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"I kind of take it for granted that our great-grandchildren will regard us as a sort of precursor species. That they won't think of us as human and if we could see them, we probably wouldn't think of them as human either."
- William Gibson
 |
| Lunar Ice Mining | ||
| The practice of mining for ice on the moon. |
In the novel, water could be found by mining on the Moon. The habit of clipped speech Russian style is seen in the words of the narrator.
| One shy little fellow with bloodshot eyes of old-time drillman stood up. "I'm an ice miner," he said. "Learned by trade doing time for Warden like most of you. I've been on my own thirty years and done okay... I should say did do okay... because today you have to listen farther out or deeper down to find ice.
"That's okay, still ice in The Rock and a miner expects to sound for it..." |
| Technovelgy from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by GP Putnam in 1966 Additional resources -
|
This is not the first reference to the idea of mining ice on the moon; I don't know if there are earlier references in science fiction - readers?
The possibility of ice in the floors of polar lunar craters was first suggested by scientists in 1961 by Caltech researchers Kenneth Watson, Bruce C. Murray, and Harrison Brown. The first scientific suggestion that water ice existed on the lunar surface came in 1994; Clementine, a military space probe, beamed radar energy onto the lunar surface in such a way as to bounce it to radar stations on Earth. Analysis appeared to show that the echoes were consistent with an icy surface as opposed to a rocky surface.
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Tech news articles related to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Lunar Ice Mining-related
news articles:
- 'Significant Amount' Of Lunar Water Found
- Will We Mine The Moon For Ice?
- Texas-Sized Ice Slab Found On Mars
- Subsurface Martian Ice Slabs Piece Of Cake For Miners
| Tornyol Microdrone Kills Mosquitoes |
| PLATO Spacecraft, Hunter Of Habitable Planets, Now Ready |
| Did The Yautja Have These First? |
| Jetson ONE Air Races Begin, Can Air Polo Be Far Behind? |
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'The observation vehicle was of that peculiar variety used in conveying a large number of people across rough terrain.'
'The real border was defended by... a swarm of quasi-independent aerostats.'
'I ... set my automatic astronomical instruments to searching for a habitable planet.'
'...haven't you a section of the factory where only robot labor is employed?'
'... oblongs were all over the floor and surfaces.'
