History Literature / SpaceCadetHeinlein

** Dodson has to pass a series of tests to get into the Space Patrol.
*** One of them requires him to stand over a milk bottle and drop beans into the bottle with his eyes closed. Dodson ends up with only one bean in his bottle and sadly turns it in. He notices while standing in line that several people got many beans in their bottles, and after turning his in, he asks the examiner what would keep people from cheating by peeking. The examiner says, "Nothing at all", much to Dodson's disappointment. Then the book says about Dodson: "It did not occur to him that he might not know what was being tested." Dodson's roommate, Girard Burke, saw through the test, and reasoned that it was a secret test of ''intelligence'' (weeding out the people who couldn't resist cheating even though a high test score would be damning). He acknowledges that it wouldn't catch the people who didn't figure it out but were also too honest to cheat, but figured that other tests would catch ''those'' people. (In fact, he had it backwards; the school was looking for honesty, and there were other tests to catch the bright cynics.)
*** Matt is given a test with a lever and buttons and whatnot, and an instruction sheet on how to score points -- a game of sorts. He looks over the instructions, tries to figure out what combinations will allow him to score, and presently approaches the examiner.
---->'''Examiner''': No questions, please.\\

* KarmaHoudini: [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Girard Burke]] is a partial example. He doesn't get the punishment he truly deserves for kidnapping and getting his entire crew killed along with a number of natives (the only evidence against him is the protagonists' hearsay), but Matt does pound on him near the end of the book, and Oscar seems confident that they can get his license revoked and his passport lifted, which is pretty bad for someone whose job is in space.

* SuperweaponSurprise: The supposedly primitive Venerians have a superior knowledge of chemistry, to the extent that one of the characters says in astonishment, "They can do ANYTHING!" (they've just synthesized liquid oxygen for their rocket -- and this from a species that doesn't use space travel)

* TheParagon: John Ezra Dahlquist is one of "The Four" who are held up to be this and whose names are called at every roll call. His singlehanded thwarting of the "Revolt of the Colonels" at the cost to his own life early in the Patrol's history is cited as the ideal for Patrolmen. He is also literally HeroOfAnotherStory since his HeroicSacrifice is depicted in the short story ''[[https://www.baen.com/Chapters/1439133417/1439133417___4.htm TheLongWatch]]'' published the next year by Heinlein.

* TheParagon: John Ezra Dahlquist is one of "The Four" who are held up to be this and whose names are called at every roll call. His singlehanded thwarting of the "Revolt of the Colonels" at the cost to his own life early in the Patrol's history is cited as the ideal for Patrolmen. He is also literally HeroOfAnotherStory since his HeroicSacrifice is depicted in the short story "Literature/TheLongWatch" published the next year by Heinlein.

* CriticalResearchFailure: The book says that left to their own devices, the ''Randolph'' would slowly orbit Terra Station as they both orbit Earth, but every massive orbiting body has what is known as a Hill sphere. For example, Earth's Hill sphere has a radius of about 1.5 million kilometers, hence anything further than that away from Earth will not orbit it and just orbit the Sun instead. The Hill sphere of a space station would be negligible.

* ArtificialOutdoorsDisplay: Hayworth Hall at the Earthside part of the academy has an enormous rotunda, with a midnight black ceiling with artificial stars in the actual constellations of the night sky, so that "the illusion of being outdoors at night was most persuasive". The illusion is further enhanced by the floor being a pit with a "bed of rock and sand", in which rests a crash-landed spaceship. (Another cadet does point out the ''KilroyWasHere'' didn't actually crash land at this spot; the remains of the ship were relocated for the display.)
* AsteroidThicket: Averted. The narration explicitly mentions how thin the belt really is and how unlikely a collision would be. Nevertheless, Captain Yancey sets up a radar watch to avoid collisions, if the duty officer saw a rock approaching on a possible collision course, the alarm would be sounded and a thruster fired. Also, the ''Pathfinder'', the overdue ship they were searching for, had been holed by a fist-size meteor that, by bad luck, happened to puncture the inner airlock door just as the outer, armored door had opened to admit a spacewalking crewman.

