Space stations - fact and fiction

My Morgan's Misfits series is often set in one of two space stations; Crossmar and Shar Burk. That's not special in science fiction, and I don't expect my space stations are anything special, either. I'm expecting that in the future habitable planets will have at least one space station to facilitate movement from the planet's gravity to the edge of space. Our very own rather rudimentary ISS is kind of a cubby house in comparison to the vast structures we see in science fiction movies.

The ISS above Earth

When it coms to fictional space stations I don't think you can do much better than the one in Stanley Kubrick's classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The movie came out in 1968, the same year I started university. 2001 was such a long way away back then. Humans hadn't walked on the moon yet, but it was imminent. Arthur C. Clarke, who wrote the novella which provided the basic premise of the movie (The Sentinel, written in 1948, published in 1951), surely expected much greater things from NASA than have actually been achieved. The (unfinished) space station in the movie was the jumping off point to the moon base, and ultimately to the deep space explorer sent off to Jupiter.

Geez. Twelve men have walked on the moon. The last one headed back to Earth in 1972. We've got a loooong way to go to even match the space station. This was one of the magic moments in the movie.

There's so much to admire about this clip. The science is the best on offer. The wheel structure provides gravity through centrifugal force. The (Pan Am) shuttle aims at the station's center, rotating to match the station's movement. The shuttle pilots use computer screens which wouldn't exist for decades and in the station itself you can see people working in control rooms. Back in 1968 the film was a tour de force, with breath-takingly realistic special effects. And a wonderful classical music score.

Although some authors still use centrifugal force to provide space station gravity, many (including me) simply propose that we have developed a means of creating artificial gravity. Humanity won't be doing much interstellar travel without some form of AG. Our bones would atrophy and eventually break down without it. Even a few months in the ISS leads to serious degradation in bone density. 

Without the need to provide mechanical gravity, what a space station would look like is up for grabs. To quote from Elizabeth Moon's novel, Hunting Party.

"Most major space stations followed one of three basic, utilitarian designs: the wheel, the cylinder, and the zeez-angle for situations requiring specific rotational effect. When Heris called up the specs for Sirialis, which all her passengers called 'Bunny's Planet', she felt she'd taken another giant step into irrationality. A blunt-ended castle tumbling slowly in zero gravity?"

Another of my favorite fictional space stations is Linnea Sinclair's Dock Five which features in her (um) Dock Five series. This extract is from Gabriel's Ghost. "Dock Five was an ugly structure, long, somewhat cylindrical. Six levels at its narrowest, ten at its widest, each level crisscrossed with corridors. Gravity only worked at its core. In the outlying areas, beyond the core, it was all free-float, zero-g boots required."

I like the gritty, industrial realism of this slum in space, the proverbial den of inquity, frequented by the shadier side of the species as well as the military.

I tended to use the basic cylinder shape in my books – a cylinder with spokes extended from the central hub to accommodate visiting space ships, rather like a marina here on Earth. You could say Crossmar is a little like the Singapore of the Morgan Selwood Universe, but how it was in maybe the mid-1960's. Shar Burk could be compared to Hong Kong around 1850, a haven for pirates and privateers, run by the rich and corrupt. Like the cities on Old Earth, the space stations are important trading hubs where people from all over the Union go to trade, refuel, and pick up gossip. I'm sure that's how things will work when we're all living in a greater universe than one small blue planet.

Maybe if Laurie's vison of a space station in Venu's orbit comes to pass we might get to see a space station like this one. Wouldn't that be nice?

Once Upon a Space Station

Ah, I always love a great space station, don't you?

Up until now, humankind has been a neophyte in the art of building space stations. Our most ambitious project to date, the ISS--International Space Station--is the most recent of several orbiting platforms, including Skylab (1973-79) and the Russian Mir (1986-2001), the first modular space station. In 1983, in a partnership with the European Space Agency, NASA began to launch a series of Spacelab modules, that were eventually connected to evolve into the present-day ISS. You can read more about it in A Brief History of Space Stations before the ISS on the Popular Science website.

But the space stations we envision in science fiction romance are usually a thousand generations removed from these early experimental designs.


MONA Loa Station, a covert military
base, as pictured on the cover of Part II
of Inherit the Stars (serialized version).

Space stations play a major role in my work because they're a sensible offshoot of space exploration. Need an essential space hub, but the planetary bodies at the desired coordinates are hostile to human life? No problemo. Plant a space station in orbit and you have an instant galactic way station.

But what about the expense and difficulties of constructing an orbiting space station? Exponentially less expensive and traumatic than losing an entire colony to some natural catastrophe, I would think.

In the not so distant future, we could plant a space station in orbit around Jupiter (if we can figure out adequate radiation shielding) or Saturn to serve as a support hub for exploration or colonization of some of the more promising of their 100+ shared moons--Europa, Titan and Enceladus, among them.

But space stations don't actually have to orbit planets or even suns. If they're all about strategic defense location or optimum position for science and astronomy--like MONA Loa/Andromeda Station at various points in its history--then they can be 'anchored' to a specific location in space by using occasional retrorockets to keep them in their intended position. 


Andromeda Station, the re-named and
re-purposed MONA Loa, is the setting
for Farewell Andromeda 200 years later.

Of course, "a specific location in space" is all relative, because it's not like a point on Earth that can be defined by GPS. In space, everything moves and orbits and careens around the cosmos. It's like a gigantic galactic waltz with billions and billions of moving parts.

A non-orbiting space station would most likely be positioned according to relative landmarks--hmm, would that be "starmarks?"--in space, but those positions are not stationary. In terms of anchoring to any particular spot, it's all relative.

Or maybe the intent isn't to remain "anchored" at all. Space stations may have their own form of propulsion so they can be moved about under power and be deployed as superships or bases where needed.

Another locale in my series is Talstar Station introduced in Courting Disaster in the current Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 collection. Talstar is most famous for being home to the Universal Flight Academy, but also houses the Headquarters of the mighty Carduwan Fifth Fleet.

Talstar will also play an important role in a far future Inherited Stars Universe story entitled The Shell and the Star, where Talstar's energy collection systems have powered the station for eons. Countless generations, in fact. Current plans are to release this new story in 2018.

Talstar Station is seen orbiting planet Veros
in this Courting Disaster graphic.

And you'll soon be introduced to yet another space station, one that exists not that far into our future and orbiting our own world.

In upcoming release, The Outer Planets, the mission launches from a major Earth-orbiting hub nicknamed ASP. That's an acronym, of course, and it stands for Armstrong Space Port. I think the tribute behind the Armstrong annotation is probably pretty evident. :)

I envision Armstrong Space Port as a sort of "Gargantuan ISS"--an orbiting space city with businesses, tourism, medical and research centers, and science and space launch facilities built for both government projects and private industry.

Space stations are, and always have been, a big part of science fiction. Here's a video of the "Top 10 Space Stations from Movies and TV" where you may recognize some of the iconic structures, as well get a glimpse of some totally new-to-you sci-fi locales.

By the way, I picture ASP as being most similar to Gateway Station. You may not recognize the name at first, but you're almost certain to recognize the scene. :)



Not sure that I agree with all the choices, but I do love #6 (of course!), #5 for its dynamics, #2 for being such a landmark Sci-Fi icon, and of course #4, arguably the most famous TV space station of them all.

But #1? Yeah, I don't think too many can argue with that. Its pretty much come to define the term "Space Station."

What are your favorites?

Have a great week!