Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"I feel like I've been very fortunate in that I've stuck like a burr to the dog-leg of the next generation of nerdism. I've been carried into the XXIth century on Bill Gates' pants-cuff."
- William Gibson
 |
| Spacecraft Ejection Seat | ||
| An ejection seat for spacecraft, to be used in the event of problems during launch. |
This is a relatively early mention of the idea of an ejection seat for a spacecraft.
| "Look, Joe! We checked everything last night. We checked it again this morning. I even caught Mike polishing the ejection seats, because there wasn't anything else to make sure of!"
Joe managed a smile. The ejection seats were assuredly the most unlikely of all devices to be useful today. They were supposedly life-saving devices. If the ship came a cropper on take-off, the four of them were supposed to use ejection-seats like those supplied to jet pilots. They would be thrown clear of the ship and ribbon-parachutes might open and might let them land alive. But it wasn't likely. Joe had objected to their presence. If a feather dropped to Earth from a height of 600 miles, it would be falling so fast when it hit the atmosphere that it would heat up and burn to ashes from pure air-friction. It wasn't likely that they could get out of the ship if anything went wrong. |
| From Space Tug,
by Murray Leinster. Published by Not known in 1953 Additional resources -
|
Ejection seats for aircraft were first used in Germany in 1938; they were perfected during the second world war. As far as I know, the only ejection seats formally designed and used in spacecraft were installed in the Soviet Vostok craft and the American Gemini craft. (See a picture of the Vostok spacecraft ejection seat.)
The earliest flights of the Space Shuttle also had installed ejector seats; these were removed to make room for more crew.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 1 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Space Tug
More Ideas
and Technology by Murray Leinster
Tech news articles related to Space Tug
Tech news articles related to works by Murray Leinster
Spacecraft Ejection Seat-related
news articles:
- Launch-Abort Motor For NASA: The Next Generation
| Elon Musk Tweets Versions Of Clarke's Operation Cleanup |
| Espresso Telescope Searches For Exoplanets |
| Manned Maneuvering Unit From 1984 |
| Astronaut Gets Younger In Space |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Very tiny pseudo insects that... can unite to form a superordinate system.'
Great, an autonomous slamhound. It is cute, though.
'The smoky globe, hung in the vault, was shot with colored light...'
'The electric cook was stirring empty nothing in a pan, with a zeal worthy a dozen eggs.'
