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What Heinlein got wrong
Jul. 9th, 2007 02:23 pmOr did he? It's the 100th anniversary of Robert Anson Heinlein, and there's been a lot of posts about him in the blogosphere. This post is worth reading in full. The meat of the post is:
In Space Cadet (1948), the first lunar landing is placed in 1955! The commemorative plaque at the Interplanetary Patrol’s academy bears this inscription:
USAF Rocket Ship Kilroy Was Here
FIRST TRUE SPACESHIP
1955 A.D.
From Terra to Luna and return – Lieut. Colonel Robert deFries Sims, Commanding; Captain Saul S. Abrams; Master Sergeant Malcolm MacGregor. None survived the return landing. Rest in Peace.
The fate of the Kilroy Was Here may seem like a dark touch, but it is integral to the optimistic perspective. Heinlein foresaw that men would die in space – but didn’t believe that the casualties would impede the journey. In “The Green Hills of Earth” (1947), he summed up what he imagined would be the character of the first generation of space travelers:
The crew signed releases for everything in those days; a Lloyd’s associate would have laughed in your face at the notion of insuring a spaceman. The Space Precautionary Act had never been heard of, and the Company was responsible only for wages, if and when. Half the ships that went further than Luna City never came back. Spacemen did not care; by preference they signed for shares, and any one of them would have bet you that he could jump from the 200th floor of the Harriman Tower and ground safely, if you offered him three to two and allowed him rubber heels for the landing.
Not quite prophecy. Oh, if you offered that wager to some of our astronauts, they’d probably take it, but then NASA would insist that they drop with parachutes into piles of feathers – and would call it all off as soon as a jumper sprained his foot.
This change in society, from “The impossible takes a little longer” to “Safety first”, started, or became visible, in the early 1960’s. That was also when Robert Heinlein’s heroes turned into outsiders. Perhaps it was not a coincidence.
In Space Cadet (1948), the first lunar landing is placed in 1955! The commemorative plaque at the Interplanetary Patrol’s academy bears this inscription:
USAF Rocket Ship Kilroy Was Here
FIRST TRUE SPACESHIP
1955 A.D.
From Terra to Luna and return – Lieut. Colonel Robert deFries Sims, Commanding; Captain Saul S. Abrams; Master Sergeant Malcolm MacGregor. None survived the return landing. Rest in Peace.
The fate of the Kilroy Was Here may seem like a dark touch, but it is integral to the optimistic perspective. Heinlein foresaw that men would die in space – but didn’t believe that the casualties would impede the journey. In “The Green Hills of Earth” (1947), he summed up what he imagined would be the character of the first generation of space travelers:
The crew signed releases for everything in those days; a Lloyd’s associate would have laughed in your face at the notion of insuring a spaceman. The Space Precautionary Act had never been heard of, and the Company was responsible only for wages, if and when. Half the ships that went further than Luna City never came back. Spacemen did not care; by preference they signed for shares, and any one of them would have bet you that he could jump from the 200th floor of the Harriman Tower and ground safely, if you offered him three to two and allowed him rubber heels for the landing.
Not quite prophecy. Oh, if you offered that wager to some of our astronauts, they’d probably take it, but then NASA would insist that they drop with parachutes into piles of feathers – and would call it all off as soon as a jumper sprained his foot.
This change in society, from “The impossible takes a little longer” to “Safety first”, started, or became visible, in the early 1960’s. That was also when Robert Heinlein’s heroes turned into outsiders. Perhaps it was not a coincidence.
