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"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| Rocket Side Tubes | ||
| An early description of attitude jets, course correction by small emissions of gas. |
This is an early use of this concept, usually called a reaction control system (RCS); it's a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control.
| Left alone in the pilot-house, Evans sat at the control-board with eyes glancing from one to another of the recording dials above it. Now and then he depressed a firing-lever, firing one of the rocket’s side tubes to keep it from leaving its proper space-lane, but for the most part the great craft hurtled steadily onward in its course, and he occupied himself in contemplating through the windows the moon’s bright sphere and the dazzling light-patches on it that marked the position of the lunar cities. |
| Technovelgy from Evans of the Earth-Guard,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Air Wonder Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the emergency corrective rockets from The Emperor of the Stars (1931) by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat) and the handheld personal rocket jet from Space Cadet (1948) by Robert Heinlein.
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Tech news articles related to works by Edmond Hamilton
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| Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail? |
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'You are who we say you are, Dr. Dakin,' Turner said.'
'It's area, and its consequent light-gathering capacity, was many times greater than any rigid mirror...'
'Tell me your torments,' the Padre said, in an elderly voice marked with compassion.
'...a slender-legged tripod surmounted by a spherical body no larger than a football.'
'... making the point that their likenesses, every move they made, were being transmitted.'
'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
'...to build up a video picture would require, say, ten million decisions every second. Mike, you're so fast I can't even think about it. But you aren't that fast.'
'The area affected was five hundred kilometres across, and perfectly circular.'
