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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
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| Space Tugs | ||
| Early use of familiar ocean vehicle in space. |
How to move more cargo space-ward? Space tugs. This is not the earliest use of this term. See space tug from Murder on the Asteroid (1933) by Eando Binder.
| Martiacast VXV calling Vanguard. Can now observe the Starider. You've permission to enter the sphere of Mars to make contact with vessel. Are ordering out space tugs. |
| Technovelgy from Describe a Circle,
by Eric Frank Russell. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1942 Additional resources -
|
Murray Leinster, in his 1953 story Space Tug, made great use of this idea:
He grinned at them. The Chief raised his eyebrows. Haney turned his head to stare. Joe said exuberantly: "They've been talking about arming ships with guided missiles to fight with. Too heavy, of course. But—if we could handle guided missiles, why couldn't we handle drones?"[Pg 97]
The three of them gaped at him. Sally said, startled, "But—but, Joe, I didn't——"
"We've got plenty of hulls!" said Joe. Somehow he still looked astonished at what he'd made of Sally's perfectly obvious comment. "Mike's arranged for that! Make—say—six of 'em into drones—space barges. Remote-controlled ships. Control them from one manned ship—the tug! We'll ride that! Take 'em up to the Platform exactly like a tug tows barges. The tow-line will be radio beams. We'll have a space-tow up, and not bother to bring the barges back! There won't be any landing rockets! They'll carry double cargo! That's the answer! A space tug hauling a tow to the Platform!"
See also the tug Marcus Garvey from Neuromancer by William Gibson.
Sally's just gotten the real answer! The answer is for ships to go up to the Platform and not come back!"
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'Once in the very first weeks of the war, before everyone had been evacuated from the surface...'
'For a while your colonists will have to come up to the [orbital] Hospital...'
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'
'Henry... assumed the curious absent look of a robot talking on the TBR circuits.'
'The king, an old hand in the running of tyrannies, instantly grasped the directions...'
'...a hemispherical force field enclosing his head.'
