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"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
- Neal Stephenson
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| 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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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
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and Technology by Robert Heinlein
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
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| Pivotal Blackfly Electric Aircraft Lifts And Hovers |
| Tiny Flying Robot Weighs Just One Gram |
| Some Ringworld Configurations Are Stable |
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I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
'He carried on his person a triggering mechanism sensitive to his heartbeat.'
'...Anything was possible in my imaginary environment.'
'Somewhere in space, a chrome and blue automobile raced the green light of Earth.'
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair...'
