astronavigator n.
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1933
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D. D. Sharp
bibliography
While Grinstead commanded the ship himself, he had been fortunate enough in securing Captain Halsey, the noted astro-navigator, for his first mate.
Messenger from Space in Wonder Stories Jan. 630/1 -
1941
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Eric Frank Russell
bibliography
The stunt was a theoretical one frequently debated by mathematicians and astro-navigators, and often used by writers in stories. But this time it was to be the real thing. The idea is to build up all the velocity that can be got, and at the same time to angle into the path of an elongated elliptical orbit resembling that of a comet. In theory, the vessel might then skim the Sun so fast that it would swing like a pendulum far out to the opposite side of the orbit whence it had come.
Jay Score in Astounding Science-Fiction May 95/1 -
1942
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Robert Moore Williams
bibliography
He looked at the astro-navigator. Ron Val wasn’t angry. Nor was he mutinous. He wasn’t challenging authority. He was just scared.
Planet of the Gods in Amazing Stories Dec. 163/2 -
1960
Mark Clifton
bibliography
Sure, it was only a three-man crew—himself, a flight engineer, an astro-navigator.
Eight Keys to Eden (1965) 22 -
1979
Stanisław Lem
bibliography
Unable to sleep, he opened a volume of Irving’s memoirs—of astronavigator fame—and read until his eyes began to burn.
tr. S. LemTales of Pirx the Pilot (1990) 198 -
2000
Hilari Bell
bibliography
But if she learned little more about anomaly l, she did find out that Ravi, as well as an astronavigator and a tailor, was a practicing Yogi.
Navohar 156 -
2001
Dan Abnett
bibliography
The admiral’s astronavigators have finished plotting the course of the heretic fleet.
Xenos 259 -
2003
Peter David
bibliography
Amazon’s standard controls lacked the fourth-dimensional modeling of the holograph, but McHenry might be the best astronavigator in Starfleet.
No Limits 202 -
2015
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Jean Johnson
bibliography
‘How far off are we?’ Robert asked Ayinda. ‘Just a moment, just a moment…seven light-seconds. We overshot our mark,’ the astronavigator told him.
Terrans 70
Research requirements
antedating 1933
Earliest cite
D. D. Sharp, in Wonder Stories
Research History
Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a 2003 cite from Peter David's "No Limits".Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a 2001 cite from Dan Abnett's "Xenos".
Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a 2000 cite from Hilari Bell's "Navohar"
Michael R.N. Dolbear submitted a cite from a 1990 reprint of a 1979 translation by Louis Iribarne of Stanislaw Lem's "Tales of Pirx the Pilot"
Douglas Winston submitted a 1965 cite for "astro-navigator" from an Eric Frank Russell collection "Men, Martians and Machines"; which Mike Christie verified in its 1941 first publication in "Jay Score".
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a Project Gutenberg etext of Robert Moore Williams' "Planet of the Gods" (original print version from Amazing Stories, December 1942); Jesse Sheidlower verified it in the original publication.
The OED has astro-navigator (1949), but only in the sense of a an air pilot, or automatic air-piloting machine, using the observation of the stars for calculation of position: we are looking for one who plots positions and calculates courses in space.
Last modified 2022-01-21 16:19:34
In the compilation of some
entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
in OED.