The idea that science fiction literature contained innovative technological ideas which could possibly be brought to a point of development with either today’s technology or possibly technology which was just around the corner was the driving force behind an European Space Agency (ESA) study entitled Innovative Technologies from Science Fiction (ITSF).   David. Raitt,  Patrick Gyger, Arthur Woods * Paper IAF-01-IAA.8.2.02 presented at the 52 International Astronautical Congress 1-5 Oct 2001 / Toulouse, France   Abstract Ideas play an important role in science and technology, even when they do not have an immediately testable aspect, and writers have predicted satellites, [...]