* CosmicDeadline: Heinlein wraps the plot in a page or so at the end, not even describing the flight of the Astarte back to the human colonies.

* {{Farmboy}}: Matt Dodson is from Iowa and implied to be one. Later on his prentice cruise on the ''Aes Triplex'' he is given "farmer" duties on the ship, that is, to take care of the hydroponic plants in the ship's air recycling section. He idly wonders if it wouldn't have been simpler to stay in Iowa and grow corn.

+ InternalHomage: The scene where Matt's squad reports aboard the school ship ''PRS Randolph'' and met by a senior cadet is repeated later, with Matt as the senior.
* {{Jerkass}}: Girard Burke during training, thinking that his influential father is enough to get him into the Patrol, but he TookALevelInJerkass after he's kicked out (or resigns; he claims he did and no indication is given as to his truthfulness except for his generally weaselly character) and his father gives him command of his own rocketship. He kidnaps the leader of a Venerian tribe to pressure her into giving him mining rights, then hides in the radio room when the outraged Venerians [[SuperWeaponSurprise slaughter the rest of his crew]].

* OneRiotOneRanger: Burke is annoyed when the Space Patrol doesn't send a company of marines to put down the 'native uprising'. Of course, there is no uprising.

* ShatteredWorld: The asteroid belt is was formed by a planet shattering. The ''Pathfinder'' discovered evidence that the planet had been inhabited by an intelligent species which had [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroyed]] their home in an nuclear war. This information was recovered by the ''Aes Triplex'' when they found the wrecked ''Pathfinder''.

* SuperweaponSurprise: The supposedly primitive Venerians have a superior knowledge of chemistry, to the extent that one of the characters says in astonishment "They can do ANYTHING!" (they've just synthesized liquid oxygen for their rocket -- and this from a species that doesn't use space travel)
* TrainingFromHell: Mostly averted, aside from a scene when Matt is tested to see how he handles differing gravities. The cadets ''are'' kept working and studying at a pretty hard pace.

* {{Zeerust}}: As can be expected there's lots. Surprisingly ''averted'' early in the first chapter, as it opens with Matt talking with his dad on what a modern reader will recognize as a cellphone (though he does end the call quickly, because he's in a crowd!), even shipping it back home when he goes into orbit, since there of course would be no relay towers to pick up its signal.

-->'''Examiner''': No questions, please.\\

* AsteroidThicket: Averted. The narration ''Aes Triplex'' explicitly mentions how thin the belt really is and how unlikely a collision would be. Nevertheless, Captain Yancey sets up a radar watch to avoid collisions, if the duty officer saw a rock approaching on a possible collision course, the alarm would be sounded and a thruster fired. Also, the ''Pathfinder'', the overdue ship they were searching for, had been holed by a fist-size meteor that, by bad luck, happened to puncture the inner airlock door just as the outer, armored door had opened to admit a spacewalking crewman.

* AsteroidThicket: Averted. Captain Yancey of the ''Aes Triplex'' explicitly mentions how thin the belt really is and how unlikely a collision would be. Nevertheless, he set up a radar watch to avoid collisions, if the duty officer saw a rock approaching on a possible collision course, the alarm would be sounded and a thruster fired. Also, the ''Pathfinder'', the overdue ship they were searching for, had been holed by a meteor that, by bad luck, happened to puncture the inner airlock door just as the outer, armored door had opened to admit a spacewalking crewman.

* TheChainsOfCommanding: Captain Yancey of the ''Aes Triplex'' would have preferred to take the repaired ''Pathfinder'' back to Earth himself but no one of higher authority was in communication to relieve him of command of his own ship so he had to turn command of the ''Pathfinder'' to his executive officer.

* ExplosiveDecompression: Happened to the ''Pathfinder'' when its inner airlock door was holed by a meteor. Some compartments remained intact with air tight doors but the crew had clustered around the entryway and all died. The one in the spacesuit entering the airlock had his suit punctured by a fragment from the collision and was killed too.
* FantasticRacism: Burke shows this. Oscar Jensen, who was born on Venus, treats the natives with respect. [[SuperweaponSurprise Which is just as well]].

