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Text Box: Text Box: The heavens have inspired awe and wonder in humans for centuries and we have always had a longing to be among the stars. The human dream of space exploration has been illustrated through literature in history and has been extensively developed by science fiction writers. One early writer imagined constructing a giant ramp off of which a person was launched into space by means of a rubber belt. Although there had been many stories about how one could reach space or travel to the moon, as in Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon, very few stories explored the scenario of actually living in space. Edward Everett Hale, a science fiction writer, published a story titled "The Brick Moon" in an 1869 issue of Atlantic Monthly. The story was about a trio of Boston university students who cited a classic navigational problem: although the North Star (Polaris) is used to determine latitude, there is no celestial body by which to determine longitude. The three students reason that they could construct an artificial satellite to orbit the earth to help mariners navigate the seas. Eventually, the three grow up to become wealthy business men and build their dream: a brick moon. The plan was to build a brick orb 65m in diameter and launch it into space using giant flywheels. However, during construction, one of the three businessmen and his family are inside the sphere when it is accidentally launched into space. Luckily, the man and his family survive and they begin to plant crops of oats, corn, rice, and wheat on the brick moon to sustain themselves. Hale's story was the first fictional plan for a habited space station and a major stepping stone in the human interest of living in space. Naturally, other writers began to describe colonies in space or on other planets. As the volume of science fiction literature grew, the possibility of sustained human life in space became more of a reality.