ospalh reviewed Rocket Ship Galileo by Robert A. Heinlein
Review of 'Rocket Ship Galileo' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
Thoroughly outdated.
With the Apollo moon landings in the past, the story – people built a moon rocket, go to the moon and come back – is just boring. Been there, done that. Half of the exposition that fills at least half of the book is well known to space fans and almost half is stuff Heinlein got simply wrong. Only little bits is things that could hav been but just weren’t done this way. The infamous space Nazis are really just padding. Nonetheless, some points for Nazi punching. As such there isn’t really any need to read this nowadays.
When reading this (i think i somehow misst this one back then™ when i was a much bigger Heinlein fan) i realized how much Varley’s [b:Red Thunder|48682|Red Thunder (Thunder and Lightning, #1)|John Varley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388271585l/48682.SY75.jpg|47625] is similar to this. (And Varley’s books ar full of Heinlein references.) So, when yu …
Thoroughly outdated.
With the Apollo moon landings in the past, the story – people built a moon rocket, go to the moon and come back – is just boring. Been there, done that. Half of the exposition that fills at least half of the book is well known to space fans and almost half is stuff Heinlein got simply wrong. Only little bits is things that could hav been but just weren’t done this way. The infamous space Nazis are really just padding. Nonetheless, some points for Nazi punching. As such there isn’t really any need to read this nowadays.
When reading this (i think i somehow misst this one back then™ when i was a much bigger Heinlein fan) i realized how much Varley’s [b:Red Thunder|48682|Red Thunder (Thunder and Lightning, #1)|John Varley|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388271585l/48682.SY75.jpg|47625] is similar to this. (And Varley’s books ar full of Heinlein references.) So, when yu want a modern book about a few highscool graduates building a spaceship privately and on a small budget, asking their parents for permission, going to space with one adult, having some adventures off Earth and being celebrated when they come back, read Red Thunder instead.
Then there is the 1947 perspective. Heinlein tried to write “hard” SF. The question is how much should he hav known, because he got lots of things wrong.
The oddest bit must be his choice of zinc as propellant. He even puts in exposition that you want a high exhaust velocity, but doesn’t make the connection with atomic mass and then uses hidorgen as propellant. He seems to hav notist at one point that moving a solid thru a nuclear reactor core would be problematic, and so his zinc has been turned into a liquid before the reactor has been powerd up just for narrative convenience.
He mentions “Hohmann orbits” once, but clearly didn’t understand what that meant, as the characters hav their magic nuclear rocket engine firing much too long. He also pretends at one time that they had to conserve mass, and then uses the most propellant inefficient way possible to go spacefaring, a way where the mass of yur craft is irrelevant.
Other bits ar more understandable. In his »[b:Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums|10787083|The Problem Of Space Travel The Rocket Motor|Hermann Potočnik Noordung|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|15699286]« Potočnik explained that the »Steilaufstieg« Heinlein chose isn’t what yu want. Yu have to use a »Flachaufstieg«, like all modern rockets use. And there’s the rub. It was in German, and wasn’t translated into English until 1999, more than half a century too late.
Turns out, rocket sience really is hard.
I am not saying that this novel is the origin of the “why don’t yu see stars in the Apollo fotos?” of moon landing “hoax” infamy, but it surely does get it wrong.
The rest, the characters etc. is outdated, too. Written for its time, the late 1940s, and its audience, white Usonian teenage boys. For my taste too many orders as opposd to agreed courses of action. Also too much imperialism and cunning use of flags. “‘I take possession of this planet as a colony, on behalf of the United Nations’ (…) On a short and slender staff the banner of the (UN) whipped to the top.” There ar also tons of loose ends. The biggest: What about the builders of the Nazi base? Heinlein did the same in [b:Farmer in the Sky|50851|Farmer in the Sky|Robert A. Heinlein|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1408053311l/50851.SY75.jpg|2422376]. The protagonists discover artifacts of an alien civilization and … nothing. What’s the deal with that‽
I’m sure True Fans™ hav an explanation how it works, but, when anybody goes thru one an airlock, they leave the second door open, only for it to magically close so the next folks can go thru. At least once there definitely wasn’t time to close the door. Another time the guy literally jumped away from the door. Yu also get an idea why, for real cosmonauts (Russian, Usonian or from wherever else) it takes so long to suit up for EVAs: Yu hav to carefully check yur suits, the airlock seals, &c.