* {{Jerkass}}: Girard Burke during training, thinking that his influential father is enough to get him into the Patrol, but he TookALevelInJerkass after he's kicked out and his father gives him command of his own rocketship. He kidnaps the leader of a Venerian tribe to pressure her into giving him mining rights, then hides in the radio room when the outraged Venerians [[SuperWeaponSurprise slaughter the rest of his crew]].

* LadyLand: When translating, Oscar Jensen refers to himself and his colleagues as female because the Venerians expect a male to stay home.

* OneRiotOneRanger: Burke is annoyed when the Space Patrol doesn't send a company of Marines to put down the 'native uprising'. Of course, there is no uprising.

* SpaceStation: The ''PRS James Randolph'' shares an orbit with Terra Station and is kept ten miles astern. The cadets are granted occasional leave and take a scooter over for R&R.

** Interestingly Matthew's explanation of the atomic bomb rockets to his parents indicates that they are of the "gun type" design employed in the Little Boy atomic bomb. But an implosion bomb was tested even before Little Boy was used (the only advantage of the Little Boy design was that it was considered more dependable since the design is much simpler). In the real world, less than a hundred gun-type bombs were ever built, and the design is a historical curiosity today.

** The protagonist is picked up by a helicopter, which doesn't seem too strange until you realise it's a [[FlyingCar personal helicopter that his family fly themselves, their version of a family car]]. Earlier this FarmBoy mentions getting his 'copter license at the age of 12.

* SpaceCadetAcademy: The ''PRS James Randolph'', a spaceship that serves as the space academy.

* SpaceMarine: Matt briefly considers switching over to them when his training hits a rough spot, but his counselor talks him out of it.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: During the selection process, Matt is given a test where he must drop beans into a small bottle at his feet - with his eyes closed. He's disappointed that he only managed to get one bean, where others had many more. Afterwards, the examiner heavily implies that what they're actually testing is trustworthiness; only the cadets that kept their eyes closed pass. His roommate Burke thinks it's actually a [[HiddenPurposeTest secret test of]] ''[[HiddenPurposeTest intelligence]]'', to weed out the cadets who don't figure out that getting a good score would be proof that you cheated; he trusts that there'll be other tests to weed out the dull-but-honest candidates. Of course, he has it backwards--there are other ways to weed out the clever cynics. In fact, when Matt asks Cadet Sabatello about Burke's hypothesis that the rocket crash was staged to frighten off those easily scared, Sabatello asks who fed him that nonsense, Matt remains silent, and Sabatello doesn't push, saying it won't matter in the long run. Both interpretations are probably right, in a sense -- cheating in such an obvious manner doesn't say much for one's ethics ''or'' intelligence.

* HiddenPurposeTest: Dodson has to pass a series of tests to get into the Space Patrol. One of them requires him to stand over a milk bottle and drop beans into the bottle with his eyes closed. Dodson ends up with only one bean in his bottle and sadly turns it in. He notices while standing in line that several people got many beans in their bottles, and after turning his in, he asks the examiner what would keep people from cheating by peeking. The examiner says, "Nothing at all", much to Dodson's disappointment. Then the book says about Dodson: "It did not occur to him that he might not know what was being tested."
** Dodson's roommate, Girard Burke, saw through the test, and reasoned that it was a secret test of ''intelligence'' (weeding out the people who couldn't resist cheating even though a high test score would be damning). He acknowledges that it wouldn't catch the people who didn't figure it out but were also too honest to cheat, but figured that other tests would catch ''those'' people. (In fact, he had it backwards; the school was looking for honesty, and there were other tests to catch the bright cynics.)
** Matt is given a test with a lever and buttons and whatnot, and an instruction sheet on how to score points -- a game of sorts. He looks over the instructions, tries to figure out what combinations will allow him to score, and presently approaches the examiner.

* FutureImperfect: The rotunda of Hayworth Hall has the ''KilroyWasHere'' (the first ship to Mars which crash landed on return killing all on board) set up as though it had crash there. Dodson is asked who Kilroy was and after a bit of thought he replies he was a WW II admiral. Clear in context that it is Dodson's ignorance rather than faulty history though (Matt was thinking of Admiral 'Bull' Halsey').

