The Free Traders in Citizen Of The Galaxy resemble Poul Anderson's Nomads and Kith.
Spaceships make instantaneous interstellar jumps in Starman Jones as in Anderson's World Without Stars.
I continue to find comparisons between Heinlein's Future History and Juveniles and Anderson's works illuminating.
Sf authors in the 1950's expected a Space Age by 2000 which has not come to pass.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Most of the stuff worth reading by Heinlein was written before STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND, which is where his decline started.
The work of Elon Musk and his would be rivals seem to be finally, at long last, starting that space age!
Hope this uploads.
Ad astra! Sean
Yeah, access to space is basically a function of cost. Developments in the past decade have reduced the cost of a pound to orbit (which is halfway to anywhere in the Solar System) from $10,000 to about $1,500.
Systems currently in advanced stages of development will reduce that from $1,500 to about $6-$10.
-That- will give us the Solar System -- not just for science, but for economic exploitation. Asteroid mining becomes practical at those costs, for example; so do orbital solar-power platforms.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And that's wonderful! Also, besides the scientific, technological, and economic benefits, cheap access to space will make off Earth colonization much more practical. I can see adventurers, malcontents, discontented dissidents, refugees, dreamers, Utopians, etc., leaving Earth to set up their often clashing views of more satisfactory nations and societies. Some will be bad or mostly benign. Some will fail or succeed.
Hope this uploads.
Ad astra! Sean
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