Asteroid of Fear by Raymond Z. Gallun:
Science Fiction Inventions, Technology and Ideas

"All space was electrified as that harsh challenge rang out ... but John Endlich hesitated. For he saw beyond his own murder - saw the horror and destruction his death would unleash - and knew he dared not fight back!"

Enjoyable yarn describes the travails of an ordinary guy and his little family homesteading on the asteroid Vesta.

Although the story contains some improbable elements (like the notion that Vesta is a surface fragment of an exploded planet, but with all of its surface details intact, including alien farm buildings), it has some good science and gives a fitting impression of what it would be like to start a little farm on an asteroid. Someone has to feed those asteroid miners. Select an invention:

Airtight Tent
A temporary structure for living on an airless moon or asteroid.

Asteroid Garden
A method for building a greenhouse on a small, airless body.

Asteroid Homesteaders' School
An institution of learning where regular folks learned how to start a farm on an asteroid.

Self-Sealing Plastic
Transparent sheeting with a layer of material that would flow to staunch tiny leaks.

 

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