NavList:

Andrew N, you wrote:
"Actually, in the very first sci fi story that featured an artificial satellite, this satellite was going to be used as a navigation aid."

Well, from the point of view of an author with an early to mid 19th century understanding of navigation and science, that's the logical objective. Have you read "The Brick Moon"? I read the first third or so a few years ago. It's a surprisingly readable introduction to the subject of finding latitude and longitude.

The author of "The Brick Moon" was Edward Everett Hale. As a kid growing up near Mystic Seaport back in the 1970s I knew this author's name well since he brought Cliff Robertson (an actor famous back then) to Mystic. They filmed a rather good adaptation of Hale's patriotic short story "The Man Without a Country" at Mystic Seaport, and many scenes were filmed aboard the Charles W. Morgan. Edward Everett Hale was apparently quite intelligent and entered Harvard at age 13 (which I think was unusual back then!), so it's probably no surprise that he understood so well the concepts of celestial navigation and the idea of an artificial satellite as expressed in "The Brick Moon".

-FER

----------------------------------------------------------------
NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList
Members may optionally receive posts by email.
To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com
----------------------------------------------------------------