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"There's a poetry in the materials we use to construct our world of artifacts; it speaks of our long history as a technological species."
- William Gibson
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| Spinning Pressurized Drum | ||
| Put a spin on just a part of a space station. |
This is an early example of this idea; put a spin on just a portion of your space station for artificial gravity.
| But most importantly it was a freight and passenger transfer station in space, the place where short-range winged rockets from Earth met the space liners that plied between the planets. For this purpose, it had fueling tanks, machine shops, repair cages that could receive the largest liners and the smallest rockets, and a spinning, pressurized drum - "Goddard House" - which provided artificial gravity and Earth atmosphere for passengers and for the permanent staff of Circum-Terra. Goddard Hotel stuck out from the side of Circum-Terra like a cartwheel from a pile of junk. The hub on which it turned ran through its center and protruded out into space. It was to this hub that a ship would couple its passenger tube when discharging or loading humans. |
| From Between Planets,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1951 Additional resources -
|
Fans will note that this is an "enclosed" example of what Jack Williamson called a city of space in 1931 and Dan Simmons called a can city in 1989.
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These drones can provide situational awareness beyond visual line-of-sight capability.
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'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
