Recent S/f Novels About Commercial Space Flight?

[RGClark]

  In this post to rec.arts.sf.science, I asked about old-time stories of millionaires building their own space ships:

 

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.science, rec.arts.sf.written

From: Robert Clark <[email protected]>

Date: Mon, 30 Nov 2009 22:18:09 -0800 (PST)

Subject: Old time stories about the millionaire rocket developer?

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.sf.science/browse_frm/thread/3b72e4cda04fce38/329993ecb0faeb26?hl=en

 

  I'm still interested in that topic but also what are some recommendations about recent stories of commercially, not governmentally, financed space flight? Such stories might be about space tourism, private endeavors to produce solar power satellites, lunar or asteroidal mining, etc.

 

  Both suborbital and orbital commercial manned spaceflight are imminent so it would be interesting to read stories with that as their theme:

 

Private Space Race On to Launch US Astronauts for NASA.

by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer

Date: 30 September 2011 Time: 07:00 AM ET

NASA's next crew-carrying rocket, the heavy-lift Space Launch System, will blast off on its first test flight in 2017 at the earliest, agency officials have said. But a handful of private companies say they're on schedule to begin lofting astronauts by 2015 — or perhaps even earlier.

"We believe we'll be ready in three years," said Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceExploration Technologies Corporation (also known as SpaceX).

 

Private space launches should see boost this year.

Flurry of liftoffs expected this year, aviation regulator says.

6:50 AM, Mar. 21, 2012

WASHINGTON — A top federal official predicts as many as a dozen privately funded flights could be launched into orbit and sub-orbit over the next several months as the fledgling commercial space industry ramps up its schedule.

 

U.S. Space Tourism Set for Takeoff by 2014: FAA.

Mar 20, 2012

By Irene Klotz/Reuters

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.

 

  Here is a list of book reviews by Ken Murphy, some of fiction some of non-fiction, that includes some books with this theme:

 

Book Reviews - Out of the Cradle.

http://www.outofthecradle.net/categories/books/

 

 

Bob Clark

Edited March 31, 2012 by Robert Clark

[CraigD]

In this post to rec.arts.sf.science, I asked about old-time stories of millionaires building their own space ships:

…

I'm still interested in that topic but also what are some recommendations about recent stories of commercially, not governmentally, financed space flight? Such stories might be about space tourism, private endeavors to produce solar power satellites, lunar or asteroidal mining, etc.

I think serious, well considered SF these days tends to assume, as do serious, well considered real spaceflight planners, that spaceflight beyond suborbital or orbital novelty “space tourism” will continue to involve a lot of government funding, with no role for “go-it-alone” millionaires as in the old Jules Vern, Fritz Lang, “Victor Appleton”, etc. stories, or the Later Robert Heinlein etc. ones.

 

Of the few recent stories I’ve encountered that do, most depend on fantastically implausible physics breakthroughs (eg: Warp Speed, a 2005 novel by Travis Taylor of the “Rocket City Rednecks” TV series fame/infamy, which I wouldn’t recommend other than for students of the genre), or extreme anti-government political positions (eg: Escape from Terra, a 2008-present webcomic by Sandy Sandfort, Scott Beiser and Lee Oaks). Curiously, for reasons I’ll leave to psychology and sociology folk to explain, these stories seem to also involve lots of sex with hot chicks. :shrug:

 

I can think of a few examples that aren’t fantasy science of libertarian propaganda:

• Nancy Kress’s 1993 novel Beggars in Spain, in which genetically engineered people segregate themselves from others in an orbital space “sanctuary”;
  
• Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Michael Flynn’s 1991 Fallen Angels in which people in near-Earth space colonies are in a state of cold war with Earth nations (that one might be considered libertarian);
  
• Terry Bisson’s 1990 novel Voyage to the Red Planet, in which a film studio revived a defunct US-Soviet manned Mars mission in order to make a blockbuster movie about it.
  

Though at 20-some years old, you might not consider these “recent”, they don’t involve individual billionaires, but large, complicated private organization, and are more social commentary than technological speculation.

 

There seems to be some room for good, hard SF about near future purely privately funded space travel, but a dearth of hard SF writer takers.

 

I recall a professionally published short story about a decade ago about a private manned mission to Mars paid for by a flamboyant Australian entrepreneur essentially to shame the national space programs into having their own. Greg Benford’s 1979 short story Dark Sanctuary describes a world of private contractor asteroid miners, but only hints at events connecting the world around the end the Apollo missions with that world.

 

Likewise, Charles Stross’s 2005 novel Acellerando jumps from describing intricate business dealings an apparently manned spaceflight-less world of around 2040 to describing intricate business dealings in which the Jupiter system is being commercially exploited around 2050 or 2060, with references to then commonplace spaceflight technology, without really describing the technology or its development in detail until it involves a somewhat Starwisp-like spacecraft powered to a nearby brown dwarf by a large in near-Jupiter space.

