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"Real science opens windows for us to look through. We're right at the footsteps of the most interesting scientists around."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Sky-Bike | ||
| A human-powered floating bicycle built for use in lunar sports. |
Sports on the Moon are inevitable.
| When Natasha came in to take her place, she had her own single assistant, this one carrying what looked like a bicycle without wheels but with flimsy, almost gossamer-like wings. There was music for her, too - if it was the Sri Lankan anthem, that was news to Ranjit, who hadn't known there was one - but it was almost drowned out by the yells of the spectators on her side of the tube.
The yelling kept up while the handlers attached the racers to their machines - Piper Dugan suspended from his hydrogen tank, with his hands and feet free to pedal, Natasha seated at a 45-degree angle on the saddle of her sky-bike. The music stopped. The yelling dwindled away. There was a moment of near silence…and then the sharp crack of the starter's pistol. At first Dugan's blimp surged horizontally forward while Natasha's sky-bike dropped half a dozen metres before she could get it up to speed. Then she began to overtake her competitor. |
| From The Last Theorem,
by Arthur C. Clarke (w/Pohl). Published by Harper Voyager in 2008 Additional resources -
|
The reader may wish to compare this item to the lunocycle by Robert Heinlein from The Rolling Stones, Storer-Gulls Wings by Robert Heinlein from The Menace from Earth and the low-gravity velodrome by William Gibson from Neuromancer.
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