Questions tagged [space-exploration]
Space Exploration is the idea of traveling through space, beyond a home planet's orbit to discover things unknown to the explorer. Use this tag for questions about space exploration in science fiction or fantasy, not for real life questions. For real life questions, visit our sister site Space Exploration at space.stackexchange.com.
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Book ID: Astronauts and Lab Students can create portals through space
Desperate to locate and re-read exceptional book/series, but cannot remember the title.
The high concept: The U.S. has just sent the first successful expedition to Mars, and it has just landed. As the ...
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Book or short story about an empty city with deadly traps
Many years ago I read a book or story where a group of people discover a dark city - maybe on another planet - which appears devoid of life but is in very good condition. As they gradually explore the ...
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Humanity meeting another similar intelligent life form deep into space (or not)?
I'm looking for a plot line (it should be a short story) that depicts Earth population (or their close descendants) establishing contact with another intelligent life form deep into space.
After ...
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Short Story About How 2 Astronauts Who Stop for Lunch Unknowingly Destroy the Only Lifeform on an Arid Planet
In the 70's or 80's I read a short story in which 2 astronauts looking for a nice place to eat lunch choose a spot at the pole of a small desolate planet, overlooking the world's only pool of surface ...
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Story about human space explorers who run into alien telepath space crew
I read a short story in an anthology around 1998 (the book could have been older than that) which went like this - A human space exploration scientific crew is exploring an alient planet (peaceful ...
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Was the time dilation caused by Miller's planet or the close proximity to the Gargantua black hole?
In the movie Interstellar, is the time dilation the team suffers on the water planet Miller caused by the proximity of the planet to Gargantua or by the planet's gravitational pull?
In the beginning ...
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Short story about interstellar travel gone wrong
Trying to find a story I read a couple of years ago in an anthology, not sure when the story dates from but likely to be recent - the last decade or so.
The story has passengers travelling between ...
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Short story or book about a space crew on a broken ship who were capturing alien animals for a zoo
I would like to know the title and author of a short story I read a long time ago. It's about 3 men in space. They were sent to different planets to catch other organisms on different planets. ...
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Short story where interplanetary explorers find a strange planet that's weirdly suited for human life
I recall reading the story in a book that was part of a larger award anthology. The plot revolved around a small team of scientists (3-5) exploring planets searching for those potentially suitable for ...
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Short story about exobiology during human exploration of an alien planet
I have read a story long ago, where some explorers of an alien planet take an animal and use it like a boat (with a description similar to a very large Victoria).
Eventually, they have serious ...
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Funny short story on man and insect that land on new planet and irritate war-loving inhabitants
I read the really funny story about 30-40 years ago, probably around the 1970's to 1980's. It was a short that tells how 3 races (one human, one insect-like and one ???) land together on a new planet ...
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SF novel that takes place on a planet called Ragnarok? [duplicate]
In my youth I read and enjoyed a SF novel that took place largely on a planet called Ragnarok. I'd like to rediscover it, if I could. Some details I remember:
Humans are fighting a war with a ...
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Mankind prepares for a war with aliens by warring among itself [duplicate]
I am looking for the title or author of a atory I read back in the 90's, no idea when it was written. The plot goes something like this:
Humanity has gained access to space travel and sends 9 or 12 ...
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Story [novel, novella?] that featured faster-than-light or hyperdrive gained from observing distant drive use, also had a sentient star
I have little recollection when I read this, but it started with people observing indications of some special engine use many lightyears away, and it led them to 'reverse-engineer' the traces to ...
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Looking for Space Exploration Book which is collection of different sub-stories
The Book is about an earthship exploring the frontiers that I read as a kid (80's). All the stories are told by the same character but different encounters and events.
The first story is about the ...
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Did Any SF Stories Predict a Televised Moon Landing?
I've read that even with all the SF stories written about the first landing on the Moon, not a single one written before the Apollo missions were planned ever had any hint that the first landing would ...
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Anyone know this science fiction story about a sentient space suit?
Does anyone know the title or author of a story where a lone spaceman is walking across lunar surface in a suit that has sentience. The story skilfully teases the reader into believing the spaceman is ...
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Short story about aliens trading for hydroponics
I am looking for information on a short story that was written probably in the late 60's early 70's. This was part of a short story collection; I can't be certain but it was possibly edited by Groff ...
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Short story involving survival on a small asteroid; people stranded on it must keep off 'day' side
I have a strong recollection of reading a short story as a kid in the 1980's - 90's about a couple of guys (kids, maybe) that were stranded on an asteroid or moon after some disaster and needed to ...
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What book has tall transparent cylindrical column-shaped aliens defending massive mega-structures?
I registered to ask for some help identifying a book. It was likely the very first space opera / science fiction novel I read, but I was a pre-teen/early teen exploring my older siblings' bookshelves ...
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Story about a man and an alien exploring an alien world
I think the story took place on Mars, and it had a feel like Eric Frank Russell or someone similar. The story starts with the man reporting on his return to base to explain the adventure he just went ...
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Short story about astronauts being killed one by one by a non-corporeal alien entity on a deserted planet
This science fiction short story is about a team of astronauts/space explorers who land on an alien planet. An alien entity, that exists in a gaseous state, is lurking at the bottom of a well or hole. ...
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Short Story pre-1987: main character is Voyager-style space probe
I think I read this c. 1987. It would've been in a paperback SF short fiction anthology, likely with other stories by more famous authors (Heinlein, Asimov, the usual suspects). As I recall, the name ...
