The Symbiosis between Science Fiction and Space Innovation

Jules Verne's science fiction (sci-fi) series has been a source of inspiration and a catalyzer to innovation. We all familiar with this genre of fiction and "literature of ideas," which groups a plethora of futuristic concepts that usually deals with space exploration, time travel, super intelligent robots, advanced technologies, alternate reality, interplanetary warfare, and alien life. We all have that favorite sci-fi novel and a sci-fi movie or series with that inspiring superhero; we grew up dreaming of having his powers and heroic character. Considering today's scientific and technological achievements related to space exploration, we see how our reality relates to sci-fi art that has become a part of our culture. This emphasizes the role of this genre of art to catalyze the human creative aptitude toward breakthrough innovation. 

Space art, in general, has been playing a crucial role in directing humanity toward a "new future." As per Hartmann (1990), space art played a fundamental cultural and esthetic role to encourage exploration and innovation. The author emphasized that space art created a symbiosis between art and science to stimulate people's interest in space-related subjects, such as astronomy, space travel, and space settlements. He argued by referring to Jules Verne's influence that "what artists create, engineers and politicians achieve". Even though his analysis was directed toward art in its more extensive scope, by referring to the known to be "the father of modern sci-fi," he confirms its application on this genre of art. In fact, Verne's lunar stories remain the first of their kind, marking the rise of modern science fiction. Inspired by Kepler's Somnium (1634), Verne depicted space based on Galileo's scientific findings.

Verne's detailed space journey departing from Florida was and remains impressive. The futurist depicted solar sails and related space travel elements as we know it today, including a space base in Florida, space suits, light pressure propulsion. The accuracy of some of the author's detailed description recalls the NASA's Apollo missions, including the use of projectile loop techniques around the Moon to enable the return trajectory. Jules Verne even gave an insight into the mission and cited complete details about every stage of the journey. 

Nonetheless, Verne's Moon series was not the first space sci-fi. An earlier scientist from the Renaissance era "Kepler" published his letter "Conversation with the starry messenger" (1610). The latter was a reply to Galileo's short book "The Starry Messenger". In his letter, Kepler advocated the humankind moral imperative to "prepare the brave sky travelers for the space journey, make "maps of the celestial bodies" and "to create vessels and sails adjusted to the heavenly ether". Kepler's advocacy was revolutionary due to its reliance on scientific bases such as the description of the space weightlessness, airlessness, and the Moon's extreme weather. Miller (1978) claimed that Kepler's work "Moon" was the first treatise on astronomy, specifically lunar astronomy, as well as "the first writer to propose lunar inhabitants with biology to suit their environment. "

Furthermore, researchers and historians agreed that the combination of the 17th century Galileo Copernican discovery and Kepler's advocacy had induced human's intellect toward a revolutionary twist in space literature. Since then, an evolutionary intellect has been shaped to give birth to a cultural revolution in the United States and the Former Soviet Union, which transformed into a scientific revolution confirming Hartmann's (1990) claim that scientists and artists bridge the gap between art and science. 

Verne's science fiction series has catalyzed human intellect to innovate and find solutions to overcome humanity's challenges and turn many fictional and futuristic themes into reality. Such a statement was evidenced by Jordan et al. (2018), who affirmed the interconnection between sci-fi art, including stories, shows, movies, and novel technologies. Such interconnection maybe pinpointed in various aspects of our evolution in overcoming the space harsh environment obstacles. Verne was one of the prominent inspirational figures to the so-called founding father of space travel and rocketry, "Konstantin Tsiolkovsky" (1857-1935), who derived a space rockets' formula to escape Earth gravity. Known to be also one of the proponents of the Russian Cosmism, a 19th and 20th centuries cultural, scientific, and philosophical movement founded by Nikolai Fedorov, Tsiolkovsky advocated the need to extend into the cosmos; enabling humanity "immortality and carefree existence."

Tsiolkovsky played a critical role in the foundation of space travel. His discoveries combined a plethora of themes such as graphite or gas rudders used to control the flight's trajectory, the rocket's outer shell cooling mechanism used in the re-entry to Earth, and the pump system used in supplying the fuel components. However, despite some skeptics and critics about his ideas, Tsiolkovsky influenced the later generations of rocket scientists. 

The success in shifting mere fictional and theoretical ideas into a reality has changed humanity's fate to find the answer to what once Tsiolkovsky was questioning:

"It is difficult to foresee the fate of any thought or discovery, whether it will be a reality, in what form, to what it will lead, to what extent it will change and improve human life, and whether it will radically transform our views and our science." 

Propelled by the later technological and scientific development, humanity made giant leaps toward space conquest. That confirms the existence of a dynamic correlation between science fiction and scientific discoveries that improved lives.Today's NewSpace dynamics unleashed new possibilities toward the mastery of the New Frontier, as we are witnessing an unprecedented determination to fulfill the dream of becoming a multiplanetary species. 

Nonetheless, even though the sci-fi genre played a critical role in technological evolution, it is essential to highlight that sci-fi has its disadvantages and pitfalls. In addition to the fear about the future sci-fi is causing, it is misleading. Sci-fi is also harming science, and here I refer to Nancy Kress, the award winner sci-fi writer's statement, "almost all sci-fi movies, and much print sci-fi as well, depicts science that is misleading at best, harmful at worst.” Here I share her worries about the way young fans base their science knowledge on sci-fi novels. I think that the scientific community has the burden to spread scientific knowledge and encourage writers to abstain from villainizing science and space stakeholders as space agencies and NGOs should create avenues for young writers and artists to create an ecosystem to encourage constructive and meaningful sci-fi art.