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Science Fiction
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Okay, Verne and others have discussed getting to the moon. But once you are there, how are you going to get around?
This is not as far-fetched as you think. Skiing on sand is done right here on Earth - it's all the rage in Dubai.
![]() (Sand skiing on the dunes of Dubai) Spend the morning skiing down the high dunes, with refreshments. On the way back to Dubai, enjoy dune bashing and camel riding. Robert Heinlein also described moon skiing, an Eagle scout badge requirement, in his 1949 story Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon, published in Boy's Life.
![]() (Cover of 'Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon' by Robert Heinlein)
![]() (Moonskis in 'Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon' by Robert Heinlein)
![]() (Pulling a toboggan on the moon in 'Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon' by Robert Heinlein)
![]() (Side-step uphill skiing from 'Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon' by Robert Heinlein) Apollo 17 geologist Harrison "Jack" Schmitt actually lamented "too bad I don't have my skis!" from the mountaneous Taurus Littrow Valley. Eventually, he perfected a kind of "lunar cross-country style" that worked like this:
"In the moon's low gravity, you can ski above the moondust--and I did. Imagine swinging your arms and legs cross-country style. With each push of your toe, your body glides forward above ground. Swing, glide, swing, glide. The only marks you leave in the moondust are the toe-pushes."
![]() (Skiing on the Moon [Ulrich Lotzmann]) In his award-winning novel Dune, Frank Herbert spends a lot of time talking about how the native Fremen needed to walk across sand dunes so as not to attract the planet's giant sand worms. I wonder whether the sound of schussing would have been safe... Compare to power-skis from Selection (1964) by Ursula Le Guin. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
Epirus High-Power Microwave Defeats Drones
'...the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and Then one toppled and fell. Then another.'
Cloud Of Space Rubbish From China's Long March Rocket
'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
Living Human Neuron Biological Compute Rack
'The men are dead, but their acquired wisdom lives on and I am the beneficiary.'
Martha Stewart Approves Ojai 'Living Room On Wheels'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
Is There A Global Problem With Who Is Having Children?
'After twenty generations of shillyshallying...'
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