How The Planets And Moons Of Our Solar System Get Depicted In Science-Fiction

Mar 17

Throughout time, the planets and their moons have been observed by humans on Earth, helping craft mythology and stories which have survived to us today. But, as the centuries wore on, stranger stories, imagining life on those distant worlds, came into being, as did the genre of science fiction.

Today on CultureSlate, we’ll be looking through some of the most interesting examples of these tales from history and pop culture.

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Earth’s Moon

As Earth’s closest celestial neighbor, the Moon has been a focus for many stories over the years, and was one of the earliest places imagined to be accessible to travelers. During the 1800s, stories about the Moon became more popular, though often set the presence of life beneath the Moon’s surface as telescopes could view the lack of life on the rocky surface. One of the most notable stories was Jules Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, which was adapted and served as the basis for Georges Méliès’ film A Trip to the Moon, which is often credited as the first science fiction film.

Eventually though, colonization of the Moon by humans became more popular as an expression of sci-fi storytelling, and has appeared in many books, novels and films since. Star Trek has several mentions and appearances of settlements on the Moon, Sailor Moon features a unique story about how the Moon was once inhabited before an ancient war transformed it into its current state, and Destiny features the Moon as a location dense with the enemy faction known as the Hive.

Mars and its Moons

Mars is perhaps the most popular subject of focus when it comes to sci-fi storytelling, though it was initially overlooked by storytellers. It wasn’t until the 1800s, and people becoming aware that the Moon held no life on its surface, that Mars developed into a major focus for science fiction. Canals were thought to be observed on the planet’s surface (in reality, an optical illusion), and this became a popular feature of Mars alongside the ideas of hierarchies, advanced or collapsed civilizations, and the idea of Mars heavily mirroring or being impacted by Earth in some way. The War of the Worlds was one of the first major stories to feature Martians as the villains, which remained common in science fiction afterward, likely impacted by Mars’ naming origin with the Roman god of war. Science eventually revealed the lifeless surface of Mars, and like the Moon, many stories switched to exploring Mars’ colonization.

The Expanse is a series that prominently features a human-settled Mars, while A Princess of Mars was the first installment in a pulp novel series called Barsoom, best known for the character of John Carter, which explored alien life on Mars. Finally, Mars and its moons play a prominent role in many adaptations and iterations of the Doom franchise, where humanity accidentally unleashes demons and one determined soldier must combat them across scientific and military facilities as well as the demons’ own dimension of Hell.

Venus

Despite its proximity to Earth, Venus was a rarely used setting for science fiction stories. It was assumed to have an Earth-like climate or was at least able to support life, as its cloudy surface was obscured from closer observation and many assumed the clouds were water based. A few unique ideas about what its surface might look like were proposed and used in stories, but it wasn’t until the 1900s that Venus became a more popular subject for writers. Human or humanoid inhabitants of Venus were commonly depicted as beautiful and graceful as befit a world that drew its name from the Roman goddess of love.

The planetary romance subgenre of science fiction also had a field day with adventures and tales of romance told in the context of beautiful Venusians and the often hostile, alien creatures that were dreamed to inhabit Venus’ surface. Eventually though, scientific advancement revealed the extreme heat of Venus, and most works of science fiction either remained purposefully anachronistic, or embraced the idea of colonization like other examples on this list. One of the most notable examples of Venus and its life appearing in science fiction is Mister Mind, a supervillain from the comics of Captain Marvel/Shazam who is a Venusian worm with mental powers and incredible intelligence. Venus also appeared in Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, where a huge Nazi base sits like Cloud City from Star Wars over the Venusian landscape.

Jupiter and its Moons

Jupiter was originally assumed to be a solid world, and appeared in some of the earliest science fiction stories of the 1700s. The 1800s saw many writers assume Jupiter had an Earth-like atmosphere, and so set various stories with human or human-like inhabitants on the planet with exotic life. One of the most common threads was the idea of animals resembling Earth’s own prehistoric life thriving on Jupiter.

During the 1900s though, as scientific advancement led people to realize Juipter was a gas giant, its many moons became the focal point for various sci-fi stories. Jupiter has many, with Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto getting the majority of the attention due to their large size. Some of these moons are also notable for how life might exist beneath their surface, or found in their extreme environments, helping spur science fiction tales. Examples of Jupiter as a sci-fi setting include the film Jupiter Ascending, while its moons are/were prominent in Destiny 2 (which featured both Io and Europa) and in the game The Callisto Protocol, set at a penal colony on Callisto.

Saturn and its Moons

Much like Jupiter, Saturn was originally believed to be a solid world, which led to fiction imagining an Earth-like surface. The inhabitants of Saturn were also generally humanoid, and were characterized in various ways, though were almost always more advanced than life on Earth. Eventually, like Jupiter, the discovery of the planet as a gas giant led to changes in the planet’s depiction, with a great focus on its rings as sites of mineral extraction but also Saturn’s moons.

After the discovery of how inhospitable Mars and Venus were, Titan with its vaguely Earth-like qualities became of immense interest to science fiction authors. Life on Titan as slug-like was an interesting trend that emerged at this time, but the eventual discovery of Titan’s opaque methane-rich atmosphere led to interest decreasing due to a lack of concrete information. Other moons have received sparing interest over the years. Appearances by Saturn or Titan in science fiction media include Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, where Galactus eats the planet, the video game Dead Space 2 features a large gameplay area in the remnants of Titan, while Saturn’s rings are the subject of various stories by the legendary sci-fi author Isaac Asimov.

Beyond Saturn

After Saturn, the more distant reaches of our solar system are not as explored as the other examples on this list. Neptune, for instance, was only discovered in 1846, and much like the other gas giants, was presumed terrestrial and habitable until later science confirmed its gaseous state. Triton, Neptune’s largest moon, also has some stories in science fiction but is again not prominent. The dwarf planets, like Pluto and Eris, have also seen a similarly low amount of exploration in science fiction, though Pluto’s status as a planet means it received a fair bit more attention than other, more recently discovered, bodies. T

The only planet to buck this trend is Uranus, which has seen a steady increase in stories focused on it. Of the most notable stories for these bodies beyond Saturn, Pluto was the lynchpin in the first ring of the Terra system’s defenses during the Horus Heresy of Warhammer 40K, Buck Rogers featured Uranus in some of its storytelling, and the hidden city of Neomuna remains shrouded on Neptune in Destiny 2 until an invasion forces them to reveal themselves.

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