The space agency looks to science fiction for inspiration
By Barry James, Herald Tribune
Leonardo da Vinci drew plans for a helicopter. Arthur C. Clark wrote about communication satellites when the German V-2 missiles were at the forefront of the field. Isaac Asimov formulated the three laws of robotics long before entire factories began producing robots. William Gibson dreamed of a virtual reality where hackers enter the realm of cyberspace after connecting their minds to computers.
Now, as part of Europe's efforts to lead the technological advance, the European Space Agency is asking the public to suggest ideas taken from science fiction books, which may provide a new perspective, given the innovations in technology and materials.
It takes an average of 60 flashes of scientific genius to come up with one viable idea, and the agency tries to hunt for new ideas wherever possible. "Europe needs to prepare today, so that it can stay in the competition tomorrow," said Angelo Atzei, from the Center for Research and Technology at the European Space Agency in the Netherlands. "It means doing things now, so that we don't copy everything the Americans are doing. We have to decide which areas the European research front should focus on".
Atzei, who heads the strategy and technological coordination department, admitted that "some of our colleagues thought we were joking" when his department advised looking for ideas in science fiction books. But such a step is not so unusual. Already eight years ago, the American Space and Rocket Center organized an exhibition entitled "Plan for Space: From Science Fiction to Factual Science". She showed how art anticipated science, beginning with John Wilkins' 17th century book, "The Discovery of a World in the Moon".
Many science fiction writers were themselves good scientists, and many of the great researchers - among others, Stephen Hawking, Marvin Minsky, Sheldon Glashaw and Steven Weinberg - credit their interest in science to fiction. Leo Szilard once said that HG Wales' story about atomic energy, "A World Liberated", partly inspired the research that led him to the "Manhattan Project". Rocket pioneer Werner von Braun never missed a copy of Amazing Science Fiction magazine. Throughout the Second World War he made sure that the newspaper was sent for him to a neutral address in Sweden.
The science fiction project also serves as a means to break free from the limitations of the industry, which paradoxically is one of the most conservative in technology, compared to other fields such as communications and computers where the innovation cycle is much faster. Scientists don't want their expensive projects to fail, so, Atzei said, it's safer to design an innovative bicycle than an innovative spaceship. Both the Russian space station Mir and the American space shuttle carry extremely conservative technology.
The European Space Agency is interested in bringing innovative ideas to a stage of development where the benefits have already been proven and the risks are understood and limited. Stefan Michalovsky, Secretary General of the "Mega-Science Forum" at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that the European Space Agency's proposal has two important advantages. "It may present some of the stupid ideas that already exist," he said, "but also provide an opportunity for unconventional, yet respectable and important ideas that do not receive any attention due to the scientific filtering system and peer review."
The space agency asked "Mason d'Air" (House of the Other Place), the Swiss Science Fiction Museum, and the OURS Foundation, which studies the cultural dimensions of space exploration from Basel, Switzerland, to collect ideas from science fiction lovers around the world. Details about the project, which began a few weeks ago, can be found online - at http://itsf.spaceart.net which offers forms for reporting ideas, a data sheet that has already been submitted, and a discussion group.
"We want to see if innovative ideas, which are tested by tested engineering standards, deserve further examination," said Atzei. "We will examine the ideas with an open mind, to see if there is something we can learn. Then, if necessary, we will make an initial investment in what will be seen as appropriate engineering or physical ideas." It was not disclosed what sums are involved. The European Space Agency does not have a target number of ideas that will remain at the end of the year after screening the initial proposals.
Laser beams went from science fiction to actual disc players in one generation, and the literature is full of ideas that seemed outlandish at the time and make sense today. Projects based on solid scientific principles are sometimes labeled science fiction simply because they require more sophisticated technology than currently available.
In 1951, for example, the engineer Carl Wiley published a story in the magazine "Amazing Science Fiction", in which he described space travel carried out by capturing the pressure of the sun's rays. Arthur C. Clarke's 1963 short story "The Wind from the Sun" described a solar racing boat. Currently, research being conducted in the United States focuses on ways that will allow the installation of giant plasma-filled magnetic sails on spaceships that will be moved by the power of the solar winds. This way the spaceships will be able to reach the planet Saturn in less than six months.
Even the vehicle that preceded the rocket, a gas-filled balloon, is regaining priority as a means of exploring the surfaces of distant stars. This follows the Franco-Russian "Vega" project from 1985. Then two balloons managed to survive for almost two days in the atmosphere of the planet Venus.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, drawing ideas from the United States Sailing Championships, is now working on building aerodynamic balloons that could in the future scan the surface of the planets Titan or Pluto.
"Science and science fiction feed each other," said Patrick Geyser, curator of "Mason d'Air", which has one of the largest collections in the world in this field, in a building that used to be a prison. Science fiction writers such as Jules Verne prided themselves on the accuracy of their scientific knowledge. Hugo Gernsback, the reporter who founded the magazine "Wonderful Stories" in 1926, claimed that science fiction has a social benefit precisely because it frustrates research and inventions. And scientists sometimes turned to fiction to express speculative ideas or as a way to examine and criticize their society.
"Contrary to the popular view of science fiction, it closely follows the science," Geyser said. Indeed, scientific ideas are often even stranger than science fiction. The time shift of "Star Trek" and "Star Wars" fame is after all a literary variation on Einstein.
{Appeared in Haaretz newspaper, 31/5/2000{
