Monday 1 October 2018

Lunar Colonization In Heinlein And Anderson

Lunar colonization is a major theme in Robert Heinlein's sf, particularly his Future History where, depending on how we count them, seven stories are set on the colonized Moon and another ends with Harriman, "The Man Who Sold The Moon," landing there to die.

Anna Stone, Luna City Community Association Service Manager, says:

"'I was here when Luna City was three air-sealed Quonset huts connected by tunnels you crawled through on your knees.'"
-Robert Heinlein, "'It's Great To Be Back!'" IN Heinlein, The Green Hills Of Earth (London, 1967), pp. 74-92 AT p. 74.

There are Stones on the Moon in this Future History story, in one Scribner Juvenile novel and in one other novel. (See image.) I suspect, although it would a lot of trouble to confirm this, that the Lunar capital is Luna City in the Future History and in the Scribner Juveniles but has other names in other works.

Later future history series skip past early days on the Moon although Jerry Pournelle's CoDominium History informs us that Neil Armstrong set foot there in 1969.

The Moon In Poul Anderson's Series
In the Psychotechnic History, the Abbey;
in the Technic History, Lunograd;
in the Time Patrol series, a Lunar hospital;
in the Harvest of Stars Tetralogy, Tychopolis.

In The Stars Are also Fire:

Chapter 3 is set in Tychopolis;
in Chapter 4, a historical flashback, a Nearside base is being built in Tycho Crater;
later in 4, the base is named as Tychopolis.

The Harvest of Stars Tetralogy, with its human beings adapted to live and reproduce in Lunar gravity, more than compensates for any earlier future historical neglect of the Moon.

6 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

My recollection might be wrong, but I don't think D.D. Harriman ever managed to get to the Moon. Rather, he died on Earth and his cremated remains were buried on the Moon.

And, in "Kyrie," Anderson shows us the convent of St. Martha of Bethany on the Moon. In this, as in other stries, we see PA taking Christianity more seriously than did many SF writers of his generation.

And Jerry Pournelle also shows us how the capital or HQ of the Grand Senate and Fleet of the Co-Dominium is located on the Moon in his "Mercenary" series.

Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,
Harriman died on the Moon in "Requiem."
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Then my memory was incorrect! A real world analogy would be if Elon Musk, given his longing to reach Mars, managed to die there in his old age.

Sean

David Birr said...

Sean and Paul:
Specifically, Harriman died from the physical stress of the landing on Luna. If he'd been willing to stay on Earth, he might have lived a few years longer — but then he wouldn't have been Delos D. Harriman. "Here he lies where he longed to be...." as the story quotes Stevenson's poem.

Back when I still believed I might be able to write sf, one consistent feature in my plotlines was that the first civilian colony, as opposed to scientific or military bases, on the Moon would be named "Harriman City." I felt he (and Heinlein) deserved that memorial.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

David,
They might have it.
Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, DAVID!

Thanks for your comments! Just a small correction, tho. I think an elderly person is more likely to be adversely affected from leaving Earth. Current technology unavoidably imposes for a shorter or longer time several gravities worth of pressure on space men as rockets take off. Landing on the Moon, by comparison, would be MUCH gentler.

I like the idea of a permanent civilian settlement on the Moon being named "Harriman City." Or maybe "Heinlein City"! And I think a city on Mars should be named "Burroughs," to honor ERB!

Sean