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
"What television does is rent us friends and relatives who are quite satisfactory. This is quite something, to rent artificial friends and relatives right inside the house."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Space Placers | ||
| Miners who use placer mining techniques adapted from Earth geology. |
A fascinating description of Saturn's rings from the standpoint of a mining geologist.
| In the outer rings of Saturn worked space placers, gathering to earth's wealth the valuable shards of what had once been satellites. |
| From The Day We Celebrate,
by Nelson S. Bond. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
In geology, a placer deposit or placer is an accumulation of minerals formed by gravity separation during sedimentary processes. The name comes from the Spanish word placer meaning "alluvial sand".
The part that I find fascinating is that the author implies that in the rings of Saturn there could be a useful separation of minerals or materials caused by gravity over millions of years.
Fans of Mark Twain of course remember the wonderful comparison of placer mining with pocket mining from his excellent 19th century novel Roughing It.
Compare to harvesting Saturn's rings from Alfred Bester's 1978 novel The Computer Connection.
See also asteroid mining from Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss,
asteroid mining (blasting) from Asteroid of Gold (1932) by Clifford Simak, the
meteor miner from Salvage in Space (1933) by Jack Williamson,
asteroid claim law from Jurisdiction (1941) by Nat Schachner, the
asteroid mining robot from Catch That Rabbit (1944) by Isaac Asimov, the
asteroid mine from Love Among the Robots (1946) by Emmett McDowell, and
asteroid metal from The Mechanical Monarch (1958) by E.C. Tubb.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Day We Celebrate
More Ideas
and Technology by Nelson S. Bond
Tech news articles related to The Day We Celebrate
Tech news articles related to works by Nelson S. Bond
Space Placers-related
news articles:
- Saturn's Rings To Vanish, Let's Mine Them While We Can
| Capture Asteroids In A Bag |
| Space 'Hurricane' Has Been Seen |
| Sole Morphing Astronaut Boots - A New Pair Of Moon Boots? |
| Mercury Capsule Ablative Shielding |
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.
|
'... sweating, heat-blistered engineers at every interplanetary radiograph station on three planets.'
'The huge plow... seemed to shake itself - and began to move back southward.'
'... he went to the hall closet to get his pith helmet and his mandatory cooling-unit.'
'We still use people at the main gates, but here it's an automated sentry.'
'The single sheet he held, and even the words and signatures upon it, were all integral parts of a single giant molecule...'
