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"If you don't care about science enough to be interested in it on its own, you shouldn't try to write hard science fiction."
- Frederik Pohl
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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
| Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug |
| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
| The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds |
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'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
