

: 69 Most works were mainly intended to amuse readers, but a small number, often by authors with a scholarly background, sought to educate readers about related aspects of science, including astronomy this was the motive of the influential American editor Hugo Gernsback, who dubbed it "sugar-coated science" and "scientifiction".

In the following centuries, while science fiction addressed many aspects of futuristic science as well as space travel, space travel proved the more influential with the genre's writers and readers, evoking their sense of wonder.
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: 742 In such a grand view, space travel, and inventions such as various forms of "star drive", can be seen as metaphors for freedom, including " free mankind from the prison of the solar system". Science-fiction critic George Slusser also pointed to Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus (1604) – in which the main character is able to see the entire earth from high above – and noted the connections of space travel to earlier dreams of flight and air travel, as far back as the writings of Plato and Socrates.

: 511–512 Early works of science fiction, termed " proto SF" – such as novels by 17th-century writers Francis Godwin and Cyrano de Bergerac, and by astronomer Johannes Kepler – include "lunar romances", much of whose action takes place on the Moon.
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Still from Lost in Space TV series premiere (1965), depicting space travelers in suspended animationĪ classic, defining trope of the science-fiction genre is that the action takes place in space, either aboard a spaceship or on another planet. While generally associated with science fiction, space travel has also occasionally featured in fantasy, sometimes involving magic or supernatural entities such as angels. Works related to space travel have popularized such concepts as time dilation, space stations, and space colonization.

Though the science-fiction rocket has been described as a 20th-century icon, : 744 according to The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction "The means by which space flight has been achieved in sf – its many and various spaceships – have always been of secondary importance to the mythical impact of the theme". While some writers focus on realistic, scientific, and educational aspects of space travel, other writers see this concept as a metaphor for freedom, including "free mankind from the prison of the solar system". Space travel, interplanetary or interstellar, is usually performed in space ships, and spacecraft propulsion in various works ranges from the scientifically plausible to the totally fictitious. Space travel, : 69 : 209–210 : 511–512 or space flight : 200–201 (less often, starfaring or star voyaging : 217, 220 ) is a classic science-fiction theme that has captivated the public and is almost archetypal for science fiction. Rocket on cover of Other Worlds sci-fi magazine, September 1951
