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"It was my preferred entertainment when I was a kid, so when I set out to be a writer, it was perfectly natural that I should write the sort of stories that I used to enjoy reading."
- John Brunner
 |
| Spaceplane (Clarke-class) | ||
| An inexpensively powered flight to low earth orbit. |
| Building One's doors slid open ponderously when Prince Harry pressed the button on the pedestal, somewhat predictably a band struck up the 'Zarathustra' theme, and the Clarke-class spaceplane emerged into the afternoon sunlight, escorted by a troupe of engineers in spotless white overalls. It had a swept delta planform with a fifty-metre span, sixty metres long; the metalloceramic hull was an all-over frost-white, except for the scarlet Dragonflight escutcheons on the fin. Three streamlined cylindrical nacelles blended seamlessly with the underbelly, air-scoop ramps closed; reaction-control thruster clusters on the nose and around the wedge-shaped clamshell doors at the rear were masked by protective covers, remove before flight tags dangling.
Julia clapped along with everyone else, impressed despite herself. The spaceplane was giga-conductor powered, the first of its kind, capable of lifting fifty tonnes into orbit without burning a single hydrocarbon molecule to injure the diseased atmosphere any further. |
| Technovelgy from A Quantum Murder,
by Peter F. Hamilton. Published by Tor in 1998 Additional resources -
|
It was efficient in terms of the cost of space flight:
Compare to the shuttle from Stars are Styx (1950) by Theodore Sturgeon, the shuttle ship and Winged Rocket Shuttle from Heinlein's 1951 novel Between Planets and JAL shuttle from Gibson's 1984 novel Neuromancer.
Thanks to Fred Kiesche for pointing this out.
"As it says quite clearly in your information kit, operating costs for the Clarke-class spaceplane work out a four hundred pounds New Sterling per ton lifted into low Earth orbit."
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from A Quantum Murder
More Ideas
and Technology by Peter F. Hamilton
Tech news articles related to A Quantum Murder
Tech news articles related to works by Peter F. Hamilton
Spaceplane (Clarke-class)-related
news articles:
- Could Increased Space Rocketry Damage The Ozone Layer?
| 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.'
