Orphans of the Sky

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Orphans of the Sky is a 1951 science fiction novella by Robert A. Heinlein, consisting of two parts: Universe and Common Sense.

In the novella, a gigantic, cylindrical Generation Ship, the Vanguard, is cruising pilotless toward a distant solar system, inhabited by a crew that has forgotten their origins over time and lapsed into barbarism and superstition. Most crew members lead a simple life of farming, never venturing to the upper decks where the "muties" (mutants or mutineers) dwell. One day, Hugh Hoyland starts exploring and finds the astonishing secret of the ship's purpose. The rest of the story involves the struggle of the Vanguard's inhabitants to understand that they are the inhabitants not of a universe limited by metal walls but of a ship travelling across interstellar space. Two familiar Heinleinian themes are evident in the story:

the periodic necessity for conspiracy by elites to save the majority from their own irrational folly through rational skepticism, practical engineering and natural science.
the heroic necessity for colonization of the space frontier.

The novella refers to the sister ship of New Frontiers, the ship stolen by the Howard families in the story Methuselah's Children. This ship and the aftermath of this story are mentioned in passing in the novel Time Enough for Love.

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