Talk:Space Cadet

Novels: Sci-fi Mid‑importance

	Novels portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Novels, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to novels, novellas, novelettes and short stories on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the general Project discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.NovelsWikipedia:WikiProject NovelsTemplate:WikiProject Novelsnovel articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.
	This article is supported by Science fiction task force.

Science Fiction Mid‑importance

	Speculative fiction portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Science Fiction, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of science fiction on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Science FictionWikipedia:WikiProject Science FictionTemplate:WikiProject Science Fictionscience fiction articles
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Children's literature Mid‑importance

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Children's literature, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Children's literature on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Children's literatureWikipedia:WikiProject Children's literatureTemplate:WikiProject Children's literaturechildren and young adult literature articles

Mid

This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the project's importance scale.

Tasks you can do:

Here are some open tasks for WikiProject Children's literature, an attempt to create and standardize articles related to children's literature. Feel free to help with any of the following tasks.

Add {{Portal|Children's literature}} to the See also section of related articles.
Tag the talk pages of related articles with {{WikiProject Children's literature}}
Join WikiProject Children's literature and list yourself as a Participant in the project.
Cleanup: A cleanup listing for this project is available. See also the list by category, the tool's wiki page and the index of WikiProjects.
Deletion discussions: listed at Wikipedia:WikiProject Deletion sorting/Literature
Notability: Articles with notability concerns, listed at WikiProject Notability
Rate the Unassessed articles in the Children's literature WikiProject.
References: Add references to Unreferenced BLPs.
Requested articles: Create a requested article on literature
Stubs: Improve a stub-class article

edit

Tip: Anchors are case-sensitive in most browsers.

This article links to one or more target anchors that no longer exist.

[[Venus in fiction#Swamp|Venus is described]] The anchor (#Swamp) has been deleted by other users before.

Please help fix the broken anchors. You can remove this template after fixing the problems. | Reporting errors

Tom Corbett, Space Cadet[edit]

If this novel truly inspired the media franchise around the character Tom Corbett, as stated, then there should exist some documentation of that fact. If none can be provided, the statement should be removed.

Orbiting Weapons[edit]

I removed the following interesting criticism:

However, the laws of physics make this a dubious proposition, since a bomb in orbit cannot be "dropped" — it is already in free fall — and there is a tall angular momentum barrier that makes it impossible for it to reach the Earth's surface without the expenditure of a great deal of rocket thrust.

I don't see why this is an objection. The author specifically points out that an orbital bomb would have to be decelerated from orbit in order to follow a downward path.

There are legitimate scientific objections to some SF gimmicks, but an opinion we might have about details like the feasibility of the thrust required to de-orbit depends on our present knowledge of technology and is subject to change. Do you remember Willy Ley's famous article debunking "ray guns" because they would have to be hotter at the muzzle than at the target? They promptly disappeared from SF. Now we have "laser guns"; in other words, with a better understanding of technology we've found out how to make ray guns. In this case, it's no big leap to assume the bomb has the thrust capability to get down to the surface. Zaslav 21:54, 17 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I think there are also other valid reasons for militaries to not use orbiting nuclear weapons. Orbital velocity is 17,000 mph. In order to re-enter the atmosphere, this has to be reduced. If it is reduced just a bit then the orbit will be slowly decaying and will take a long time for re-entry. So you need to apply substantial retro-firing, expending considerable amount of fuel, to achieve rapid de-orbiting. This fuel has to be lifted into orbit, making the orbiting bomb a more expensive operation than terrestrial or submarine based missiles. Maintenance is an issue too. Also, when you have a bomb in space, it has to be defended, otherwise somebody might physically steal it or might send it encrypted launch codes. Another problem with orbital bombs is that the de-orbit burn is highly visible and the trajectory is easy to compute, so the target would have a much larger lead time to prepare or retaliate than with ICBMs.

Thank you Zaslav for your edits on the Heinlein material. Hu 23:57, 17 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for your appreciation, Hu. I'm always glad to meet someone who takes Heinlein seriously. Your objections are sensible. Some can be answered, I think, but in the current state of technology they might be decisive. Obviously, Heinlein didn't think of all the aspects you mention, though maintenance itself is a plot element. I still would give him the benefit of the doubt on the technical situation around the year 2087 and, to a degree, on his oversights. It seems clear that he didn't have a thorough understanding of orbital mechanics and rocketry and all the relevant science, but he did a good job of faking it. Zaslav 05:57, 19 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I removed the list of Heinlein novels. That belongs with the Heinlein bio. Here it is not very relevant. Zaslav 04:17, 4 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Model for Starfleet?[edit]

I read in one of the last interviews he gave, Gene Roddenberry said that the Patrol, as depicted in this novel, was his model for Starfleet. Anybody know where that could be tracked down? Daniel Case 17:19, 1 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

More specifically, I don't know of any earlier novel in which what later became Star Fleet's Prime Directive is so clearly laid out. Should this get a mention? TheDixieFlatline88.105.55.43 (talk) 00:53, 26 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

revised summary[edit]

can we get a revised summary, that covers things in the order they appear in the book? as it is, the 'summary and discussion' section is more discussion than summary. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 216.146.243.225 (talk) 05:39, 22 December 2006 (UTC).[reply]

There you go. Clarityfiend 01:11, 29 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Slang Section[edit]

I propose the slang section be removed. It has nothing to do with the novel, though it might merit its own article to be shown on the disambiguation page... Thoughts? FusionKnight 16:16, 19 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I added the wiktionary definition to the disambiguation page. If no-one objects, I will remove the slang section from this article after a few days unless there is an objection. FusionKnight 16:26, 19 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It's gone. FusionKnight 02:42, 24 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]