Space Exploration Writing Prompts

“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do Mr Bond. I’m going to stick you in a spacesuit with a radio, and strap you into one of my cars. Then, while mankind watches, I’ll launch you into space. The last thing you’ll hear before leaving this earth forever, will be their applause.”

Due to your nerdy great great great great grandfather in 2017 'buying a star' and some modern legal shenanigans you are now the proud owner of a small intergalactic empire

We finally get men on Mars and they discover an old Soviet flag placed down decades ago. The Soviets won the space race but for whatever horrifying reason didn't say anything.

There exist five universes, each one tentatively connected to the others. Each universe is defined by the ABSENCE of one of the five elements; Earth, Water, Air, Fire & Magic. Our universe is the one without magic.

Turns out humanity was alone in the universe because they were way too early to the party. Now, billions of years later aliens find a strange planet, Earth, and begin to unveil the secrets of the first intelligent species.

There is a population limit to the galaxy. Whenever one sentient creature is born, another must die. With billions of unexpected deaths over the last few centuries, the galactic counsel has found the cause; a long ignored planet where a group of bipeds can't stop reproducing.

An ancient god "cursed" you with immortality, expecting you to watch the Sun swallow the Earth. When that day comes 7.6 billion years into the future, you're living large on the other side of the galaxy.

We did it! We finally achieved FTL travel! At first, alien races seem thrilled to have a new neighbor. Then they seem terrified of us. We are the only ones to reach the stars with technology instead of magic.

The billionaire smiled as he took his first steps on the alien world. Then he took off his helmet to breathe deeply while his crew watched in horror. He never had wanted to go to space: it had all been about coming home.

You are part of a circle of scientists that have collaborated to fake the world into believing the sun was going supernova. As the generation ships carrying the rich, the flawed, the zealous, and the privileged leave Earth you decide its time to rebuild -the right way.

World War III breaks out. As each nation prepares to press the big red button, the earth trembles. Switzerland has literally broken off from earth and takes off into space to avoid the nuclear holocaust.

Humanity finally figures out faster than light travel and discover that they are completely average by galactic standard, except for one thing, our innate ability to bullshit our way out of any situation.

Magic is real, except ley lines are on a galactic scale, not a planetary one. Earth was moving through one in the era of the Ancient Egyptians and Stone Henge, again in the Middle Ages, and is about to enter another one

"You'll never rest", they said. "Eventually, you will come to hate your eternal curse", they warned. 6 billion years, 3 intergalactic voyages, and more planets than you can count later, and you're still skipping along, having the time of your life with your 'cursed' existence.

Humans found an ancient ship proving that Adam and Eve were settlers from another star system. The ship's guidance system provided a map of every planet a ship was sent to. As we visit each planet, we see that humans have evolved differently depending on the ecosystem and predators.

Space law dictates the first to discover any intelligent species in the galaxy would have absolute rights over them. It worked out fine, until Earthlings developed space travel without outside help, and “discovered” the First Civilization.

It turns out humanity was the first, and only spacefaring species to master the atom. After a horrific galactic war, humanity had to bring out its nuclear weapons, to the shock and horror of the rest of the galaxy.

You lose a dare at an airport and are forced to ask an employee for a ticket to the farthest destination. To your surprise, they quietly nod and give you a single ticket with letters you don't recognize.

A team of researchers in a submarine are caught in a huge storm. The submarine submerges until the storm passes. When they resurface, they can’t get a fix on their location or find land. When night falls, there are two moons in the sky and the constellations are completely unfamiliar.

It's the year 2851. Humanity develops interstellar travel and begins to explore the Milky Way galaxy in search for life. However, much to everyone's surprise, instead of alien life we find... Earth's biosphere complete with humans, repeated over and over at different stages of progress.

The Reapers come every 50 thousand years to wipe out organic life that has reached the stars however this time, this time they arrive at the heaviest resistance they have every encountered. In the grim darkness of the future they find 40k.

When humans die, their ghosts are anchored to the place of their death, but are unaffected by planetary orbit or rotation, left behind as Earth and the galaxy rotate. Metaphysical archaeologists are tracking this trail of spirits across the stars, seeking the ghost of the first human.

You have a coin that allows you unlimited wealth as long as no one sees it. You put it between your Tesla’s car seat and send it into space. One day you run out of money.

You are on the first manned mission to the surface of Mars. One of your numerous objectives is to find and recover Opportunity, the lost rover. Upon finding it however, a memorial and a message is etched in stone next to it, “To the one who gave me company, Rest Well, Old Friend.”

Humans left Earth a long time ago. In their place, dogs have evolved to be the new sentient species, but they never lost their love of humankind. Their technology has finally caught up to space travel, and they take to the stars in search of their human precursors.

FTL travel is very expensive, so humanity creates a web of hyperlanes between systems, that speed up time inside them, making travel cheaper. You enter a malfunctioning hyperlane. When you leave it, you find a galaxy with no humans, full of alien races, that see your kind as ancient precursors.

A fleet of spaceships land on earth. Each filled with humans from 2.6 million years ago. They were more advanced than we ever knew, and a some fled earth to escape the coming ice age. They've travelled the galaxies, failing to find a new home. Now they're back to claim their planet...

We finally get men to Mars and discover an old Soviet flag there. The Soviets won the space race but for whatever horrifying reason didn’t say anything.

After thousands of years on a generation ship sent out to colonize the universe, nobody alive on board the ship believes in the "myth" of Planet Earth anymore. Until they receive the first transmission from Earth in hundreds of years...

Every year, the Mars Curiosoty Rover sings itself happy birthday. You are a NASA technician that typically monitors its system. Today, you heard a small, quiet voice singing along with it.