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Verne, Sagan, Roddenberry


Jules Verne

Jules Verne (b. Feb. 8, 1828, Nantes, France d. March 24, 1905, Amiens) was a French author whose writings laid much of the foundation of modern science fiction.

In 1863 Verne published the first of his Voyages Extraordinaires-Cinq Semaines en Ballon (1863; Five Weeks in a Balloon, 1869). The great success of this story encouraged him to produce others in the same vein of romantic adventure, with deft depictions of fantastic but nonetheless carefully conceived imaginary scientific wonders.

The Voyages continued with Le Voyage au Centre de la Terre (1864; A Journey to the Centre of the Earth, 1872), De la Terre à la Lune (1865; From the Earth to the Moon, 1873), Vingt Mille Lieues Sous les Mers (1870; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, 1873), and L'Île Mystérieuse (1874; The Mysterious Island, 1875), in which he foresaw scientific devices and developments, including the submarine, the Aqua-Lung, television, and space travel.


Carl Sagan

Carl Edward Sagan was a U.S. astronomer and exobiologist (b. Nov. 9, 1934, New York, N.Y. d. Dec. 20, 1996, Seattle, Wash.) who studied the conditions of planetary surfaces and atmospheres and the possibility of extraterrestrial life. He stimulated popular interest in these subjects through his enthusiastic writings, lectures, and televised presentations, notably Cosmos (1980) a TV program he narrated and helped to write.

Some of Sagan's earliest theories about planetary conditions concerned Mars and Venus. His predictions were confirmed by unmanned space probes during the late 1960s and '70s. He helped design experiments for some of these missions. Sagan conducted experiments showing how various organic molecules could be produced from a simulated gaseous atmosphere of primitive Earth.

Sagan's willingness to speculate about the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe helped to gain credibility for the search for extraterrestrial life.


Gene Roddenberry

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (b. Aug. 19, 1921, El Paso, Texas, U.S. d. Oct. 24, 1991, Santa Monica, Calif.) was an American writer and television and film producer, creator and executive producer of the popular science-fiction television series Star Trek (1966-69).

Roddenberry's creation of the space vehicle, or starship, Enterprise and its multiracial, multiplanetary, crew presented an optimistic view of life in the 23rd century. Star Trek chronicled the adventures of a cast of characters headed by Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Doctor McCoy, Mr. Scott and Lt. Uhura.

The series traced the crew's mission to seek out new life and new civilizations. Along the way they encountered different planetary environments and a variety of intelligent life forms, from gaseous beings to humanoids.



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