Science facts and space fictions: Making room for the frontiersman, soldier, and scientist in the space laboratory

The chapter considers the interplay between science and fiction in the history of space exploration, and in particular the journey to realising the long dreamed of laboratory in space. It begins by examining early accounts that fuse science and fiction as part of the act of imagining travelling to other worlds and experiencing their terrains. It will then consider a number of cases in the history of real and imagined space travel that progress toward, and eventually realise, the ‘space laboratory’. The chapter’s conclusion returns to the MARS-500 mission and the reception of its crew members once they left their cramped little shed by means of enlarging historical and theoretical understanding of the lifestyle of the space traveller.