In the waning moments of the 70th International Astronautical Congress on 25 Oct 2019, one panel took a step back from the latest in real-world technological advancements to examine how science fiction has inspired the developments in the space industry.
The panel’s free-ranging discussion featured experts from the Smithsonian Institution (the joys of displaying the original USS Enterprise model at a museum), Lockheed Martin (more than a few inspiring stories of Nichelle Nichols connecting NASA, industry, and STEM workers), and the MIT Media Lab (which often works with sci-fi film greats like Doug Trumbull and J.J. Abrams), though the headline news was provided by Art Dula, the patent attorney who helms the day-to-day business of the Robert A. and Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust.
Following three years of editing and rights negotiations, The Pursuit of the Pankera, an alternate reality version of the venerable author’s The Number of the Beast (1980), dabbling in parallel universes (that is to say, the fictional settings of other authors), is set to be released by Arc Manor Books on 24 Mar 2020.
