''Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet'' is a

young adult In medicine and the social sciences, a young adult is generally a person in the years following adolescence, sometimes with some overlap. Definitions and opinions on what qualifies as a young adult vary, with works such as Erik Erikson's stages ...

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

novel written by

Harold L. Goodwin Harold Leland Goodwin (November 20, 1914 – February 18, 1990) was an American writer. Biography and writing career Known to his friends as Hal Goodwin, Goodwin wrote popular science books, mostly about space exploration, as Harold L. Goodwin ...

under the

pseudonym A pseudonym (; ) or alias () is a fictitious name that a person assumes for a particular purpose, which differs from their original or true meaning ( orthonym). This also differs from a new name that entirely or legally replaces an individual's o ...

Blake Savage. The novel was originally published by Whitman in hardcover in 1952 and reprinted in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

later in the same year as ''Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet'' (note the spelling of "gray/grey"). There were two subsequent American reprints under different titles: another hardcover edition as ''Assignment in Space with Rip Foster'' in 1958 and a paperback edition as ''Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet'', in 1969. Under all titles combined, there were approximately 100,000 copies of the novel printed. The first edition was illustrated by E. Deane Cate and the 1958 edition by Denny McMains. Goodwin is better known for other children's books he wrote, including the ''

Rick Brant Rick Brant is a series of science-themed adventure and mystery novels following the eponymous character. There are 24 books, all credited to John Blaine, a pseudonym for Harold L. Goodwin and, for the first three books, co-author Peter J. Hark ...

Science Adventure Series for Boys''. According to Project Gutenber

this novel is in the

Public Domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...

in the United States.

Plot summary

Freshly graduated and commissioned Planeteer (the space-going equivalent of a Marine) Lt. Richard Ingalls Peter ("Rip") Foster, already contending with inter-service rivalry with the Space Force (equivalent to Navy) crewmen with whom he serves, is tasked with retrieving an

asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...

made of pure

thorium Thorium is a chemical element; it has symbol Th and atomic number 90. Thorium is a weakly radioactive light silver metal which tarnishes olive grey when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide; it is moderately soft, malleable, and ha ...

from the

asteroid belt The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, centered on the Sun and roughly spanning the space between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies called asteroids ...

and bringing it to Earth for use as

fissionable In nuclear engineering, fissile material is material that can undergo nuclear fission when struck by a neutron of low energy. A self-sustaining thermal chain reaction can only be achieved with fissile material. The predominant neutron energy in ...

material. In this he is opposed by agents of the "Consolidation of Peoples Governments", who also seek control and use of the asteroid.

List of editions

*Blake Savage. ''Rip Foster Rides the Gray Planet'',

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River (Wisconsin), Root River, south of Milwaukee and north of Chicago. It is the List ...

Whitman Publishing Company Whitman Publishing is an American book publishing company which started as a subsidiary of the Western Printing & Lithographing Company of Racine, Wisconsin. In about 1915, Western began printing and binding a line of juvenile books for the Hamm ...

, 1952, 250p. *Blake Savage. ''Rip Foster Rides the Grey Planet'', London, UK, Publicity Products Limited, 1952. *Blake Savage. ''Assignment in Space with Rip Foster'', Racine, Wisconsin, Whitman Publishing Company, 1958. *Blake Savage. ''Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet'', New York, Golden Press, 1969, 253p.

References

*Clark, Roy Peter. ''Great Cosmos! Boyhood Memories Lead to quest for the Real Blake Savage''.

St. Petersburg Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', called the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by The Poynter Institute f ...

, October 19, 1987
Available online

External links

{{Portal , Children's literature 1952 American novels 1952 science fiction novels Children's science fiction novels American science fiction novels American young adult novels Works published under a pseudonym Fiction about asteroid mining Fiction about main-belt asteroids