Asteroids in fiction

Asteroids and asteroid belts are a staple of science fiction stories. Asteroids play several potential roles in science fiction: as places which human beings might colonize; as resources for extracting minerals; as a hazard encountered by spaceships traveling between two other points; and as a threat to life on Earth due to potential impacts.

Overview

When the theme of interplanetary colonization first entered science fiction, the Asteroid Belt was quite low on the list of desirable real estate, far behind such planets as Mars and Venus (often conceived as a kind of paradise planet, until probes in the 1960s revealed the appalling temperatures and conditions under its clouds). Thus, in many stories and books the Asteroid Belt, if not a positive hazard, is still a rarely visited backwater in a colonized Solar System.[1]

The prospects of colonizing the Solar System planets dimmed as they became known to be not very hospitable to life. However, the asteroids came to be imagined as a vast accumulation of mineral wealth, accessible in conditions of minimal gravity, and supplementing Earth's presumably dwindling resources—though the value of such minerals would have to be very high indeed to make such enterprises economically viable. Stories of asteroid mining multiplied after the late 1940s, accompanied by descriptions of a society living in caves or domes on asteroids, or (unscientifically) providing the asteroid with an atmosphere held in place by an "artificial gravity".

The idea of such isolated settlements, coupled with existing stereotypes of American mineral prospectors in the 19th century "Wild West", gave rise to the stock character of a "Belter" or "Rock Rat" – a rugged and independent-minded individual, resentful of state or corporate authority.[2] Among such works is Ben Bova's Asteroid Wars series.

Another way in which asteroids could be considered a source of danger is by depicting them as a hazard to navigation, especially threatening to ships traveling from Earth to the outer parts of the Solar System and thus needing to pass the Asteroid Belt (or make a time- and fuel-consuming detour around it). In this context, asteroids serve the same role in space travel stories as reefs and underwater rocks in the older genre of seafaring adventure stories.[3] And like such hazards, asteroids could also be used by bold outlaws to avoid pursuit. Representations of the Asteroid Belt in film tend to make it unrealistically cluttered with dangerous rocks, so dense that adventurous measures must be taken to avoid an impact, giving dramatic visual images which the true nearly empty space would not provide. One of the best-known examples of this is the Hoth system in The Empire Strikes Back.

In reality asteroids, even in the asteroid belt, are spaced extremely far apart. Proto-planets in the process of formation and planetary rings may look like that, but the Sun's asteroid belt does not. (The asteroid belt in the HD 69830 system may, however.) The asteroids are spread over such a high volume that it would be highly improbable even to pass close to a random asteroid. For example, the numerous space probes sent to the outer solar system, just across the main asteroid belt, have never had any problems, and asteroid rendezvous missions have elaborate targeting procedures. The movie 2001: A Space Odyssey is unusual in that it does portray realistically the ship's "encounter" with a lone asteroid pair.

A common depiction of asteroids and comets in fiction is as a threat, whose impact on Earth could result with incalculable damage and loss of life.[4][5] This has a basis in scientific hypotheses regarding such impacts in the distant past as responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs and other past catastrophes —though, as they seem to occur within tens of millions of years of each other, there is no special reason (other than creating a dramatic story line) to expect a new such impact at any close millennium.

In earlier works, asteroids provided grist for theories as to their origin – specifically, the theory that the asteroids are remnants of an exploded planet. This naturally leads to SF plot-lines dealing with the possibility that the planet had been inhabited, and if so – that the inhabitants caused its destruction themselves, by war or gross environmental mismanagement. A further extension is from the past of the existing asteroids to the possible future destruction of Earth or other planets and their rendering into new asteroids.[6][7]

Early examples

The earliest explicit references to asteroids date from the late nineteenth century:

An illustration from Jules Verne's novel Off On a Comet (French: Hector Servadac (1877) drawn by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux.

Real asteroids in fiction

Although the asteroids are commonly dealt with en masse, a few belt asteroids have become known well enough to be mentioned in fictional treatments.

Ceres

Main article: Ceres in fiction

Dwarf planet Ceres is the largest and first discovered planetoid of the main-belt asteroids.

Eros

After Ceres, Asteroid 433 Eros is perhaps the most-commonly mentioned asteroid, probably because it is one of the largest near-Earth asteroids.

Icarus

Asteroid 1566 Icarus, best known for its close approach to Earth and the Sun, has been the subject of multiple fictional works, such as:

Juno

Asteroid 3 Juno is one of the largest belt asteroids, the second-most-massive stony S-type.

Pallas

Asteroid 2 Pallas is the third-largest belt asteroid.

Comics

Literature

Periodicals

Television

Video Games

Vesta

Asteroid 4 Vesta is the second largest of the asteroids.

Other asteroids

Common themes

Collisions with planets

A common depiction of asteroids (and less often, of comets) in fiction is as a threat, whose impact on Earth could result with incalculable damage and loss of life. This scenario is based on such past events as the impact event responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. Such events are, however, sufficiently rare that there is no special reason to expect such an impact in the near future.

Colonization

When the theme of interplanetary colonization first entered SF, the Asteroid Belt was quite low on the list of desirable real estate, far behind such planets as Mars and Venus (often conceived as a kind of paradise planet, until probes in the 1960s revealed uninhabitable temperatures with a deadly carbon dioxide and sulfur atmosphere under its clouds). Thus, in many stories and books the Asteroid Belt, if not a positive hazard, is still a rarely visited backwater in a colonized Solar System.

