Have Space Suit-Will Travel
Encyclopedia
Have Space Suit—Will Travel is a science fiction
novel for young readers by Robert A. Heinlein
, originally serialised in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
(August, September, October 1958) and published by Scribner's
in hardcover in 1958 as the last of the Heinlein juveniles
.
Heinlein made use of his engineering expertise to bring a sense of realism to the story; for a time during World War II
, he was a civilian aeronautics engineer working at a laboratory where pressure suit
s were being developed for use at high altitudes.
Have Space Suit—Will Travel was nominated for a Hugo Award
in 1959.
writing contest for Skyway Soap, hoping to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon
. He instead gets an obsolete, but genuine, used space suit
. Though a few make fun of him, with the help of sympathetic townspeople, and using his own ingenuity and determination, Kip puts the suit (which he dubs "Oscar") back into working condition.
Kip wants to go into space; he reluctantly decides to return his space suit for a cash prize to help pay for college, but puts it on for one last walk. As he idly broadcasts on his radio, someone identifying herself as "Peewee" answers with a Mayday
signal. He helps her home in on his location, and is shocked when a flying saucer
lands practically on top of him. A young girl and an alien being (later identified as the "Mother Thing") debark, but all three are quickly captured and taken to the Moon.
Their alien kidnapper is nicknamed "Wormface" by Kip, who refers to the species as "Wormfaces". They are horrible-looking, vaguely anthropomorphic creatures who contemptuously refer to all others as "animals". Wormface has two human flunkies who assisted him in initially capturing the Mother Thing and Peewee, a preteen genius and the daughter of an eminent scientist. The Mother Thing speaks in what sounds to Kip like birdsong
, with a few musical notation
s in the text giving a flavor of her language. However, Kip and Peewee have no trouble understanding her.
Kip, Peewee, and the Mother Thing try to escape to the human lunar base by hiking cross-country, but they are recaptured and taken to a more remote base on Pluto
. Kip is thrown into a cell, later to be joined by the two human traitors, who have apparently outlived their usefulness. Before they later disappear, one mentions to Kip that his former employers eat humans.
The Mother Thing, meanwhile, makes herself useful to their captors by constructing advanced devices for them. In the process, she manages to steal enough parts to assemble a bomb and a transmitter. The bomb takes care of the most of the Wormfaces, but the Mother Thing freezes solid when she tries to set up the transmitter outside without a spacesuit. Kip nearly freezes to death himself while retrieving her body and activating the distress beacon, but help arrives almost instantly. It turns out that the Mother Thing is far hardier than Kip had suspected. She was not in danger; her body "would not permit" her cells to rupture. Kip, however, having suffered frostbite which would have required quadruple amputation if he were treated on Earth, requires some months of cryopreservation while the Mother Thing's people figure out to treat his injuries.
Kip and Peewee are transported to Vega 5, the Mother Thing's home planet. While Kip recuperates, "Prof Joe", a "professor thing", learns about Earth from Peewee and Kip. Once Kip is well, he, Peewee, and the Mother Thing travel to a planet in the Lesser Magellanic Cloud, to face an intergalactic tribunal, composed of many species which have banded together, which decides whether new races pose a danger to its members.
The Wormfaces are put on trial first. They promise to annihilate all other species, and are judged to be dangerous. Their planet is rotated out of three-dimensional space without their star, most likely to freeze—though the authorities do not bar them from finding a way to survive.
Then it is humanity's turn, as represented by Peewee, Kip, Iunio (a Roman centurion
of the Legio VI Victrix
), and a Neanderthal man. The tribunal decides that the Neanderthal is from another species, but only three samples are required. Iunio proves belligerent but brave in offering to fight in his own self-defense. Peewee's and Kip's secretly recorded remarks are then admitted into evidence. In humanity's defense, Kip makes a stirring speech, quoting from Shakespeare's The Tempest
and citing the Parthenon
as a work of art. The Mother Thing and a representative of another race argue that the short-lived species are essentially children who should be granted more time to learn and grow. The judge decides to postpone judgment, with a re-evaluation to be done in "a dozen" half-lives
of radium
.
Kip and Peewee are returned to Earth with devices and equations provided by the Vegans. Kip passes the information along to Professor Reisfeld, Peewee's father and a world-renowned synthesist (a generalist who makes sense of what more specialized scientists discover). After listening to Kip and Peewee's story, Reisfeld arranges a full scholarship for Kip at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, where Kip wants to study engineering and spacesuit design.
, but there the tone is more comic and ironic, whereas Have Space Suit—Will Travel is heroic, and sometimes even tragic.