-->'''Examiner''': No questions, please.
-->'''Matt''': I don't have a question. I want to report something. There's something wrong with that test. Maybe the wrong instructions sheet was put in there. In any case, there is no possible way to make a score under the instructions that are in there.
-->'''Examiner''': Oh, come now! Are you sure of that?
-->'''Matt''': [hesitates, then says firmly] I'm sure of it. Want to see my proof?
-->'''Examiner''': No. Your name is Dodson? [glances at a timer, then writes on a chart] That's all.
-->'''Matt''': But--Don't I get a chance to make a score?
-->'''Examiner''': No questions, please! I've recorded your score.
** The cadets are encouraged to take part in a series of debates on controversial topics. Burke, who's entirely willing to voice his cynical opinion on anything, surprises his classmates by remaining silent or only voicing mundane opinions. It's clear that Burke thinks the debates are a HiddenPurposeTest, but perhaps he also missed the point of what was being tested.
* IllPretendIDidntHearThat: When Tex Jarman gets drunk in public, one of the cadet's instructors (who is sitting nearby) calls over Matt Dodson and warns him, "Go back and tell Jarman to quiet down before I have to come over and ask him what his name is."
* JerkAss: Girard Burke during training, thinking that his influential father is enough to get him into the Patrol, but he TookALevelInJerkass after he's kicked out and his father gives him command of his own rocketship. He kidnaps the leader of a Venerian tribe to pressure her into giving him mining rights, then hides in the radio room when the outraged Venerians [[SuperWeaponSurprise slaughter the rest of his crew]].

* LadyLand: When translating Oscar Jensen refers to himself and his colleagues as female because the Venerians expect a male to stay home.

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: The mission of the ''Aes Triplex'' along with several other Patrol Ships was to search for the missing ''Pathfinder'' in the asteroid belt. They find it with all hands dead but the cadets reflect that the Patrol would have brought them back alive if they hadn't been killed by a meteor puncture of the ship. Later, after the cadets and their superior officer are marooned on Venus, Jensen comments that the Patrol will eventually find them but they need to work towards their own rescue since that would be expected of them.
* OfficerAndAGentleman: To the point that the Space Patrol consists ''solely'' of officers, nineteen years before ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. Although the Patrol is specifically backed up by a more military-oriented service (the Space Marines) who are largely composed of enlisted men.

* SecretTestOfCharacter: During the selection process, Matt is given a test where he must drop beans into a small bottle at his feet - with his eyes closed. He's disappointed that he only managed to get one bean, where others had many more. Afterwards, the examiner heavily implies that what they're actually testing is trustworthiness; only the cadets that kept their eyes closed pass. His roommate Burke thinks it's actually a [[HiddenPurposeTest secret test of]] ''[[HiddenPurposeTest intelligence]]'', to weed out the cadets who don't figure out that getting a good score would be proof that you cheated; he trusts that there'll be other tests to weed out the dull-but-honest candidates. Of course, he has it backwards--there are other ways to weed out the clever cynics. Both interpretations are probably right, in a sense -- cheating in such an obvious manner doesn't say much for one's ethics ''or'' intelligence.

* SpaceStation: The ''PRS James Randolph'' shares an orbit with space station Terra Station and is kept ten miles astern. The cadets are granted occasional leave and take a scooter over for R&R.

** Venerians can't play the harmonica; 'I know, I let one try.'
* TrainingFromHell: Mostly averted, aside from a scene during the initial induction when Matt is tested to see how he handles differing gravities. The cadets ''are'' kept working and studying at a pretty hard pace.

** Interestingly Matthew's explanation of the Atomic bomb rockets to his parents indicates that they are of the "gun type" design employed in the Little Boy Atomic bomb. But an implosion bomb was tested even before Little Boy was used (the only advantage of the Little Boy design was that it was considered more dependable since the design is much simpler). In the real world less than a hundred gun type bombs were ever built, and the design is a historical curiosity today.
** For that matter, the book itself unwittingly demonstrates that the whole notion of maintaining a network of orbiting bombs is absurdly impractical. The Space Patrol must keep a manned base on the moon, sending rockets to Earth orbit to match orbits with the bombs one at a time for routine maintenance and course correction. Whereas in the real world, an engineer can open up an ICBM and fiddle with it quite easily.

