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Far Centaurus
''Far Centaurus'' is a science fiction short story by Canadian-American writer A. E. van Vogt, first published in ''Astounding Science Fiction'' in 1944. Writer and critic P. Schuyler Miller called it "unforgettable and unforgotten." The story involves the crew of a spaceship that arrive at Centaurus after hundreds of years, only to find it settled by people who arrived in faster ships. The basic idea of technological progress rendering previous advances obsolete, has been explored in many works. Plot summary Pelham invents Eternity, a drug that puts the body into a hibernation-like state that can last decades. Realizing that this makes interstellar space travel possible, his rich college friend Jim Renfrew builds an atomically powered spacecraft capable of missions lasting hundreds of years. To fill out the crew, they are joined by two of their other college friends, Ned Blake and Bill Endicott. The ship is launched some time in the 23rd century making for Alpha Centauri, a 50 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Astounding Science Fiction January 1944 Cover
''Analog Science Fiction and Fact'' is an American science fiction magazine published under various titles since 1930. Originally titled ''Astounding Stories of Super-Science'', the first issue was dated January 1930, published by William Clayton (publisher), William Clayton, and edited by Harry Bates (author), Harry Bates. Clayton went bankrupt in 1933 and the magazine was sold to Street & Smith. The new editor was F. Orlin Tremaine, who soon made ''Astounding'' the leading magazine in the nascent pulp science fiction field, publishing well-regarded stories such as Jack Williamson's ''Legion of Space Series, Legion of Space'' and John W. Campbell's Twilight (Campbell short story), "Twilight". At the end of 1937, Campbell took over editorial duties under Tremaine's supervision, and the following year Tremaine was let go, giving Campbell more independence. Over the next few years Campbell published many stories that became classics in the field, including Isaac Asimov's Foun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov ( ; 1920 – April 6, 1992) was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. A prolific writer, he wrote or edited more than 500 books. He also wrote an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards. Best known for his hard science fiction, Asimov also wrote mystery fiction, mysteries and fantasy, as well as much nonfiction. Asimov's most famous work is the ''Foundation series, Foundation'' series, the first three books of which won the one-time Hugo Award for "Best All-Time Series" in 1966. His other major series are the ''Galactic Empire series, Galactic Empire'' series and the ''Robot series, Robot'' series. The ''Galactic Empire'' novels are set in the much earlier history of the same fictional universe as the ''Foundation'' series. Later, with ''Foundation and Earth'' (1986), he linked this distant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Science Fiction Short Stories
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for scientific reasoning is tens of thousands of years old. The earliest written records in the history of science come from Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE. Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages, but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age and later by the efforts of Byzantine Greek scholars who brought Greek m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson (26 June 1931 – 5 December 2013) was an English writer, philosopher and novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his philosophy "new existentialism" or "phenomenological existentialism", and maintained his life work was "that of a philosopher, and (his) purpose to create a new and optimistic existentialism". Early life Wilson was born on 26 June 1931 in Leicester, the first child of Arthur and Annetta Wilson. His father worked in a shoe factory.Colin Wilson, ''Dreaming to Some Purpose'' (Arrow, 2005) At the age of eleven he attended Gateway Secondary Technical School, where his interest in science began to blossom. By the age of 14 he had compiled a multi-volume work of essays covering many aspects of science entitled ''A Manual of General Science''. But by the time he left school at sixteen, his interests were already switching to literature. His disc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Faster Than Light
Faster-than-light (also FTL, superluminal or supercausal) travel and communication are the conjectural propagation of matter or information faster than the speed of light (). The special theory of relativity implies that only particles with zero rest mass (i.e., photons) may travel ''at'' the speed of light, and that nothing may travel faster. Particles whose speed exceeds that of light (tachyons) have been hypothesized, but their existence would violate causality and would imply time travel. The scientific consensus is that they do not exist. "Apparent" or "effective" FTL, on the other hand, depends on the hypothesis that unusually distorted regions of spacetime might permit matter to reach distant locations in less time than light could in normal ("undistorted") spacetime. As of the 21st century, according to current scientific theories, matter is required to travel at slower-than-light (also STL or subluminal) speed with respect to the locally distorted spacetime region. Appa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Time For The Stars
