The Cold Equations

Godwin’s idea of space as a frontier ties in with notions of frontiering already present in American culture, in relation to White, European settlers’ conquest of the West during the 19th century. Godwin echoes the vocabulary of American colonialism, referring to “old Earth and the new worlds of the frontier” (Location 8463). Thus, while Earth is analogous to what the White settlers saw as the known world of Europe, the ever-expanding space frontier is like America in the 19th century. The American West, which was given the epithet “wild”, was an unpredictable place for the colonists, who had to face off challenges from nature as well as indigenous Americans. Many would-be settlers died in the attempt. The tension between the possibility for expansion and prosperity, and the danger that was part of the conquest of the West, is matched in Godwin’s idea of a space frontier where the laws “must, of necessity, be as hard and relentless as the environment that gave them birth” (Location 8523). This new territory is run with maximum efficiency and minimum leniency. For example, the pilot’s EDS has barely enough fuel for him to complete his mission; it cannot sustain any additional weight without disastrous consequences.