Rendezvous with Rama

Effects on science and history

The initial search program that detects Rama in the first two chapters of the book, Project Spaceguard, is a program to detect near-Earth objects on Earth-impact trajectories, initiated after a fictional disastrous asteroid strikes Italy, destroying Padua and Verona, and sinking Venice. A real Spaceguard project, named after the project in Rendezvous, was initiated some years later. After interest in the dangers of asteroid strikes was heightened by a series of Hollywood disaster movies, the United States Congress gave NASA authorization and funding to support Spaceguard.

Related Topics:
Near-Earth objects - Trajectories - Italy - Padua - Verona - Venice - Spaceguard - Hollywood - Disaster movies

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