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"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Space Lock | ||
| An airlock on a spacecraft. |
This is a very early use of this phrase.
| A quarter of an hour later the people who were to remain here on this planet saw the first of the monsters of the space rise slowly from the ground and leap swiftly forward, then, one every ten seconds, the others leapt in swift pursuit, rushing swiftly across half a world to the giant space lock that would let them out into the void. Then one at a time they passed out into the mighty sea of space, Pirates of Space! From one system, careening on its way through the void, they were sweeping out to another system, to take it, and overrun it with their people! |
| Technovelgy from The Black Star Passes,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Edmond Hamilton uses this same phrase years later in When Space Burst:
Within a few minutes, the Pioneer was poised five hundred feet above the shining surface of the deadly planet, its rocket-tubes purring just enough to hold it suspended there.
Haley and the engineer entered the keel space-lock of the ship and donned metal space suits, then opened the trap in the floor, letting the air puff out.
Compare to the inflatable air lock from Murray Leinster's 1953 novel Space Tug and to 'Doc' Smith's use of the more conventional air lock in his 1928 novel Skylark of Space. Also, see this variation on the force field idea, the pressure curtain from Niven and Pournelle's 1974 classic The Mote in God's Eye.
“Head back down to the surface, Mart, and hold the ship steady five hundred feet up,” he directed hastily. “Angus, I want you to lower me from the space-lock.”
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Black Star Passes
More Ideas
and Technology by John W. Campbell
Tech news articles related to The Black Star Passes
Tech news articles related to works by John W. Campbell
| Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars |
| Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris |
| Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand |
| Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space |
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