 

My sorting-by-theme of SF stories is not as good as I’d like it, so I may be missing something. Anybody else know of any :QuestionM

 

Something about the space tourism idea strikes me as uninspiring for a SF plot. “Our intrepid inventor/entrepreneur boldly provided a few eccentric super-rich people bored with spending their vast wealth on earthly pleasures with an inflated hotel room in Earth orbit” seems just ... cynical. A good enough writer can make anything work, I believe, but a good space tourism story would be a challenge.

Edited July 4, 2012 by CraigD
Fixed wrong first name

[RGClark]

...

My sorting-by-theme of SF stories is not as good as I’d like it, so I may be missing something. Anybody else know of any :QuestionM

Something about the space tourism idea strikes me as uninspiring for a SF plot. “Our intrepid inventor/entrepreneur boldly provided a few eccentric super-rich people bored with spending their vast wealth on earthly pleasures with an inflated hotel room in Earth orbit” seems just ... cynical. A good enough writer can make anything work, I believe, but a good space tourism story would be a challenge.

 

Thanks for those. I'll give them a look. BTW, I think Bigelow's space hotels might provide a good resource for stories especially since one of the leading commercial crew capsules, by Boeing, is being developed in partnership with Bigelow:

 

Boeing space capsule could be operational by 2015.

BY STEPHEN CLARK

SPACEFLIGHT NOW

Posted: July 21, 2010

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n1007/21boeing/

 

Also, on another forum someone suggested a story about a rescue of a space tourist:

 

Orbit: a novel.

http://www.amazon.com/Orbit-Novel-John-J-Nance/dp/B005ZOGE10/

 

 

Bob Clark

Edited April 1, 2012 by Robert Clark

[RGClark]

I was looking primarily for books set in the near

future since my view is private, commercial spaceflight is imminent.

It will be very important then to understand the national security

implications of this, though discussion on this aspect of routine

spaceflight has been virtually nil.

 

On sci.space.policy it was mentioned Michael Flynn's Firestar.

The wikipedia page on Michael Flynn mentions another example, Victor

Koman's Kings of the High Frontier. These two examples are actually

right up my alley since they involve single stage to orbit vehicles,

which I believe are key to making spaceflight routine.

 

 

Bob Clark

[RGClark]

Just saw this on Hobbyspace.com:

 

Moon to be private colony - NASA

by: By Doug Conway

From: AAP

April 04, 2012 2:39PM

"IF mankind ends up colonising the moon, it is likely to be led by a

commercial enterprise rather than a government."

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/moon-to-be-private-colony-nasa/story-e6frfku0-1226318687424

 

 

Bob Clark

Edited April 8, 2012 by Robert Clark

[RGClark]

Just saw this on Hobbyspace.com:

 

Moon to be private colony - NASA

by: By Doug Conway

From: AAP

April 04, 2012 2:39PM

"IF mankind ends up colonising the moon, it is likely to be led by a

commercial enterprise rather than a government."

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/moon-to-be-private-colony-nasa/story-e6frfku0-1226318687424

 

 

Google billionaires, James Cameron backing space resource venture.

By Alan Boyle

Today's media alert says the new company "will overlay two

critical sectors — space exploration and natural resources — to add

trillions of dollars to the global GDP. This innovative start-up will

create a new industry and a new definition of 'natural resources.'"

"That sounds like asteroid mining," Christopher Mims writes on MIT

Technology Review's "Mims' Bits" blog. "Because what else is there in

space that we need here on earth? Certainly not a livable climate or a

replacement for our dwindling supplies of oil."

Parabolic Arc's Doug Messier, meanwhile, writes that the venture

will be an "extraterrestrial mining company."

Diamandis has said on more than one occasion that he's intrigued

by the idea of digging into asteroids, for materials ranging from

water (for fuel as well as for astronauts) to precious metals such as

platinum. The Verge points to a TED talk in 2005 where Diamandis

discusses his dream, while Forbes magazine has brought up the subject

with him more than once in the past few months.

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/04/18/11273238-google-billionaires-james-cameron-backing-space-resource-venture

 

A research report co-authored by two of the participants of this

venture suggests bringing meters-sized asteroids or parts of large

asteroids to lunar orbit for processing to save on costs:

 

New Study Says Asteroid Retrieval and Mining Feasible With Existing

and Near-Term Technologies.

Posted by Doug Messier on April 19, 2012, at 11:34 am in News

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2012/04/19/new-study-says-asteroid-retrieval-and-mining-feasible-with-existing-and-near-term-technologies/

 

A science-fiction film from 1969 also expressed the idea that

asteroid mining could only be profitable by bringing the asteroid to

the vicinity of the Earth, so I suppose this is a view that has long

been expressed. The film was "Moon Zero Two":

 

Moon Zero Two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Zero_Two

 

The film was a rather low budget endeavor, still it was enjoyable for

a genre fan. It can be purchased on Amazon.com. However, you can see

it for free on Youtube if you don't mind the Mystery Science Theater

3000 side comments:

 

MST3k 111 - Moon Zero Two.

 

 

Bob Clark