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"What we're doing pop culturally is like burning the rain forest. The biodiversity of pop culture is really, really in danger."
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This seems like an early use of this term. The idea is that craft made for space need additional support if landing on a planetary surface, due to the gravity.
E.E. 'Doc' Smith uses the same term in Triplanetary (1934):
Again in Hotel Cosmos (1938) by Raymond Z. Gallun:
Poul Anderson liked it; he put it in The Corkscrew of Space (1956):
There was one arriving now, descending on a tail of fire some four miles away—which put it almost on the horizon. It was a bright gleam against the dark-blue sky, under the shrunken sun. As he watched, it entered its cradle...
Randall Garrett used a variant in Needler in 1957, with a nice illustration by Emsh:
A variation of the same expression, from They Never Came Back (1941) by Fritz Leiber:
Bart Harlan, standing on the cat-walk that circled the upper rim of the docking-cradle, did not immediately answer the shouted question. He clung to the thin hand rail, bracing himself against the sheets of rain which drove across the almost deserted landing field, and stared wearily down into the shadowy interior of the cradle...
Compare to splashdown from From the Earth to the Moon (1867) by Jules Verne,
landing stage from Atomic Fire (1931) by Raymond Z. Gallun,
landing on an asteroid from Murder on the Asteroid (1933) by Eando Binder,
docking cradle from They Never Came Back (1941) by Fritz Leiber,
landing-grid from Sand Doom (1955) by Murray Leinster and
landing pit from The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester. Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'The field-minder finished turning the top-soil of a two-thousand-acre field.'
Smart TVs Are Listening!
'You had to live -- did live, from habit that became instinct -- in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard...'
Police Drones In China Would Like To Have A Word With You
''OVERRIDE,' the City Fathers said suddenly, without being asked anything at all.'
Are The Thought Police Listening To Everyone All The Time?
'... they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to.'
RoboShiko! Sumo Exercises Still Good For Robots
'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
Giant Robotic Hands At Gundam Next Future Science
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
JWST Finds Bucking Centaur 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1
'... the glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.'
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