Earth's first flash of colonization had been explosive. The mercenary companies of the late Third Millennium were both a result of and a response to a spurt of empire-building among the new industrial giants of the human galaxy. Drake's Slammerverse resembles Piper's Federation in that local development means a drop in off-world trade") (ed note: somebody said: "Until I read this, I had not appreciated how much David Drake was influenced by H.
What you will find in GALAXY is the finest science thentic, plausible, thoughtful.written by authors who do not automaticallly switch over from crime waves to Earth invasions by people who know and love science fiction.for people who also know and love it. If this is your idea of science fiction, you're welcome to it! YOU'LL NEVER FIND IT IN GALAXY! Sound alike? They should - one is merely a western transplanted to some alien and impossible planet. "You don't know it but this is your last saddle-jaunt through these here parts." "Rear back and dismount, Bat Durton," the tall stranger lipped thinly. He spurred hard for a low overhange of rim-rock.and at that point a tall, lean wrangler stepped out from behind a high bolder, six-shooter in a sun-tanned hand. Hoofs drumming, Bat Durston came galloping down through the narrow pass at Eagle Gulch, a tiny gold colony 400 miles north of Tombstone. "You don't know it, but this is your last space trip." "Get back from those controls, Bat Durston," the tall stranger lipped thinly. He cut out his super-hyper-drive for the landing.and at that point, a tall lean spaceman stepped out of the tail assembly, proton gun-blaster in a space-tanned hand. Jets blasting, Bat Durston came screeching down through the atmosphere of Bbllzznaj, a tiny planet seven billion light years from Sol. In Which I Bash Space Colonization Again.The always-worth-reading Rick Robinson has written quite a few essays on the topic in his Rocketpunk Manifesto blog. They are discussed in detail here.Īnd when a mature colony starts making noices about "No Taxation Without Representation", the time is ripe for a War of Independence. This is the poetic "three-score and ten" standard lifespan, so most of the astronaut's friends will have perished due to old age (presumably the astronaut is younger due to relativistic time-dialation).Ī Space Colony is when a colony is not on the surface of a planet, but instead is a huge space station. Assuming all the astronaut's friends were 20 when the journey started, they will now be 70 years old. Since Vega is twenty-six light-years away from Terra (round down to 25), an explorer who travels in a relativistic slower-than-light starship to Vega then turns homeward will arrive at Terra with Terra having aged 50 years. Clarke in a science essay called Space, The Unconquerable noted "For no man will ever turn homeward from beyond Vega to greet again those he knew and loved on Earth." Turns out that colonies further than 20 parsecs (65 light-years) cannot see Mankind's Homestar, because Sol's apparent magnitude is dimmer than 6. Rick Robinson expands upon that in his essay The Dun Hills of Earth.Īs an amusing side note, in a science essay called " The Sight Of Home" Isaac Asimov once calculated how far an interstellar colony would have to be from Terra before Sol was too dim to be seen in the colony's night sky with the naked eye. Having said that, I must point out that Charles Stross has an incendiary essay where he is of the opinion that space colonization is implicitly incompatible with both libertarian ideology and the myth of the American frontier. This is the trope called Settling the Frontier. No colonized planets = no Galactic Empires. Which is good for science fiction writers interested in writing about interstellar empires. If a paradise planet was discovered and starships are available, the number of potential Martian colonists would be a drop in the bucket compared to the Paradise colonizers. In our solar system, the planet Mars is a pretty inhospitable place to live, but there are large numbers of people who'd jump at the chance to colonize the red planet, just for the sheer romantic awe of it all. Remember that the main difference between a colony and a base is that the inhabitants of a colony do not intend to ever leave. The artist painted the girl a little older than she was described. In the novel, this scene is more "big brother protecting his little-girl sister" than it is "Manly man rescuing silly damsel in distress who stupidly forgot her pistol"