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"...the people dealing with these new technologies will still be derived from the human stock we're familiar with today."
- Charles Stross
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| Factory in the Sky | ||
| A vast manufacturing facility in space, between Mars and Jupiter. |
Situated where the riches of the solar system swirled in orbit around the sun, the Factory in the Sky made what everyone needed.
| The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space. About the thirty-odd miles of The Factory’s circumference, anchored securely to its vast metallic skin, were spaced a score or more smaller half-spheres where experimental, executive, production, personnal [sic], advertising and various other departments had their headquarters.
 ('Factory in the Sky' by Basil E. Wells) Here on the rim of the clustering asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter were the mammoth shuttle ships—luxurious globe ships for passengers—the swift cruisers of the Patrol, and the grubby little ships of the asteroid prospectors and freighters constructed, serviced and repaired at Factory in the Sky. Twenty million men, women and children lived here in the airless void, dependent for their living upon the continued construction of new and better space ships. Less than half a million of the workers were employed in the construction of the great ships; the balance worked on the hothouse worlds where vegetables, fruit and animals were grown, or in the three outer levels of The Factory where a thousand small factories leased space and produced their own specialized products. |
| Technovelgy from Factory in the Sky,
by Basil E. Wells. Published by Astonishing Stories in 1941 Additional resources -
|
Compare to orbiting factories from The Fountains of Paradise (1978) by Arthur C. Clarke.
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Tech news articles related to works by Basil E. Wells
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- Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth
| Factories In The Sky Will Surpass Those Of Earth |
| Monolith One Giant Industrial Metal 3D-printer |
| DARPA Wants 'Large Bio-Mechanical Space Structures' |
| Robot Bricklayer Or Passer-By Bricklayer? |
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'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...'
