Spaceward Bound

As a special treat to coincide with Science Week I have been reading the 1955 novel of astronautics, Spaceward Bound. The author, Slater Brown (born 13 November 1896), was imagining a pioneering space flight programme some years in the future while drawing upon the trends in current science that were leading up to the beginning of the space race in 1957. Brown had served in France for several months during the First World War, having volunteered in early 1917 for the American Volunteer Motor Ambulance Corps. He was, however, arrested in September 1917 on suspicion of espionage along with his friend, the poet E.E. Cummings, because of Brown's pacifist letters home. They were held in a detention camp for several months. Cummings wrote about their incarceration in his memoir, The Enormous Room.

Brown's pacifism informs many aspects of this novel. The vision of the Young Astropolitans, the organisation behind the space flight programme, was of a future civilisation far removed from the destructive forces of the world. Rusty Brick, one of the visionaries, read from the organisation's constitution:
“We, the Young Astropolitans of America, alarmed by the sad state of the world today with its constant wars and its overcrowded cities, convinced that it is beyond repair or redemption, hereby take oath that we will not rest until we have established upon a distant star or planet, under the flag of the United States, a new land where we can raise our children in peace.”
Brick goes on to explain to the central character, a lecture in astrophysics at his university, that the overpopulation of the Earth is the root of global conflict:
“War. Constant war. And what brings it about? Overpopulation. The world has become an overcrowded slum. In 1950 the population of the world was two billion and a half. It's increasing at the rate of 25 million a year — 70,000 births every 24 hours. By the year 2000 there will be at least four billion people on the earth to feed. And the earth won't be able to feed them. Even at the present time half the children of the world are undernourished.”
(In fact the world's population was well in excess of six billion by 2000.)

Brown does not prove to the reader that the novel offers a solution to the world's problems. The academic who narrates the novel outlines the vast difficulties facing any space settlement, describing the scientific challenges of space flight and the harshness of living on the Moon or any known planet:
“Temperature on Mars? Good to middling. In the Martian tropics it rises to well above freezing point at noon and may reach 50 degrees or more. Quite enough to sustain life. Water? Water vapour at least is certainly present in the atmosphere.”
Brown was wise in understanding that any space programme based on ethics and conscientious vision might well be hijacked by others for the purposes of world domination. Homberg, the villian of the story, imagines a space station orbiting the Earth:
“A satellite dictatorship! There lies the solution. A satellite station circling the Earth at bombing range and manned by a staff of scientists who will rule the world... all problems will be solved on this satellite island of brains. Peace, war, overpopulation, economic problems, will all be settled by this staff of scientists circling the globe every two hours.”

The author depicts the Young Astropolitans (and the central character who joins their programme) as holding fast to their vision in spite of the danger and rivalry that threatens their success. He concludes with the hope that “everything will turn out all right”.