* {{Farmboy}}: Matt Dodson is from Iowa and implied to be one. Later on his prentice cruise on the ''Aes Triplex'' he is given "farmer" duties on the ship, that is, to take care of the hydroponic plants in the ship's air recycling section.

** Dodson's roommate saw through the test, and reasoned that it was a secret test of ''intelligence'' (weeding out the people who couldn't resist cheating even though a high test score would be damning). He acknowledges that it wouldn't catch the people who didn't figure it out but were also too honest to cheat, but figured that other tests would catch ''those'' people. (In fact, he had it backwards; the school was looking for honesty, and there were other tests to catch the bright cynics.)
** The cadets are encourage to take part in a series of debates on controversial topics. Girard Burke, who's entirely willing to voice his cynical opinion on anything, surprises his classmates by remaining silent or only voicing mundane opinions. It's clear that Burke thinks the debates are a HiddenPurposeTest, but perhaps he also missed the point of what was being tested.

* KarmaHoudini: [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Girard Burke]] is a partial example. He doesn't get the punishment he truly deserves for kidnapping (the only evidence against him is the protagonists' hearsay), but Matt does pound on him near the end of the book, and Oscar seems confident that they can get his license revoked and his passport lifted, which is a pretty bad for someone whose job is in space.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: To the point that the Space Patrol consists ''solely'' of officers, nineteen years before ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''.
** Although the Patrol is specifically backed up by a support service (the Space Marines) who are largely composed of enlisted men.

* TheParagon: John Ezra Dahlquist is one of "The Four" who are held up to be this and whose names are called at every roll call. His single handed thwarting of the "Revolt of the Colonels" at the cost to his own life early in the Patrol's history is cited as the ideal for Patrolmen. He is also literally HeroOfAnotherStory since his HeroicSacrifice is depicted in the short story "Literature/TheLongWatch" published the next year by Heinlein.

* PlanetaryRomance: The solar system and especially [[VenusIsWet the depiction of a humid, heavily jungle and swampy Venus]] is in this tradition.

* SpaceCadetAcademy: The ''PRS James Randolph'', a space ship that serves as the space academy.
** Also Hayworth Hall, the Patrol's facilities at their main Earth base at Santa Barbara Field for final selection testing of Candidates and for final polish of Cadets before Commissioning.

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: Burke tries to bribe Matt and his friends on Venus. They're not impressed.

* VenusIsWet: Venus is a humid, swampy jungle planet.

* PlanetaryRomance: The solar system and especially the depiction of a humid, heavily jungle and swampy Venus is in this tradition.

----

* KarmaHoudini: [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections Girard Burke]], apart from getting beaten up by one of the protagonists later on.
* LadyLand: When translating Oscar Jensen refers to his colleagues as female as there are no intelligent males among the Venerians.
* MildlyMilitary: While the Space Patrol has a military-inspired rank structure, it isn't intended to fight wars, but rather to prevent them.

* OneRiotOneRanger: Burke is annoyed when the Space Patrol doesn't send a warship to put down the 'native uprising'.

* TrainingFromHell: Mostly averted, aside from a scene during the initial induction when Matt is tested to see how he handles differing gravities. He finds that cadets actually set their own study pace, guided by their peer counselors.

* ScienceMarchesOn: The basics of orbital mechanics are sound, but UsefulNotes/{{Venus}} is depicted in its typical swamp habitat stereotype and the Asteroid Belt is described as a destroyed planet (which is a minor plot point later).

* NoOneGetsLeftBehind: The mission of the ''Aes Triplex'' along with several other Patrol Ships was to search for the missing ''Pathfinder'' in the asteroid belt. They find it with all hands dead but the cadets reflect that the Patrol would have brought them back alive if they hadn't killed by a meteor puncture of the ship. Later, after the cadets and their superior officer are marooned on Venus, Jensen comments that the Patrol will eventually find them but they need to work towards their own rescue since that would be expected of them.