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"This is a predictive tool I've used: There are goals we've sought for ten thousand years, and we'll go on seeking them. Instant transport and travel, immortality (or at least longevity and miracle cures.), instant learning …"
- Larry Niven
 |
| Spaceport | ||
| A location on the surface of a planet used for launching vehicles into space. |
| The space-ports at the three great cities, were, of course, occupied or blockaded by the Tellurian fleets; and Doane was obliged to make his bases of operations the lonely craters that once had been pirate strongholds. |
| Technovelgy from The Birth of a New Republic,
by M. Breuer (w/J. Williamson). Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
This word quickly became the standard term. However, even years later, the term was sometimes hyphenated, as in Asimov's 1951 novel Foundation. "His name is nothing... He followed you from the space-port."
Consider this use in The First Martian (1932) by Eando Binder:
To enhance their sales, certain combines of the sharks
put up signs and billboards:
“This marks the spot where the great Martian Space
Port will be built. Reliable backing. Buy stock now
and realize millions before a year’s time,” and accom-
panying it, would be a vivid, florid picture of a gigantic
space-ship, or perhaps a grotesque Martian, beckoning
and urging.
Compare to Earthport from Cordwainer Smith's 1950 story the Ballad of Lost C'Mell and don't forget the launching facility from Jules Verne's 1867 blockbuster From the Earth to the Moon.
An era of “wildcat speculation,” far transcending that
of the Civil War Period, set in and the gullible public
bought worthless stock from convincing and voluble professional sharks, for Martian-Earthian Freight Lines,
Inter-Space Express Co.'s, and Planetary Service Lines,
etc.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Birth of a New Republic
More Ideas
and Technology by M. Breuer (w/J. Williamson)
Tech news articles related to The Birth of a New Republic
Tech news articles related to works by M. Breuer (w/J. Williamson)
Spaceport-related
news articles:
- Britain To Build Spaceport, First In Europe
| Lava Tubes On Moon And Mars |
| SpaceX EVA Spacesuit Tested By Polaris Dawn Crew |
| ESA To Build Moon Bases Brick By Printed LEGO Brick |
| FLOAT Levitating Train On The Moon ala Clarke |
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'If the biological robots were not living creatures, they were certainly very good imitations.'
"Everybody and his dog, it seemed, wanted to live out in the country; transportation and communication were no longer isolating factors."
'... the new typewriter that could be talked to, and which transposed the spoken sound into typed words.'
'... underneath they consisted of networks of cooling tubes against the skin.'
'My cars talk to one another. I have no doubt about it...'
'... the imprint of her image on the telephoto cell.'
