Solar System in fiction

The Solar System and its various bodies (planets, asteroids, moons, etc.) were the earliest objects to be treated as fictional locations in works of science fiction. Among these, imaginary voyages to and explorations of Earth's Moon are found in seventeenth century literature. By the early twentieth century, following the increase in scientific and technological development spurred by the Industrial Revolution, fictional journeys to (or from) the Solar System's other planets had become common in fiction.

See also: Fictional planets of the Solar System

Early literature regarding the Solar System, following scientific speculations dating back to the 17th century, assumed that every planet hosted its own native life forms—often assumed to be human in form, if not in attitudes. Later literature began to accept that there were limits set by temperature, gravity, atmospheric pressure and composition, or the presence of liquids that would set bounds on the possibility of life as we know it existing on other planets. By the 19th century the Moon was given up as an airless desert, incapable of supporting life on its surface (hopes for subsurface life continued until later). Jupiter and the planets beyond were too large, too cold, and had atmospheres composed of poisonous chemicals. Mercury was too close to the Sun and its surface was exposed to extremes of temperature. The asteroids were too tiny and airless. By the early 20th century, prospects for life in the Solar System focused on Venus, the larger moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and especially Mars.

With the onset of the Space Age, planetary probes cast increasing doubt on the likelihood of extraterrestrial life in the Solar System, at least life of any magnitude greater than organisms such as bacteria. By the mid-1960s, it was firmly established that life could have no foothold on the hostile surfaces of Mercury or Venus, and that Mars could hardly support any macroscopic life forms on its surface, much less an advanced civilization. In the 1980s it was shown that the surfaces of Jupiter's moons were just as hostile to life. More recent fiction focused on the Solar System has thus tended to address its exploration for purposes such as terraforming, the engineering of planets for human habitation, than the possibility of any existing life.

Works

The following works or series use multiple planets and other locations within the Solar System as their primary settings:

Novels and series

Adult

Name	Dates	Author
A Honeymoon in Space	1901	George Griffith
Northwest Smith	1933–1936	C. L. Moore
Planetary series	1934–1936	Stanley G. Weinbaum
Space Trilogy	1938–1943	C. S. Lewis
Spacehounds of IPC	1947	E. E. Smith
Captain Future	1940–1951	Edmond Hamilton
Leigh Brackett Solar System	1940–1964	Leigh Brackett
Space Odyssey	1948–1997	Arthur C. Clarke
The Rama Series	1972–1993	Arthur C. Clarke
Eight Worlds	1974–1985	John Varley
Shaper/Mechanist	1982–1985	Bruce Sterling
Grand Tour	1993–present	Ben Bova

Juvenile

Name	Date	Author
Heinlein juveniles (first six)	1947–1952	Robert A. Heinlein
Lucky Starr series	1952–1958	Isaac Asimov
Tom Corbett, Space Cadet series	1952–1956	Cary Rockwell (pseud.)
The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet	1954	Eleanor Cameron
Dig Allen Space Explorer series	1959–1962	Joseph Greene

Comics and animation

• The Dan Dare comics series (first five stories, 1950 - 1955)
• The Cowboy Bebop manga and anime television series and film (1998 - 2001)
• The Exosquad animated television series (1993 - 1995)
• The Sailor Moon manga and anime television series (1992 - 1997)

Film, radio, and television

• The Space Patrol radio and live action television programs (1950–1955)
• The Tom Corbett, Space Cadet radio and television programs (1950–1955)
• Journey Into Space, BBC radio programs (1953-1956)
• Space Patrol, the puppet television program (1962)
• Sineskwela, Solar System episode
• Defying Gravity, television program (2009)
• The Expanse, television program (2015)

Games

Name	Date	Developer
Triplanetary	1973	Game Designers' Workshop
Buck Rogers XXVC	1988	TSR, Inc.
Space: 1889	1988	Game Designers' Workshop
Jovian Chronicles	1992	Dream Pod 9
Mutant Chronicles	1993	Target Games
GURPS Terradyne campaign	1995	Steve Jackson Games
Transhuman Space	2002	Steve Jackson Games
Rocketmen	2005	Wizkids
Eclipse Phase	2009	Catalyst Game Labs

See also

• Lists of real astronomical locations in fiction
• Stars and planetary systems in fiction

References

External links

• Science Fiction Stories with Good Astronomy