astronomy

Starship Through Space

Starship Through Space is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Starship Through Space rather than just read about it. In short: Starship Through Space is a science-fiction novel written by G. Harry Stine under the pseudonym Lee Correy.

Key takeaways

Starship Through Space belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Starship Through Space to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Starship Through Space from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Starship Through Space is a science-fiction novel written by G. Harry Stine under the pseudonym Lee Correy. It was published in 1954 by Henry Holt and Company. The book tells the story of the building of the first starship and of its flight to Alpha Centauri. It is the sequel to "...And a Star to Steer Her By", first published in the June 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction.

Plot summary Walter Hansman has just graduated from Schiaparelli Space Academy on Mars in June 2150. His father, Dr. George W. Hansman, sends a telegram telling him to return to Terra immediately. Finding that he automatically has all of the necessary permissions from the Terrestrial Space Navy, he goes to Red Sands Spaceport, where he boards the Space Ship Fafnir for his journey home. On the ship he finds that Don Salter, a classmate from Schiaparelli, is also going to Terra on mysterious orders. Together the two young men help prepare SS Fafnir for launch and then help around the ship on the long flight to Terra. Finally the ship lands at Peak City Spaceport, at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, and the men find their fathers waiting for them. Taken to a small, closed-off spaceport, Walt and Don are told that they are to participate in the construction and flight of humanity's first interstellar spaceship, one equipped with a space-warping hyperdrive. After extensive physical and psychological testing, Don is assigned to work on the starship's propulsion and Walt is to help develop the control circuits. When the ship is complete and ready for flight, she is christened with the name of Magellan's ship, Vittoria, and prepared for a trial run to Pluto. Under inertial drive Vittoria rises into space and accelerates to a speed close to the speed of light. The crew then engages the "high drive", which pushes the ship into hyperspace, enabling the ship, in essence, to fly faster than light. At the research station on Pluto the crew takes some R&R and makes needed repairs to the ship, then they take Vittoria back to Earth, putting her into orbit near the space station Asgard. After the crew makes more extensive repairs and upgrades the ship, after loading aboard more provisions and additional crew members, Vittoria heads back out into space and sets course for Alpha Centauri. When the ship arrives at that destination the crew discovers that the second planet of Alpha Centauri A is Earth-like. Bringing Vittoria down on that planet obliges Walt and Don to take one of the ship's small rocket shuttles down to the surface and set up a landing radar. As Vittoria lands on what Walt and Don have named New Terra, the two men see two perfectly human-looking natives also watching the ship. Walt makes initial contact and finds that the natives, who call themselves Ainsath, are friendly and eager to talk. Though primitive-looking, the Ainsath are highly civilized, but, where Terrans built their engineering expertise mostly on physics, the Ainsath have done so on chemistry and biology. Later the ship's doctor discovers that the Ainsath are not native to New Terra: as far as he can tell, they are biologically identical to the Terrans. One day Walt and Don are taken alone to the nearby Ainsath city and led to an old woman, who reads from a book that mimics Genesis up to the Tower of Babel and then deviates from it. The Ainsath are Terrans, displaced millennia ago. Vittoria returns to Terra with two of the Ainsath as passengers. After receiving a noisy reception at Peak City Spaceport, Walt, now Starman Hansman, is ready to head back out to the stars.

Publication history 1954, US, Henry Holt and Company, Pub date 1954 Apr 01, Hardback (241 pp). 1955, Italy, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore #75, Pub date 1955 Mar, Softcover digest (128 pp), as Operazione Centauro (Operation Centauri). 1982, Italy, Libra Editrice (I Classici della Fantascienza #65), Pub date 1982 Jan, Hardback (354 pp), as Operazione Centauro.

Reviews The book was reviewed by

Groff Conklin at Galaxy Science Fiction (Aug 1954) The Editors at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Aug 1954) Henry Bott at Imagination (Nov 1954) P. Schuyler Miller at Astounding Science Fiction (Nov 1954)

References

Sources Clute, John. "Stine, G Harry." The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Eds. John Clute, David Langford, Peter Nicholls and Graham Sleight. Gollancz, 23 Oct 2014. Web: 15 Feb 2015: Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. pg. 409. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.

External links

LCCN 54-5736

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Starship Through Space

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Starship Through Space claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Starship Through Space before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Starship Through Space ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Starship Through Space

In research: Starship Through Space appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Starship Through Space in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Starship Through Space is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1954 American novels, 1954 English-language novels, 1954 science fiction novels, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Starship Through Space outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Starship Through Space in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Starship Through Space means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Starship Through Space out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Starship Through Space in simple terms?

Starship Through Space is a science-fiction novel written by G. Harry Stine under the pseudonym Lee Correy.

Why does Starship Through Space matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Starship Through Space?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Starship Through Space.