The Silver Queen is a spaceship in Isaac Asimov's science-fiction short story Marooned off Vesta.
Description[]
The Silver Queen is presented as a commercial starliner used for interplanetary routes through the inner solar system. As described in the story, the vessel has multiple airtight compartments, standard life-support and emergency equipment appropriate to routine passenger service, and enough stores that a trapped party could subsist for a limited time. The narrative emphasizes the ship as an ordinary passenger/freighter liner of its era rather than a military or research craft.
Final Voyage[]
During a passage through the asteroid belt the ship is catastrophically damaged by meteoroid impacts and rendered a derelict in orbit about the asteroid 4 Vesta. Most of those aboard are killed; three crewmen — Mark Brandon, Warren Moore and Michael (Mike) Shea — survive in intact compartments but with severely limited life support (roughly three days’ air, about a week of food, and an abundance of water). With no conventional propulsion and little hope of prompt rescue, Brandon devises an improvised solution: by releasing the ship’s water as a directed jet (using the water as reaction mass), the survivors generate enough thrust to alter their trajectory and descend to Vesta, where they reach safety.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
"Marooned off Vesta" (1939) was the first professional short story that Asimov sold and was published in Amazing Stories magazine.