Space Travel Revolution

On July 16th, 1969 an Earth space craft left it’s orbit on a mission to land on its ancient satellite known as the moon. It was known as Apollo11. It took three Earth days for the Earth crew to reach its destination, and on July 20th the first humanoid from earth set foot on the moon. Three Earth days later they returned home. It came down to be known as one of the most successful space flights of the century. It symbolized our ability to triumph over distance and revolutionized the way we looked upon our planet and future. We saw no bounds to hold us from the final frontier, and with that boundless space conquered our society would move forward. We would overcome our societal problems with leaps and bounds with technology. If we could reach the far away stars, we could reach the stars in all of us. No less than one year later another space vehicle left for the orbiting satellite. It was called Apollo 13. It launched on April 11, 1970. It never made it to the moon. An onboard explosion rendered the crew helpless to the space that was once conquered only a year before.
These two space travels have had a large impact on the narrative of science fiction cinema. They reflect the relations between human space flight and the human condition along with social and governmental structures. The triumph of Apollo 11 with its focus and aim on the utopian future on the horizon, and Apollo 13 desperately trying to stay alive in the moment with the aim to have at least a future; drive social/governmental conditions in a given moment. It’s these conditions that are related to the type of technologies that are held within the narratives of science fiction space travel. Star Trek and Star Wars, which have faster than light travel capacity can be characterized by their centralized governments compared to narratives that have the inability to faster that light travel. Space travel technology in science fiction narratives is like either of the Apollo missions; the dominance, or the vulnerability of our human society.
This dominance or vulnerability has an immense impact on the structure. And, what enables a society to have this dominance or vulnerability is the space travel technology that it has. Therefore there are three science fiction narratives with variable methods of space transport that should be compared and contrasted together to come to a conclusion on how space travel technology affects societal structure. Star Trek, Cowboy Bebop, and Aliens have distinct space travel technology, and for the sake of argument and comparison have histories originating with earth.
Star Trek (an earth based science fiction narrative) is a utopian view of the future. This would definitely be classified as an Apollo 11 narrative. It is most apparent in the line in which all the movies and shows have, “To go where no one has gone before”. It is also characterized by the technology of warp drive, which gives humanity the ability to travel faster than light bringing the far reaches of the galaxy to a mere amount of hours or days to reach. This enables the United Federation of Planets (the government of Star Trek) to reach far in the galaxy with its organization, support, and structure. Space for the federation is not a wilderness to be tamed, but rather a blank canvas. It is not emptiness of space that creates a threat either, but hyperbolically ordered space.(1) There is no money, and people only strive forward to better themselves. This utopian view is set up by how Star Treks technology is used to bring out the best in humanity. Warp drive enables the human to be boundless in his nature. There is no end or goal in sight, but a romantic never ending saga of the human spirit. No one or no mind is limited to a single solar system.
Cowboy Bebop takes place in the year 2071. Bebop’s world is linked by a gate system comparable to that of an interstate system. The furthest reaches of this society are that of the moons of Jupiter. Mars is colonized, and each planet has it’s own government. No ships have faster than light capability technology within them, but they are able to go through hypergates across the solar system to achieve faster than light speed. This enables people to travel quickly around the solar system, but going beyond it is never even mentioned. This arguably could be a Apollo 13 narrative for in 2022 when the hypergates were being tested a major explosion happened resulting in major damage to the moon and earth forcing earths inhabitants to resettle throughout the system. Earth is no more the centerpiece of humanity, but rather like a dying city like Venice. It’s interesting to note that the main travel technology not only affected human society in enabling them to settle Saturn and Jupiter’s moons, but also was the reason that they had to. There is no interplanetary government, and crime syndicates wield a great amount of power. The solitary governments of each planet place more emphasis on maintaining rather than springing forward.
However, Bebop’s world is not necessarily dystopian. They are not held hostage to the space around them; indeed they get around quite easily from planet to planet. And, even though a large disaster from their space technology devastated the earth and moon they continued on and ethnic populations resettled keeping most of their identity.
Alien/Aliens narrative has no faster than light capability technologies. The ships move slowly through space with the crew held in stasis for the better portion of their journey. Their society is most noticeably capitalist from the many references the characters make about the “company”. Terraform colonies are spread throughout the galaxy, and there is no other humanoid race that is native to another planet than earth. But, of coarse there is something out there. Alien(s) is an Apollo 13 type narrative. The characters are held victim by the circumstances, technology, and space around them. Their circumstances are dire. A parasitic species is known as a Xenomorph is threatening the lives of the crews. Since they have no fast space travel they are stuck in space where “no one can hear you scream”. Social and command structures break down, leaving the group vulnerable to the ultracapatilist agenda of the company. Space travel in this universe is associated with vulnerability and infection. For the lack of faster than light capability leaves the sleeping body susceptible to dangers of infection. It also brings on the limitations of reach, or in this case distance. The bio-weapons division of the “company” want to get their hands on such a creature, but without the technology of fast space travel humans are expendable and the price of progress.
In the 1990’s the world saw a flood of communication technology flow around the world. It changed the way the world did business. Companies relocated half way around the world. Social and business hierarchy’s started to become vertical. Individuals had greater access to gather and share information. Old structures such as newspapers and advertising started to deteriorate. Militia factions, conspiracy theorists, trekkies and trekers where able to organize with increased efficiency, and countries became susceptible to non-governmental actors. From military tactics to social networking the speed of communication affected structures on almost all levels of society. Space travel by far will have an even more transformational affect on society, but what type will be available and how will consume or inspire the generations to come.
References
(1)Witwer, Julia. “The Best of Both Worlds: On Star Trek’s Borg.” Prosthetic Territories: Politics and Hypertechnologies. Ed. Gabriel Brahm and Mark Driscoll. Boulder: Westview Press, 1995. 270-279. (CR
310-314)

Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat. 1. United States: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. Print.