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The list includes technologies that were first posited in non-fiction works before their appearance in science fiction and subsequent invention, such as ion thruster. To avoid repetitions, the list excludes film adaptations of prior literature containing the same predictions, such as " The Minority Report ".
Rocket on cover of Other Worlds sci-fi magazine, September 1951. Space travel, [1]: 69 [2]: 209–210 [3]: 511–512 or space flight [2]: 200–201 [4] (less often, starfaring or star voyaging [2]: 217, 220 ) is a science fiction theme that has captivated the public and is almost archetypal for science fiction. [4]
The concept of gravity shielding is a common concept in science fiction literature, especially for space travel. One of the first and best known examples is the fictional gravity shielding substance "Cavorite" that appears in H. G. Wells's classic 1901 novel The First Men in the Moon. Wells was promptly criticized for using it by Jules Verne. [3]
An early appearance of an Orion-style nuclear pulse propelled rocket in science fiction was in the science fiction novel Empire of the Atom written by A. E. van Vogt in 1956. In this novel there is a post-atomic-war interplanetary empire called the Empire of Lynn that uses Orion-type nuclear rockets for interplanetary spaceflight.
The term "spacecraft" is mainly used to refer to spacecraft that are real or conceived using present technology. The terms "spaceship" and "starship" are generally applied only to fictional space vehicles, usually those capable of transporting people. Spaceships are often one of the key plot devices in science fiction.
Warp drive, or a drive enabling space warp, is one of several ways of travelling through space found in science fiction. [3] It has been often discussed as being conceptually similar to hyperspace . [ 3 ] [ 4 ] : 238–239 A warp drive is a device that distorts the shape of the space-time continuum .
For rocket-like propulsion systems, this is a function of mass fraction and exhaust velocity; mass fraction for rocket-like systems is usually limited by propulsion system weight and tankage weight. [ citation needed ] For a system to achieve this limit, the payload may need to be a negligible percentage of the vehicle, and so the practical ...
A jet pack, rocket belt, rocket pack or flight pack is a device worn as a backpack which uses jets to propel the wearer through the air. The concept has been present in science fiction for almost a century and the first working experimental devices were demonstrated in the 1960s.