Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"...if you want to know what your future looks like, don't waste your time on Analog; read Time magazine. We are already saturated in the future. "
- Peter Watts
 |
| Space Platform | ||
| The Space Platform for Checking Aggression is a military orbital weapons platform. |
The Space Platform was new at the time of the novel. It housed a New Weapon that made the H-bomb obsolete. When used, it would create a "pyre in the characteristic shape of an artichoke."
| We had arranged a radio hookup with the space platform, a gadget the Army had succeeded in establishing six hundred miles up, in the regions of the sky beyond the pull of gravity. The army, after many years of experimenting with rockets, had not only got the platform established but had sent two fellows there in a Spaceship, and also a liberal supply of the New Weapon.
The whole civilized world had read about this achievement, which swung the balance of power so heavily in our favor, and everyone was aware that the damned platform was wandering around in its own orbit at a dizzy distance from the Earth and not subject to gravitational pull. |
| Technovelgy from The Morning of the Day They Did It,
by E.B. White. Published by The New Yorker Magazine in 1950 Additional resources -
|
As far as I know, this is the first use of the phrase "space platform," and a very early description of the idea of an orbital weapons platform.
The Salyut space stations launched in the early 1970's by the USSR were the first manned artificial satellites in orbit. The Marshall Space Flight Center worked on what it called the "Science & Applications Space Platform" (SASP) in the late 1970's. MSFC envisioned a series of relatively “platforms” for different missions.
In the 1980's, President Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI); it was originally designed as orbital anti-ICBM defense system in which a laser would intercept incoming ICBMs as they would approach high altitudes. This proposal was later scrapped in favor of ground-based systems.
At present, the Outer Space Treaty (in force since 1967) and the Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty II (SALT II - in force since 1979) prohibit the placement of weapons of mass destruction in space.
Compare to the space station from Flaming Frontiers (1934) by Bernard Buley.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Morning of the Day They Did It
More Ideas
and Technology by E.B. White
Tech news articles related to The Morning of the Day They Did It
Tech news articles related to works by E.B. White
Space Platform-related
news articles:
- Russians Plan New Space Platform
- Will A Steel Umbrella Stop Russia?
- Blue Ring Spacecraft Platform Concept From Blue Origin
| Beautiful Visualization of Dawn Spacecraft |
| Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars |
| Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris |
| Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'So, Ender, we will now begin your education.'
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
'Forget the head atop it, the legs below, feet, arms, hands. It compels erasure.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
'The thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference...'
'Wandering mines, you took them out on the edge of the desert, set them down and activated them.'
'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...'