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Science fiction short story where explorers land on planet inhabited by humanoids who eat algae
A short story where:
Two explorers land on a planet which has almost nothing except barren ground, oceans covered with thick algae, and humanoids whose only food source is the algae. Since there is ...
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Short story about planetary explorers who encounter a sentient, six-legged, wolf-like creature
I'm looking for a short story that I read in in a sci fi anthology in the 90s.
The story was about planetary explorers that landed on a planet that supported life. There was a six-legged, wolf-like ...
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Novel about a ship with a neutron star at one end to counteract acceleration, gets stuck in acceleration mode
I read this novel 30 years ago, so it's at least that old, but probably decently older.
I can remember only details, but I remember an older couple (a woman, who was captain of a ship, I believe), ...
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Humanity stumbles across ancient booby trap [duplicate]
I probably read this before 2000 in an anthology work. I frequently read books like "Best SF of yyyy".
The style of the writing is like that of the SF Golden Age.
Humanity developed interstellar ...
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Old comic book, war with the moon, Pan-ku Chinese first man
Back in the 1960s, I once read an old, second hand, comic book about relations between the Earth and the Moon. In some television messages from the Moon, the hero saw a beautiful Moon woman, while ...
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In The Martian, how were the crew in the Hermes shielded from radiation?
I have not read the book of The Martian, but there was one glaring omission in the movie that struck me.
How were the crew in the Hermes protected from radiation?
In space, especially ...
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Why doesn't Voyager in Star Trek go above the galactic plane to get back home?
Related to Why do Star Trek vessels always approach each other on parallel planes?, but on a larger scale.
The premise of Star Trek: Voyager is that the ship Voyager is stranded from Earth on the ...
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Why didn't Jupiter becoming a star kill everyone on earth and cause all kinds of problems for the solar system?
In 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the climax of the film is quite bizarre. Jupiter's mass is replaced by billions of black monoliths, eventually collapsing in on itself and becoming a star.
...
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Trying to find name of a short story about astronauts missing the second coming of Jesus on earth
I remember reading about this short story where a group of astronauts are travelling close to the speed of light to a nearby star.
When they return to Earth several years later after completing their ...
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Story by Marion Zimmer Bradley about a damaged spaceship that took 75 years to repair [duplicate]
For once, I'm asking for help in identifying a story I've never actually read. Many years ago, I read an essay by Marion Zimmer Bradley in which she talked about a story she wrote, fairly early in her ...
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Planet with hexagons with either magic or technology
I read a good book a while ago and can't remember the title.
It is the story of people stuck on a planet made of hexagons, where the level of technology is set depending on the type of hexagon. Some ...
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A novel about humans on a water planet who used iron-wings made from a ruined settler ship
Some time ago, I borrowed a book from my father.
It was about a water planet with huge storms and deadly monsters.
There were a few islands where people could live. They moved between islands using ...
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I'm looking for a sci fi book with a tribal woman, hermaphrodites, and implanting minds into new bodies
I read a sci fi book roughly 20 years ago (late nineties) but for the life of me I cannot remember the title nor locate the book on Amazon or elsewhere online. I don't know when the book was actually ...
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Looking for a novel about a mysterious sphere/cube shaped object
I read a story years ago that revolved around a mysterious ‘ship’ (it was a basic shape - I believe the name of the book was also around this shape) found in the universe. It had some species worried ...
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Story about a lone planetary explorer with a robotic assistant
I read this story in the late 60's. A man on a 6 month drunk is picked up by company agents and placed on a ship to some unexplored planet. You get the impression this has happened to him before. ...
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Old book about space travel c. 1930-1960
It was technically a nonfiction book hardbound about space travel, but the author suggested a lot of imaginative little science fiction stories.
I read it during the 1960s so it was at least that old,...
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Sci-fi book about a small sea-cucumber like alien that made humans go insane and/or die [duplicate]
I don't remember anything about the title or author of this book. I think it was a relatively simple title. It was a fairly short book, the cover was a silver-blue (I think?), and I think it had a ...
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Wouldn't the Ascension have reached a Rubicon point before ~51 years into the journey?
In the SyFy mini-series Ascension, as one of the plot points reference is made to the Ascension space ship reaching a "Rubicon Point" at which it will take more resources to return to Earth as opposed ...
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Looking For A Groovy Story I Read As A Child
Everyone! I am looking for a story I read as a child that I have never forgotten. I believe it was in some kind of anthology or magazine, possibly OMNI, because my parents used to subscribe to that ...
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Science fiction radio drama: aliens find Earth deserted [duplicate]
Anyone know of a radio drama about an advanced alien civilization visiting Earth (we don't know it's Earth until the end). Everything is deserted. They send down teams to investigate and one team ...
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Author and Title of a SF story from 60s, most probably read it in Fantasy and Science Fiction, possibly Analog or If
3 male astronaut-explorers land on a new planet about a mile away from an obviously artificial construct, a massive cube. Each starts setting up his equipment for the surveys they need to make. The ...
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YA Australian based flight to moon from area near meteor craters
Back in the 1960s I read a young adult novel where a teenage Australian boy at a remote sheep station investigates strange goings on at the local meteor craters.
He discovers a secret rocket base and ...
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How does Miller's planet in Interstellar have such huge time dilation yet such a small gravitational force? [duplicate]
In Interstellar, the crew of the Endurance experience extreme time dilation (7 years to an hour) on Miller's planet, due to its proximity to a black hole. However, they only feel 130% of Earth's ...
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