''Time for the Stars'' is a juvenile science fiction novel by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, published by Scribner's in 1956 as one of the Heinlein juveniles. The basic plot line is derived from a 1911 thought experiment in special relativity, commonly called the twin paradox, proposed by French physicist Paul Langevin. Plot summary The Long Range Foundation (LRF), a non-profit organization that funds expensive, long-term projects for the benefit of mankind, has built a dozen exploratory torchships to search for habitable planets to colonize. The vessels can continually accelerate, but cannot exceed the speed of light, so the voyages will last many years. Each starship has a much larger crew than necessary to maintain a more stable, long-term shipboard society, as well as to provide replacements for the inevitable deaths. The LRF has found that some twins and triplets can communicate with each other telepathically. The process seems instantaneous and unaffected b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein (; July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) was an American science fiction author, aeronautical engineer, and naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction, and was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction. His published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking. His plots often posed provocative situations which challenged conventional social mores. His work continues to have an influence on the science-fiction genre, and on modern culture more generally. Heinlein became one of the first American science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as ''The Saturday Evening Post'' in the late 1940s. He was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, and he, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke are often considered the "Big Three" of English-language s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clifford D
Clifford may refer to: People *Clifford (name), an English given name and surname, includes a list of people with that name *William Kingdon Clifford * Baron Clifford * Baron Clifford of Chudleigh * Baron de Clifford *Clifford baronets * Clifford family (bankers) * Jaryd Clifford * Justice Clifford (other) * Lord Clifford (other) Arts, entertainment, and media *''Clifford the Big Red Dog'', a series of children's books **Clifford (character), the central character of ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' ** ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' (2000 TV series), 2000 animated TV series **'' Clifford's Puppy Days'', 2003 animated TV series **''Clifford's Really Big Movie'', 2004 animated movie ** ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' (2019 TV series), 2019 animated TV series ** ''Clifford the Big Red Dog'' (film), 2021 live-action movie * ''Clifford'' (film), a 1994 film directed by Paul Flaherty * Clifford (Muppet) Mathematics * Clifford algebra, a type of associative algebra, named after ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years
''The Voyage That Lasted 600 Years'' is a science fiction short story written by Don Wilcox that was first published in '' Amazing Stories'' in October 1940. It has been credited as the first fictitious story to be based on the concept of a generational starship. Plot The story involves the voyage of the ''Flashaway'' on its journey to start a colony on the planet Robinello, which is estimated to require hundreds of years to complete. In order to ensure that the crew remains on-mission, historian Professor Grimstone is placed in hibernation and periodically revived to provide them with important historical information. During his periodic revivals, Grimstone is dismayed to watch the aging crew and eventually, their descendants, slowly forget not only the mission, but everything about America, Earth, and even Robinello. Grimstone's periodic interventions, which sometimes force him to resort to violence to keep the crew in line, manages to keep the ship on-course for nearly 600 year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Forward
Robert Lull Forward (August 15, 1932 – September 21, 2002) was an American physicist and science fiction writer. His literary work was noted for its scientific credibility and use of ideas developed from his career as an aerospace engineer. He also made important contributions to gravitational wave detection research. Biography Forward earned his doctorate from the University of Maryland in 1965, with a thesis entitled ''Detectors for Dynamic Gravitational Fields'', for the development of a bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation. Career and research He then went to work at the research labs of Hughes Aircraft, where he continued his research on gravity measurement and received 18 patents. He took early retirement in 1987, to focus on his fiction writing and consulting for such clients as NASA and the U.S. Air Force. In 1994, he co-founded the company Tethers Unlimited, Inc. with Robert P. Hoyt, where he served as Chief Scientist and Chairman until 2002. M ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interstellar Travel
Interstellar travel is the hypothetical travel of spacecraft from one star system, solitary star, or planetary system to another. Interstellar travel is expected to prove much more difficult than interplanetary spaceflight due to the vast difference in the scale of the involved distances. Whereas the distance between any two planets in the Solar System is less than 30 astronomical units (AU), stars are typically separated by hundreds of thousands of AU, causing these distances to typically be expressed instead in light-years. Because of the vastness of these distances, non-generational interstellar travel based on known physics would need to occur at a high percentage of the speed of light; even so, travel times would be long, at least decades and perhaps millennia or longer. As of 2022, five uncrewed spacecraft, all launched and operated by the United States, have achieved the escape velocity required to leave the Solar System as part of missions to explore parts of the outer s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 generation ship would grow old and die, leaving their descendants to continue traveling. Origins Rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard was the first to write about long-duration interstellar journeys in his "The Ultimate Migration" (1918). In this he described the death of the Sun and the necessity of an "interstellar ark". The crew would travel for centuries in suspended animation and be awakened when they reached another star system. He proposed to use small moons or asteroids as ships, and speculated that the crew would endure psychological and genetic changes over the generations. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, considered a father of astronautic theory, first described the need for multiple generations of passengers in his essay, "The Future o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
