a space settlement, space colony, spacestead, space city, orbital habitat, orbital settlement, orbital colony, orbital stead or orbital city) is a more advanced form of living quarters than a space station or habit ...
s feature in
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
. The difference between the two is that habitats are larger and more complex structures intended as permanent homes for substantial populations (though
generation ship
A generation ship, or generation starship, is a hypothetical type of interstellar ark starship that travels at sub-light speed. Since such a ship might require hundreds to thousands of years to reach nearby stars, the original occupants of a gene ...
s also fit this description, they are usually not considered space habitats as they are heading for a destination
), but the line between the two is fuzzy with significant overlap and the term space station is sometimes used for both concepts.
The first such artificial satellite in fiction was
Edward Everett Hale
Edward Everett Hale (April 3, 1822 – June 10, 1909) was an American author, historian, and Unitarian minister, best known for his writings such as "The Man Without a Country", published in ''Atlantic Monthly'', in support of the Union dur ...
's "
The Brick Moon
"The Brick Moon" is a novella by American writer Edward Everett Hale, published serially in ''The Atlantic Monthly'' starting in 1869. It is a work of speculative fiction containing the first known depiction of the launch of an artificial satel ...
" in 1869,
a sphere of bricks 61 meters across accidentally launched into orbit around the Earth with people still onboard.
Space stations
Space stations started appearing frequently in science fiction works following the release of the 1949
popular science
''Popular Science'' (also known as ''PopSci'') is an American digital magazine carrying popular science content, which refers to articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. ''Popular Science'' has won over 58 awards, incl ...
book ''
The Conquest of Space
''The Conquest of Space'' is a 1949 speculative science book written by Willy Ley and illustrated by Chesley Bonestell. The book contains a portfolio of paintings by Bonestell depicting the possible future exploration of the Solar System, with ex ...
'' by
Willy Ley
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...
, which deals with the subject.
They serve several disparate functions in different works. Among these are industry, health benefits due to low gravity, prisons, and means to observe alien worlds.
Several early works of the genre focused on space stations in
Earth orbit
Earth orbits the Sun at an average distance of 149.60 million km (92.96 million mi) in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from above the Northern Hemisphere. One complete orbit takes days (1 sidereal year), during which time Earth ...
or at
Lagrange point
In celestial mechanics, the Lagrange points (; also Lagrangian points or libration points) are points of equilibrium for small-mass objects under the influence of two massive orbiting bodies. Mathematically, this involves the solution of th ...
s as relay stations for interplanetary communication or transportation.
Military uses for space stations appear, but being portrayed as a direct threat is comparatively rare.
Occasionally, the space stations are connected to the planet they are orbiting via a
space elevator
A space elevator, also referred to as a space bridge, star ladder, and orbital lift, is a proposed type of planet-to-space transportation system, often depicted in science fiction. The main component would be a cable (also called a tether) anc ...
, a concept which was introduced to science fiction separately by
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science-fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.
He co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A Spac ...
and
Charles Sheffield
Charles Sheffield (25 June 1935 – 2 November 2002), an English-born mathematician, physicist and science-fiction writer, served as a President of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and of the American Astronautical Society.
...
in 1979.
In fiction, space stations were largely superseded by space habitats in the final quarter of the 20th century.
Space habitats
The first fictional space habitat proper (not counting the unintentional one in "The Brick Moon") was featured in the 1931 novella "
The Prince of Space
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
" by
Jack Williamson
John Stewart Williamson (April 29, 1908 – November 10, 2006), who wrote as Jack Williamson, was an American list of science fiction authors, science fiction writer, often called the "Dean of Science Fiction". He is also credited with one of t ...
;
it is a cylinder long and wide which rotates to create
artificial gravity
Artificial gravity is the creation of an inertial force that mimics the effects of a gravitational force, usually by rotation.
Artificial gravity, or rotational gravity, is thus the appearance of a centrifugal force in a rotating frame of r ...
.
Besides cylinders, space habitats in fiction also come in the shapes of spheres, wheels, and hollowed-out asteroids, among others. A more unusual depiction is seen in
James Blish
James Benjamin Blish () was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his ''Cities in Flight'' novels and his series of ''Star Trek'' novelizations written with his wife, J. A. Lawrence. His novel ''A Case of Conscienc ...
's 1955 book ''Earthman, Come Home''—as well as the rest of his ''
Cities in Flight
''Cities in Flight'' is a four-volume series of science fiction novels and short stories by American writer James Blish, originally published between 1950 and 1962, which were first known collectively as the "Okie" novels. The series features ent ...
'' series—where they are cities roaming through space.
Space habitats featured only intermittently in science fiction until 1977, when
Gerard K. O'Neill
Gerard Kitchen O'Neill (February 6, 1927 – April 27, 1992) was an American physicist and space activist. As a faculty member of Princeton University, he invented a device called the particle storage ring for high-energy physics experiments. L ...
's speculative non-fiction book ''
The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space'' was published and went on to inspire numerous authors.
The works inspired by O'Neill range from
utopian to dystopian; the latter foresee a wide variety of problems with space habitats, including dilapidation while humans are still living there, vulnerability to sabotage, and the potential for a wealthy elite in space to exploit the inhabitants of Earth.
A recurring theme in these works is tensions between the inhabitants of the habitats and planet-dwellers.
Inasmuch as they provide opportunities for telling stories of isolated populations with diverse cultures, space habitats serve the same function in space that islands serve on Earth in earlier
speculative fiction
Speculative fiction is a term that has been used with a variety of (sometimes contradictory) meanings. The broadest interpretation is as a category of fiction encompassing genres with elements that do not exist in reality, recorded history, na ...
,
though some science fiction works such as the TV series ''
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' and ''
Babylon 5
''Babylon 5'' is an American space opera television series created by writer and producer J. Michael Straczynski, under the Babylonian Productions label, in association with Straczynski's Synthetic Worlds Ltd. and Warner Bros. Domestic Tel ...
'' take the opposite approach of portraying space habitats as multicultural centres where members of different spacefaring civilizations coexist peacefully.
See also
*
Dyson spheres in popular culture
Dyson spheres are theoretical constructs that harvest the entire energy output of a given star by completely enclosing it. They are named after physicist Freeman Dyson, who proposed the concept in 1960. A precursor to the concept of Dyson spheres w ...
*
List of films featuring space stations
There is a body of films that feature space stations. Science fiction films have featured both real-life space stations such as the International Space Station and ''Mir'' as well as fictional ones such as the Death Star and the Satellite of Love. ...
*
List of fictional spacecraft
This is a list of fictional spacecraft, starships and exo-atmospheric vessels that have been identified by name in notable published works of fiction. The term "spacecraft" is mainly used to refer to spacecraft that are real or conceived using pres ...
*
Space dock
A space dock is a hypothesised type of space station that is able to repair or build spacecraft similar to maritime shipyards on Earth. They remove the need for new spacecraft to perform a space launch to reach space and existing spacecraft to ...
References
Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Space Stations And Habitats In Popular Culture
Science in popular culture
Science fiction themes
Space stations
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...
Space stations
A space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a human crew in orbit for an extended period of time, and is therefore a type of space habitat. It lacks major propulsion or landing systems. An orbital station or an orbital space station i ...