Robots of Saturn - the Fifth Dig Allen Space Explorer Adventure

This penultimate adventure of Dig Allen, Space Explorer brings us one step closer to the final book in the series.  We have visited Mercury, Venus, Mars, the asteroid belt, and Jupiter, and now, in this fifth book, author Joseph Greene takes us on a trip to Saturn - or, more specifically, the rings of Saturn.  Greene offers a great dedication at the beginning of the book, "To the young people whoa re reading stories of space today, and who will on the moon tomorrow."  Since this book was published in 1962, Greene and his readers were still seven years away from man actually walking on the moon; thus, his dedication was more prophetic than he likely ever knew.  Greene lived until 1990, so he was alive to see a number of trips into space and the moon, and one has to wonder if he ever looked back at his science fiction stories and realized just how far-fetched many of them were in light of what science was discovering about our solar system and the planets in it.

 

Robots of Saturn is certainly a dead-on title for this book, since the story deals with exactly that - robots being used to mine the rings of Saturn.   When Dig and his friends get a call from Dr. Barry (the twins' father) asking for their help, they head out immediately.  What they learn is that Dr. Barry is heading an expedition to the rings of Saturn, where they will mine some very rare minerals that cannot be found elsewhere - minerals that can be used to create an indestructible metal that can withstand even the heat and deadly radiation of the sun itself!  But the only way to mine the minerals is through a new technology that allows man to interface with robots - in other words, they can transfer their minds and essence into a robot that they can then "live" through to do work a normal man cannot!  Professor Norwyn is the scientist who has developed these robots, and Greg and Maxie are the two space men who have volunteered to transfer themselves into the robots to mine the rings.  Needless to say, there is trouble when robot disappears, and it seems someone is out to sabotage the entire mining operation!

 

Published in 1962, one wonders if author Joseph Greene got some of his ideas for these robots from the great sci-fi author, Isaac Asimov.  Asimov introduced what is known as the "Three Laws of Robotics" in his 1942 short story, "Runaround," which include (1) a robot may not injure a human being or allow a human being to be harmed; (2) a robot must obey human orders except where such order would conflict with the first rule; and (3) a robot must protect its own existence as long as that protection does not conflict with the first two laws.  Greene, in this story, sets up very similar rules, but expands it to five rules:  (1) a robot shall not harm a human being; (2) a robot shall not permit a human being to be harmed; (3) a robot shall not permit a human to bring harm to himself; (4) a robot must obey all orders given by a human unless it conflicts with the first three rules; and (5) a robot must protect itself, unless it conflicts with the first four rules.  As you can see, these are basically the same rules established 20 years prior to Asimov in his short story.

 

Greene does provide some scientific detail (at least, what was known at that time) regarding the various rings of Saturn.  Most of the story, however, takes place in the Central Ring and the Cassini Space-Gap that separates the outer ring from the next one heading towards the planet (p. 61).  As it turns out, these facts are accurate.  The "A" and "B" rings are the brightest, separated by the "Cassini division."  Both of these rings are made up of chunks of water ice, some only an inch in diameter, while others are larger than buildings.  Now, in the book, The Cassini gap is described as being "3,360 miles wide" (p. 61); however, in reality, scientists have determined the separation is actually more like 2,290 miles (4,700 km) wide.  That's still a large distance to cross!

 

The story is adventure from the first chapter to the last, as Dig and Ken have their turn in the robots, only to learn that the saboteur has no problem with trapping them with the ice of the inner ring, or even worse - electrifying the robots to destroy their brains, and thus killing the two boys!  The discovery of more robots (even after the Professor indicated that there were no more built yet) only makes the situation worse, as Dr. Barry and the boys are left to wonder - is someone controlling the robots, or have they gone rogue and are following their own directive?

 

This book sees the return of Myron Strauss as the illustrator (he provided the illustrations in the first book).  Strauss's art is just as good as it was for the first book; however, there are much fewer illustrations, and most of the ones in this book are of the robots - we get very few illustrations that show human characters.  There is no indication who provided the cover art, but since there is no other reference, we can assume that Strauss provided the cover art (since the last book specifically indicated there was a different cover artist than the interior artist).  The only thing I find odd about the cover is Saturn with its rings are shown in the background, but the boys with the two robots are some distance away in the foreground.  No scene like this appears anywhere in the book.  I assume it was simply an artistic way to show the entirety of Saturn, while also showing the main characters and the robots.

 

Everyone that has praised this series definitely has had reason to do so.  I believe the stories have gotten better and stronger as they series progresses (even if some of the sci-fi aspects are way beyond believable at times - but, hey, written back in the early '60s, after coming through a decade of sci-fi schlock at the theaters, what can we expect?).  It's rather sad that the next book is also the last.  One must wonder, if the series continued, would we have seen trips to Neptune and Pluto, and maybe even beyond?

 

RATING:  9 deadly bolt bombs out of 10 for a crazy-fun robot adventure filled with space-faring feats of bravery and quick-thinking, with just a smidge of mystery to boot!