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SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha
SpaceX giddily promises humanity a permanent base on the Moon - can they pull it off?
As science fiction fans know, the word moonbase was coined by L. Ron Hubbard in 240,000 Miles Straight Up, published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1948.
Robert Heinlein ties with Hubbard on this one; RAH uses this phrase in Space Cadet, published that same year:
A cabal of high-ranking officers, acting from Moon Base, tried to seize power over the entire world. The plot would have been successful had not Lieutenant Dahlquist disabled every atom-bomb rocket at Moon Base by removing the fissionable material from each and wrecking the triggering mechanisms.
Hubbard does not get pride of place for earliest description of a lunar habitation. As far as I know, the moon dome from Ray Cummings 1931 novel Brigands of the Moon was the first scientifically accurate description in science fiction. See also moon-dome from Last Blast (1952) by Eric Frank Russell.
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