Planets of Honour

Our featured planets are the ice giants Neptune and Uranus. These distant worlds have only been visited once, by Voyager 2 in the 1980s, although NASA, ESA and the Chinese National Space Administration all have missions at the initial proposal stage, with potential launch dates in the next two decades. We’ll also discuss depictions of Neptune and Uranus, together with their moons, in speculative fiction, both literature and media SF.

Ice Giants naturally led us to think of Frost Giants – hence Satellite 9 has a Norse theme. Key committee roles are named after a member of the Jötun with appropriate skills and our convention logo is a space-faring Viking longship. The important influence of mythology on speculative fiction will be covered in programme items.