Fifth planet

Before colonization of the asteroids became an attractive possibility, a main interest in them was theories as to their origin – specifically, the theory that the asteroids are remnants of an exploded planet. This naturally leads to SF plot lines dealing with the possibility that the planet had been inhabited, and if so – that the inhabitants caused its destruction themselves, by war or gross environmental mismanagement. A further extension is from the past of the existing asteroids to the possible future destruction of Earth or other planets and their rendering into new asteroids.

For a list of "fifth planets" in fiction, see Fictional planets of the Solar System

Mineral extraction

The prospects of colonizing the Solar System planets became more dim with increasing discoveries about conditions on them. Conversely, the potential value of the asteroids increased, as a vast accumulation of mineral wealth, accessible in conditions of minimal gravity, and supplementing Earth's dwindling resources. Stories of asteroid mining became more and more numerous since the late 1940s, with the next logical step being depictions of a society on terraformed asteroids — in some cases dug under the surface, in others having dome colonies and in still others provided with an atmosphere which is kept in place by an artificial gravity.

An image developed and was carried from writer to writer, of "Belters" or "Rock Rats" as rugged and independent-minded individuals, resentful of all authority (in some books and stories of the military and political power of Earth-bound nation states, in others of the corporate power of huge companies). As such, this subgenre proved naturally attractive to writers with Libertarian tendencies. Moreover, depictions of the Asteroid Belt as The New Frontier clearly draw (sometimes explicitly) on the considerable literature of the Nineteenth-Century Frontier and the Wild West. And since (in nearly all stories) the asteroids are completely lifeless until the arrival of the humans, it is a New Frontier completely free of the moral taint of the brutal dispossession of the Native Americans in the original.

Navigational hazard

Another way in which asteroids could be considered a source of danger is by depicting them as a hazard to navigation, especially threatening to ships travelling from Earth to the outer parts of the Solar System and thus needing to pass the Asteroid Belt (or make a time- and fuel-consuming detour around it). Asteroids in this context provide to space travel stories a space equivalent of reefs and underwater rocks in the older genre of seafaring adventures stories. And like reefs and rocks in the ocean, asteroids as navigation hazards can also be used by bold outlaws to avoid pursuit.

Representations of the Asteroid Belt in film tend to make it unrealistically cluttered with dangerous rocks. In reality, even in the asteroid belt, asteroids are spaced extremely far apart (even so, they can still be a risk to ships travelling at high speeds).

New asteroid belts

A theme related to that of the Fifth Planet is the generation of a new asteroid belt, via the demolition of a planet, sometimes the Earth. It should be noted that the energy required to reduce a planet such as Earth to loose rubble is truly enormous: about 2×1032 J, equivalent to the Sun's entire luminous energy output for about a week!

Spacecraft

As weapons

Extrasolar asteroids

Some works of fiction take place on, or in, asteroid-like bodies or fields outside the Solar System:

Games involving asteroids

References

  1. ↑ Asimov, Isaac (March 1939). "Marooned off Vesta". Amazing Stories.
  2. ↑ Williamson, Jack (1950). Seetee Ship.
  3. ↑ Asimov, Isaac (1953). Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids.
  4. ↑ Clarke, Arthur C. (1993). The Hammer of God.
  5. ↑ Niven, Larry (1977). Lucifer's Hammer.
  6. ↑ Hogan, James P. (1977). Inherit the Stars.
  7. ↑ Heinlein, Robert (1948). Space Cadet.
  8. ↑ Jacques Crovisier
  9. ↑ Lord Dunsany, “Our Distant Cousins,” The Saturday Evening Post, November 23, 1929; collected in In the Land of Time and Other Fantasy Tales, S. T. Joshi, ed., Penguin Classics, 2004.
  10. ↑ Dilov, Lyuben (aka Lyubin, Luben or Liuben) (2002). Пътят на Икар. Захари Стоянов. ISBN 954-739-338-3.
  11. ↑ Coyle, Harold (2001). Dead Hand. Forge. ISBN 0-812-57539-3.
  12. ↑ Baxter, John (1978). The Hermes Fall. Granada (Panther). ISBN 0-586-04610-0.
  13. ↑ Fodor, R. V.; Taylor, G. J. (1979). Impact!. Leisure Books. ISBN 0-8439-0648-0.
  14. ↑ "SF Reviews Shiva Descending by Gregory Benford & William Rotsler". sfreviews.com. Retrieved September 2012.
  15. ↑ Benford, Gregory; Rotsler, William (1980). Shiva Descending. Sphere. ISBN 978-0-8125-1690-6.
  16. ↑ "Review: 'The Last Sunset’ by Geoffrey A. Landis". Scifi Story Scentury. Retrieved May 7, 2015.
  17. ↑ http://www.space-frontier.org/PROJECTS/ASTEROIDS/aclarke_address_may26-98.html Archived June 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ↑ Review of Lucky Starr and the Pirates of the Asteroids in Jenkins’ Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov
  19. 1 2 "Tales of the Flying Mountains by Poul Anderson". fantasticfiction.co.uk. Retrieved September 2012.
  20. ↑ Review, Asimov's Science Fiction October/November 2005, Tangent Online 2006-02-12 (retrieved Jun 11 2014)
  21. ↑ ""Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" The Golden Man (TV Episode 1981)". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved September 2012.
  22. ↑ "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)". Database of Movie Dialogs. Retrieved September 2012.

External links

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