7.6 /10 1 Votes
Language English Media type Print (Paperback) Originally published 1870 Genre Science Fiction Publication type Magazine | 3.8/5 Goodreads Published in The Atlantic Monthly Publication date 1869 Country United States of America | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"The Brick Moon" is a short story by American writer Edward Everett Hale, published serially in The Atlantic Monthly starting in 1869. It is a work of speculative fiction containing the first known depiction of an artificial satellite.
Contents
Synopsis
"The Brick Moon" is presented as a journal. It describes the construction and launch into orbit of a sphere, 200 feet in diameter, built of bricks. The device is intended as a navigational aid, but is accidentally launched with people aboard. They survive, and so the story also provides the first known fictional description of a space station.
Publication history
"The Brick Moon" was first released serially in The Atlantic Monthly beginning in 1869, with its final installment appearing in 1870. It was collected as the title work in Hale's anthology The Brick Moon and Other Stories in 1899. Hale later wrote a sequel, "Life on the Brick Moon", which was also published in The Atlantic Monthly.
Influence
In 1877, Asaph Hall discovered the two moons of Mars. He wrote to Hale, comparing the smaller Martian moon, Deimos, to the Brick Moon.