A further theme, familiar in many Heinlein novels and directed to the age group the novel targets, is the notion that vast journeys begin with but a single step. Kip wants to go to the Moon "right now", but he is taught that while luck may happen, laying the groundwork and being prepared is better.
The story is very much a coming-of-age story, and coincides with Kip's social maturity. At the start of the novel, Kip is a loner, with few apparent close friends—no one helps him with Oscar, and the only named contemporary is an antagonist. By the end of the novel, Kip has not only identified with, and advocated for, the human race, but has the gumption to stand up to a bully and throw a milkshake in his face.
As in a number of other Heinlein novels, Spacesuit winds up in a Deus ex Machina
ending in which a vastly superior Being, or race of beings, appears to set everything right, and save the protagonist and humanity from certain death and seemingly inescapable threat. Interestingly, there is a suggestion in the novel that humanity itself is a lost offshoot of what are called the Old Race, a main contributor to the collected galactic civilization which saves humanity from the aliens.
, dubbed SuitSat
, was launched from the International Space Station
in February 2006. This was an obsolete space suit with a ham radio transmitter inside it. Since the advent of ham satellites in 1969, each has always been known as Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio
– OSCAR.
had written a script for a potential film adaptation and optioned rights to a potential film. The film is expected to come out in 2013.
The cover for one of the French editions (Presses Pocket, 1978) is by notable science fiction illustrator Jean-Claude Mézières
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel for young readers by Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
, originally serialised in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
(August, September, October 1958) and published by Scribner's
Charles Scribner's Sons
Charles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
in hardcover in 1958 as the last of the Heinlein juveniles
Heinlein juveniles
"Heinlein juveniles" are the 12 novels written by Robert A. Heinlein and published by Scribner's between 1947 and 1958. The intended readership was teenage boys, but the books have been enjoyed by a wide range of readers...
.
Heinlein made use of his engineering expertise to bring a sense of realism to the story; for a time during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he was a civilian aeronautics engineer working at a laboratory where pressure suit
Pressure suit
A pressure suit is a protective suit worn by high-altitude pilots who may fly at altitudes where the air pressure is too low for an unprotected person to survive, even breathing pure oxygen at positive pressure. Such suits may be either full-pressure or partial-pressure...
s were being developed for use at high altitudes.
Have Space Suit—Will Travel was nominated for a Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
in 1959.
Plot summary
Clifford "Kip" Russell, a bright high school senior with an eccentric father, enters an advertising jingleJingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
writing contest for Skyway Soap, hoping to win an all-expenses-paid trip to the Moon
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only known natural satellite,There are a number of near-Earth asteroids including 3753 Cruithne that are co-orbital with Earth: their orbits bring them close to Earth for periods of time but then alter in the long term . These are quasi-satellites and not true moons. For more...
. He instead gets an obsolete, but genuine, used space suit
Space suit
A space suit is a garment worn to keep an astronaut alive in the harsh environment of outer space. Space suits are often worn inside spacecraft as a safety precaution in case of loss of cabin pressure, and are necessary for extra-vehicular activity , work done outside spacecraft...
. Though a few make fun of him, with the help of sympathetic townspeople, and using his own ingenuity and determination, Kip puts the suit (which he dubs "Oscar") back into working condition.
Kip wants to go into space; he reluctantly decides to return his space suit for a cash prize to help pay for college, but puts it on for one last walk. As he idly broadcasts on his radio, someone identifying herself as "Peewee" answers with a Mayday
Mayday (distress signal)
Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice procedure radio communications. It derives from the French venez m'aider, meaning "come help me"....
signal. He helps her home in on his location, and is shocked when a flying saucer
Unidentified flying object
A term originally coined by the military, an unidentified flying object is an unusual apparent anomaly in the sky that is not readily identifiable to the observer as any known object...
lands practically on top of him. A young girl and an alien being (later identified as the "Mother Thing") debark, but all three are quickly captured and taken to the Moon.
Their alien kidnapper is nicknamed "Wormface" by Kip, who refers to the species as "Wormfaces". They are horrible-looking, vaguely anthropomorphic creatures who contemptuously refer to all others as "animals". Wormface has two human flunkies who assisted him in initially capturing the Mother Thing and Peewee, a preteen genius and the daughter of an eminent scientist. The Mother Thing speaks in what sounds to Kip like birdsong
Birdsong
Birdsong may refer to:* Bird vocalization, the sounds of birds* Birdsong , a 1993 novel by Sebastian Faulks* Birdsong, Arkansas, USA* Birdsong , a channel on the UK Digital One digital radio multiplex...
