SPACE AND SPACE FICTION “superscience” methods of negating things up, SF writers began a long A LITTLE gravity to allow their heroes to visit tradition of coming up with ways to other worlds. cheat Einstein. E.E. “Doc” Smith’s LITERARY At the start of the 20th century, pio- “Lensman” series used the “inertia- ISTORY neering scientists like Konstantin less” drive to let spaceships crack the H Tsiolkovsky and Robert Goddard lightspeed barrier; others postulated Space travel has always been the began to investigate the possibilities of short cuts through hyperspace, most important trope in science fic- rockets as a practical means of space instantaneous “jump” drives, space- tion. To many people, it’s “all that exploration, and space travel moved bending warp drives, and a long list outer space stuff.” And certainly SF solidly into the realm of hard SF, of methods ranging from barely writers have been interested in the where it has remained ever since. possible to ridiculous. subject for a very long time. Johannes Science-fiction writers (and fans) In modern science fiction, space Kepler wrote about a voyage to the were soon bandying about technical voyages and interstellar faster-than- Moon in 1634, and although his hero concepts like specific impulse, delta-V, light travel are part of the “furniture” gets there by means of magic, ullage, and gyrostabilization. Some of of the genre. Authors no longer have Kepler’s description of conditions on them, like Arthur C. Clarke, mixed SF to explain how the spaceships work or the Moon was pure “hard” science writing with research and theoretical waste much time describing the thun- fiction. work on space exploration. der of the mighty rocket engines, Early accounts of space voyages Unfortunately for science-fiction because those are all so familiar to the were often fantasies, either explicitly writers, astronomers during the same readers from movies and televised like Kepler’s, or with a wink at the era were discovering some uncomfort- space missions. reader, as when Francis Godwin used able facts about the solar system. As migratory geese to carry his hero to early as the 1890s, it was known that the Moon in The Man in the Moone or Mars was too cold and dry to support WHY SPACE Edgar Allan Poe used a balloon to any advanced life, and in the 1960s carry Hans Pfaal there in “The RAVEL scientists learned that Venus was T ? Unparalleled Adventure of one Hans equally inhospitable. A few writers Given that science fiction covers all Pfaal.” But by the middle of the 19th tried handwaving about asteroids with possible futures, alternate pasts, other century, authors began speculating Earthlike conditions or speculation realities, and transformations of the about ways by which people might about the moons of the outer giant human body and mind, it may seem really be able to leave the Earth. planets, but the majority of SF writers odd that so much energy in the field is Edward Everett Hale proposed a giant began looking to the stars. devoted to stories about voyages in catapult powered by spinning fly- Tales of space exploration outer space. Some see this as a contin- wheels to launch an artificial satellite remained limited to the Solar system uation of the American idea of the fron- in “The Brick Moon,” and Jules Verne until about World War II, when writ- tier, with space fiction as nothing more envisioned a titanic cannon in From ers began working on a larger scale. than Westerns with ray guns. Others the Earth to the Moon. Later authors Because of Albert Einstein’s theory of speculate archly about the sexual like H.G. Wells and George Griffiths relativity, the readers were also aware imagery of rockets. Certainly there is a realized the problems with those that journeys to other stars were like- lot of powerful symbolism involved in methods and concocted imaginary ly to take a very long time. To speed the idea of rising up away from Earth and mundane concerns to soar among the stars. In just about all mythologies the sky is where the gods live. But there is more to space travel What’s Not in This Book than just the symbols. The simple fact Though GURPS Space is intended as the chief sourcebook for sci- is that space travel (and interstellar ence fiction roleplaying using the GURPS system, the main focus of travel) are the most plausible ways to this book is adventures in space and on other worlds. There are whole have stories about humans in settings subgenres of SF that aren’t covered here, because they’re important that are not Earthly locales and inter- enough to get their own sourcebooks. Descriptions of specific game acting with beings who are not other universes are covered in GURPS worldbooks. GURPS Infinite people like themselves. This is not Worlds covers time travel, interdimensional travel, and alternate very different from descriptions of histories – and presents a campaign framework that links all the fantasy settings – Narnia and Middle- GURPS worldbooks. GURPS Powers describes psionics and other Earth are not Earthly locales and super-powers. Forthcoming “tech books” will provide shopping lists have nonhuman inhabitants – but of futuristic gadgets. there is an important difference. Alien worlds in outer space are fairylands

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