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"Science fiction writers, I am sorry to say, really do not know anything. We can't talk about science, because our knowledge of it is limited and unofficial, and usually our fiction is dreadful."
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![]() This is the first use of "generation ship" in fiction; see caveats below.
Samuel R. Delany uses this term in his 1965 story Ballad of Beta-2:
Compare with the city ship from Star of Wonder (1953), by Julian May. The New Frontiers from Robert Heinlein's Methuselah's Children was effectively a generation ship - except everyone lived so long! Also, see the multi-generation space voyage from The Return of the Murians (1936) by Nat Schachner and slowboat from The Ethics of Madness (1967) by Larry Niven.
Robert H. Goddard was perhaps the first to write about multi-generational interstellar voyages in his 1918 essay "The Last Migration". He described the death of the Sun and the need for an interstellar ark. The crew would face the centuries of travel by sleeping and would be awakened when they reach another star system.
Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky described the need for multiple generations of passengers in his 1928 essay "The Future of Earth and Mankind". A space colony called Noah's Ark travels for thousands of years. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
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