, with a few musical notation
Musical notation
Music notation or musical notation is any system that represents aurally perceived music, through the use of written symbols.-History:...
s in the text giving a flavor of her language. However, Kip and Peewee have no trouble understanding her.
Kip, Peewee, and the Mother Thing try to escape to the human lunar base by hiking cross-country, but they are recaptured and taken to a more remote base on Pluto
Pluto
Pluto, formal designation 134340 Pluto, is the second-most-massive known dwarf planet in the Solar System and the tenth-most-massive body observed directly orbiting the Sun...
. Kip is thrown into a cell, later to be joined by the two human traitors, who have apparently outlived their usefulness. Before they later disappear, one mentions to Kip that his former employers eat humans.
The Mother Thing, meanwhile, makes herself useful to their captors by constructing advanced devices for them. In the process, she manages to steal enough parts to assemble a bomb and a transmitter. The bomb takes care of the most of the Wormfaces, but the Mother Thing freezes solid when she tries to set up the transmitter outside without a spacesuit. Kip nearly freezes to death himself while retrieving her body and activating the distress beacon, but help arrives almost instantly. It turns out that the Mother Thing is far hardier than Kip had suspected. She was not in danger; her body "would not permit" her cells to rupture. Kip, however, having suffered frostbite which would have required quadruple amputation if he were treated on Earth, requires some months of cryopreservation while the Mother Thing's people figure out to treat his injuries.
The Wormfaces are put on trial first. They promise to annihilate all other species, and are judged to be dangerous. Their planet is rotated out of three-dimensional space without their star, most likely to freeze—though the authorities do not bar them from finding a way to survive.
Then it is humanity's turn, as represented by Peewee, Kip, Iunio (a Roman centurion
Centurion
A centurion was a professional officer of the Roman army .Centurion may also refer to:-Military:* Centurion tank, British battle tank* HMS Centurion, name of several ships and a shore base of the British Royal Navy...
of the Legio VI Victrix
Legio VI Victrix
Legio sexta Victrix was a Roman legion founded by Octavian in 41 BC. It was the twin legion of VI Ferrata and perhaps held veterans of that legion, and some soldiers kept to the traditions of the Caesarian legion....
), and a Neanderthal man. The tribunal decides that the Neanderthal is from another species, but only three samples are required. Iunio proves belligerent but brave in offering to fight in his own self-defense. Peewee's and Kip's secretly recorded remarks are then admitted into evidence. In humanity's defense, Kip makes a stirring speech, quoting from Shakespeare's The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
and citing the Parthenon
Parthenon
The Parthenon is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Greek goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their virgin patron. Its construction began in 447 BC when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although...
as a work of art. The Mother Thing and a representative of another race argue that the short-lived species are essentially children who should be granted more time to learn and grow. The judge decides to postpone judgment, with a re-evaluation to be done in "a dozen" half-lives
Half-life
Half-life, abbreviated t½, is the period of time it takes for the amount of a substance undergoing decay to decrease by half. The name was originally used to describe a characteristic of unstable atoms , but it may apply to any quantity which follows a set-rate decay.The original term, dating to...
of radium
Radium
Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
.
Kip and Peewee are returned to Earth with devices and equations provided by the Vegans. Kip passes the information along to Professor Reisfeld, Peewee's father and a world-renowned synthesist (a generalist who makes sense of what more specialized scientists discover). After listening to Kip and Peewee's story, Reisfeld arranges a full scholarship for Kip at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, where Kip wants to study engineering and spacesuit design.
Themes
Like Heinlein's other juveniles, Have Space Suit—Will Travel is a well-constructed adventure story, but compared to many of them, it takes a more philosophical approach, examining what is noble and ignoble about the human race through a varied cast of characters that includes humans, aliens, and even a cave-man. The "What is man?" theme is also explored in another of his juveniles, The Star BeastThe Star Beast
The Star Beast is a 1954 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about a high school senior who discovers that his late father's extraterrestrial pet is more than it appears to be...
, but there the tone is more comic and ironic, whereas Have Space Suit—Will Travel is heroic, and sometimes even tragic.
A further theme, familiar in many Heinlein novels and directed to the age group the novel targets, is the notion that vast journeys begin with but a single step. Kip wants to go to the Moon "right now", but he is taught that while luck may happen, laying the groundwork and being prepared is better.
