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"...a market economy is essentially a genetic algorithm for solving resource allocation problems..."
- Charles Stross
 |
| Meteor Blasters | ||
| Energy beams that would destroy space debris or rocks that lay in the path of a spacecraft. |
How to deal with space debris, with those rocks in space that popped up out of nowhere?
| "...Thank God for the blasters!"
The blasters are those beams of ravening destruction which take care of recalcitrant meteorites in a ship's course when the deflectors can't handle them. They are not designed as weapons, but they can serve as pretty good ones. They can go into action at five thousand miles, and draw on the entire power output of a whole ship. With automatic aim and a traverse of five degrees, a ship like the Llanvabon can come very close to blasting a whole through a small-sized asteroid which gets in the way. |
| From First Contact,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Street and Smith Co. in 1945 Additional resources -
|
If you're wondering who had the idea of meteor-spotting radar, follow the link.
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Meteor Blasters-related
news articles:
- Space Station Gets Shielding, Not Blasters
| NASA's LADEE Enters Lunar Orbit |
| Nuclear Interceptors Designed For Planetary Protection |
| SpaceX Grasshopper Divert Video |
| Ultrasonic Noise Betrays ISS Leaks |
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"They were half way home when a single flyer, hopping free in a copter harness, approached the little parade."
'...moving with such drifting ease that it was like a single solid cloud of black-grey smoke blown at him in silence.' Almost.
