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"If we're going to be consistent and advocate freedom of speech we have to advocate freedom of encrypted speech too. The genie is out of the bottle, cryptologically."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Steering Shot Pistol | ||
| The simplest way to move in space, where every action has an equal and opposite reaction. |
I don't know of an earlier use of this idea, which as you see below, has many appearances in science fiction stories.
| The ship looked like a gigantic winged egg, a strange gleaming monster, in its course through space. At the blunt end a brightly shining white trail of mist was coming out.
“How do we get back?” asked Sam, after he had satisfied himself as to the shortening of the Geryon. “In the pocket of your pneumatic suit you will find a small repeating pistol,” was the reply. “Shoot it, and the recoil will put you in motion. You could also pull yourself back by means of the wire.”
 (The Steering Shot Pistol from 'The Shot into Infinity' by Otto Willi Gail) Sam followed this advice, and in a short time he was back at the ship. Reassured by the success of the “steering shot”, he began to circle about... |
| Technovelgy from The Shot Into Infinity,
by Otto Willi Gail. Published by Science Wonder Quarterly in 1929 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the propulsion gun from Venus Mines, Incorporated (1931) by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat), the Reaction Pistol from Gordon A. Giles 1937 story Diamond Planetoid, the Personal Jet Thrust from Robert Heinlein's 1948 novel Space Cadet, the Pistol 'Rocket' (1931) from Buck Rogers: 2430 AD (1931) by Nowlan and Calkin and the very clever Electrical Tether from Garrett P. Serviss' 1898 story Edison's Conquest of Mars.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Shot Into Infinity
More Ideas
and Technology by Otto Willi Gail
Tech news articles related to The Shot Into Infinity
Tech news articles related to works by Otto Willi Gail
| ISS Plagued By Leak - Again! |
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| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