The story is very much a coming-of-age story, and coincides with Kip's social maturity. At the start of the novel, Kip is a loner, with few apparent close friends—no one helps him with Oscar, and the only named contemporary is an antagonist. By the end of the novel, Kip has not only identified with, and advocated for, the human race, but has the gumption to stand up to a bully and throw a milkshake in his face.
As in a number of other Heinlein novels, Spacesuit winds up in a Deus ex Machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
ending in which a vastly superior Being, or race of beings, appears to set everything right, and save the protagonist and humanity from certain death and seemingly inescapable threat. Interestingly, there is a suggestion in the novel that humanity itself is a lost offshoot of what are called the Old Race, a main contributor to the collected galactic civilization which saves humanity from the aliens.
Legacy
An amateur radio satelliteAMSAT
AMSAT is a name for amateur radio satellite organizations worldwide, but in particular the Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation with headquarters at Silver Spring, Maryland, near Washington DC. AMSAT organizations design, build, arrange launches for, and then operate satellites carrying amateur...
, dubbed SuitSat
SuitSat
SuitSat is a retired Russian Orlan spacesuit with a radio transmitter mounted on its helmet. SuitSat-1 was deployed in an ephemeral orbit around the Earth on February 3, 2006...
, was launched from the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
in February 2006. This was an obsolete space suit with a ham radio transmitter inside it. Since the advent of ham satellites in 1969, each has always been known as Orbital Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio
OSCAR
OSCAR is an acronym for Orbiting Satellite Carrying Amateur Radio. OSCAR series satellites use amateur radio frequencies to facilitate communication between amateur radio stations. These satellites can be used for free by licensed amateur radio operators for voice and data communications...
– OSCAR.
Film adaptation
In 2010 it was announced that Star Trek writer Harry KloorHarry Kloor
Harry 'Doc' Kloor Ph.D Ph.D is, as of 1994, the first person in world history to earn two PhDs simultaneously in any discipline. He holds PhDs in Physics and in Chemistry.-Background:...
had written a script for a potential film adaptation and optioned rights to a potential film. The film is expected to come out in 2013.
Editions
- 1958, Charles Scribner's SonsCharles Scribner's SonsCharles Scribner's Sons, or simply Scribner, is an American publisher based in New York City, known for publishing a number of American authors including Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Kurt Vonnegut, Stephen King, Robert A. Heinlein, Thomas Wolfe, George Santayana, John Clellon...
, hardcover - 1970, Ace BooksAce BooksAce Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by Aaron A. Wyn, and began as a genre publisher of mysteries and westerns...
, paperback - 1971, NEL, paperback, ISBN 0-450-00729-4
- 1977, BallantineBallantine BooksBallantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann AG in 1998 and remains part of that company today. Ballantine's logo is a...
, paperback, ISBN 0-345-26071-6 - May 1, 1977, MacMillan Publishing CompanyMacmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, hardcover, ISBN 0-684-14857-9 - July 12, 1981, Del Rey, paperback, ISBN 0-345-30103-X
- May 12, 1985, Del Rey, paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 0-345-32441-2
- July 1, 1987, Hodder & Stoughton General Division, paperback, ISBN 0-450-00729-4
- June 1, 1994, Buccaneer Books, hardcover, ISBN 1-56849-288-X
- October 1, 1999, Sagebrush, library binding, ISBN 0-613-13639-X
- July 2003, Del Rey Books, hardcover, ISBN 0-613-94907-2
- July 29, 2003, Del Rey, paperback, 240 pages, ISBN 0-345-46107-X
- December 1, 2003, Full Cast Audio, cassette audiobook, ISBN 1-932076-39-5
- December 1, 2003, Full Cast Audio, cassette audiobook, ISBN 1-932076-40-9
- December 1, 2003, Full Cast Audio, CD audiobook, ISBN 1-932076-41-7
- February 8, 2005, Pocket, paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 1-4165-0549-0
The cover for one of the French editions (Presses Pocket, 1978) is by notable science fiction illustrator Jean-Claude Mézières
Jean-Claude Mézières
Jean-Claude Mézières is a French comic strip artist and illustrator. Born and raised in Paris, he was introduced to drawing by his older brother and influenced by comics artists such as Hergé, Andre Franquin and Morris and later by Jijé and Jack Davis...
See also
- Spacesuits in fictionSpacesuits in fictionScience fiction authors have designed imaginary spacesuits for their characters almost since the beginning of fiction set in space.Often, comic book creators seem unaware of the effects of internal pressure which tends to inflate a spacesuit in vacuum, and draw their imaginary spacesuits as hanging...
, which has a separate section devoted to the suit in this novel.