Trivia / The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr

• Completely Different Title:
  • David Starr, Space Ranger was titled Veleno per la Terra (in English, Poison for the Earth) when it was published in Italian for the Galassia magazine.
  • David Starr, Space Ranger was titled Gift vom Mars (in English, Gift from Mars) when it was published in German (multiple times).
  • Lucky Starr was used as the title for the 1981 Bastei Lubbe German translation.
• Referenced by...:
  • DC Comics's Martian Manhunter: In 1952, David Starr, Space Ranger created John Jones, the colonial Martian farmhand who becomes a heroic sidekick, and Telepathic Spacemen ancient (native) Martians who moved beneath the surface of Mars once it became uninhabitable. Martian Manhunter was created in 1955, and the titular character is named J'onn J'onzz, (he would anglicize it to John Jones as an alias) in an allusion to the work by Paul French.
  • Paul McAuley's Evening's Empires: The book's sections are all titled after classic Science Fiction stories and novels, including "Pirates of the Asteroids".
• Science Marches On: Dr Asimov wrote these stories to teach kids what the solar system is like. Twenty years after first publishing them, many aspects were proven inaccurate, so Dr Asimov included a preface to each story which gave the currently correct information. Some of which is wrong again by now.
  • Mercury — In 1955, astronomers were convinced that Mercury revolved around the sun once every 88 days, and that it had been tidally locked with the sun, presenting only one face to the Sun. However, a preface added to the novels in The '70s, talks about radar-beam reflections from the surface of Mercury in 1965, proving that Mercury rotates on its axis every 59 days.
  • Jupiter — In 1956, only 12 major satellites were known, and the magnitude of Jupiter's radiation was unknown. However, a preface added to the novels in The '70s, talks about the discoveries made by the Pioneer X probe, such as a thirteenth satellite that orbits near Adrastea (Jupiter's ninth satellite) and the enormous magnetic field Jupiter generates.
  • Saturn —
    • In 1957, only nine satellites of Saturn were known, and Mimas was the closest known satellite to Saturn. However, the preface explains that in 1967 Audouin Dollfus discovered a tenth satellite of Saturn, one that was closer to the planet than any of the others, and named it Janus. After the preface, in 1980, it was confirmed that the orbit known as Janus actually had two satellites in co-orbit. The discovery and naming of Epimetheus was back-dated in credit to Richard Walker in 1966, causing Saturn to have two moons closer than Mimas.
    • In 1957, the only planet known to have rings was Saturn. However, the preface explains that in 1977 astronomers discovered Uranus also has rings. After the preface, rings were conclusively photographed for Jupiter (1979) and Neptune (1989) by the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes.
• Similarly Named Works: Lucky Star might mean... Lucky Star, a 1929 romantic drama film, The Complete Adventures of Lucky Starr, a 1952 series of science-fiction novels, a 1983 Madonna song, Lucky Star, a 2003 comedy manga and anime, and many other things...
• Technology Marches On: The assumption that we will all use microfilm in the future is quite ironic with the proliferation of flash drives.
• What Could Have Been: Asimov was going to write a book called Lucky Starr and the Snows of Pluto, but Rings of Saturn had capped off the series rather completely and he couldn't find the inspiration to really carry out a seventh book.

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