Generation ships story

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Schro

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I am looking for a generation ships story (full novel) published some time in the 1960s. The plot goes like this: a selection of people decide to construct a generation ship. I don't think there was any conflict/disaster involved). They take the names of famous scientists. After the journey begins, they gradually lose any knowledge of their parent culture and consider the ship to be the universe. An inquisitive person discovers unused airlocks and then a previously unknown part of the ship. This transpires to be the pilot's cockpit. The ship eventually automatically lands on a planet and the passengers are warned off using the ship by a warning of poison gas, in an effort to get them to colonise the new world. This book turned me on to SF and I would dearly like to find it again. If I remember correctly, a UK TV film was made of it.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Clifford D. Simak's short story 'Spacebred Generations', a.k.a. 'Target Generation', available in 'Strangers in the Universe' (1956), although I don't know whether it's turned up in any later anthologies. I found a pdf quite easily online, for what it's worth...
 
My best guess is Non-Stop (1958) by Brian Aldiss (also published as Starship.)

Other major generation ship novels are Orphans of the Sky (1963; but actually just a combination of two novellas from 1941) by Robert A. Heinlein, and Captive Universe by Harry Harrison (1969.)

Each of these novels has an article on Wikipedia with a detailed synopsis, so maybe you could figure out which one you are thinking about.
 
Victoria, I checked the online pdf of the Simak I mentioned and found the poison gas reference. The only thing from Schro's description that doesn't fit is the 'names of famous scientists' bit, unless I missed it.
 
The trouble with those three (Heinlein, Harrison, Aldiss) is that they all start generations into the flight, after the loss of information, none with the building of the ship (since I'm writing a generation ship novel which includes construction, and does not involve culture loss, this is an important detail for me. I must have read the Simak, but it hasn't left a memorable mark, and I know I've read several more generation ship novels but can't recognise that particular one.

Strange, isn't it that loss of knowledge of destination seems to hit all crews travelling to the stars at less than light speed:D
 
Thanks for all the replies, but none of them seem to fit. What about the taking of famous scientists' names (Kepler, Newton etc.)? One other thing I remember is that the controls worked by passing a hand over something, which then lit up with a small light. Sorry to be vague on this, but I last read the story in the 60s.
 
Found it! The book I was thinking of is "Seed of Light" by Edmund Cooper. I must have mixed up the details with another book after 40m years or so.
I now want to find the generation ship story that has controls which are lights in armrests activated by putting a hand over them.

Thanks to all.
 
Yet another generation story: "Voyage from Yesteryear" by James P Hogan. In this case, it was well within a single person's lifetime, and they didn't lose track of the destination.
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--Paul E Musselman
 
I think I remember a novel written about "an armrest activator located in the pilot's room where it activates the screen to display the stars (live) where in that generational ship, there's the innies? people living at the center where they are apparently governed in such a way that the fatal punishment is putting them inside a generator to power the ship? and the others are living of at the floors above where there is less protection from random space thus giving them mutations.

edit: I remember a character who has two heads who apparently kind of leads the mutants.
The Title seemed to evade me... hhmm, if those information could help someone to point out the title then good for everyone. :)
 
That last is Heinlein's "Orphans of the sky" (Universe and Common sense) Joe-Jim are two mutants who sort of share most of a body, rather than one being with two heads.
 
chrispenycate said:
That last is Heinlein's "Orphans of the sky" (Universe and Common sense) Joe-Jim are two mutants who sort of share most of a body, rather than one being with two heads.
Click to expand...

That's it! :) quite enjoyed that story even though I'm not into Generation Ships Novel.
 
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