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"Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done and why. Then do it."
- Robert Heinlein
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| Ten Million Mile Searchlight | ||
| You need to see where you're going. |
One of the many precursors to the idea of laser light.
| Even to the last moment when she settled into her dock upon Inferno, the Planetaria was controlled by the force originally set in motion. And, though the dock was still invisible, Inferno, with her lava rocks and salt seas, was unfolding momentarily.
Donald shuddered with horror as he saw that hideous coast, studded with crater-pits, in the light of the ten million mile searchlight at the Planetaria’s nose. That concentration of a searchlight into a single beam that suffered no absorption outside the limits of atmosphere had been one of the innumerable discoveries that had made interplanetary travel possible. |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on Inferno,
by Victor Rousseau. Published by Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
This is also a precursor to the idea of a long-range sensor scan. Fans of Star Trek: TOS have been eagerly awaiting long range sensor scans that can detect the components of an atmosphere without needing to send crew members in red shirts to gather samples.
(Spock long range sensor scan)
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'Compounds devised by the biochemists for the rapid building of bone...'
'The car faltered as the external command came to brake...'
'It is about the size and shape of a kitchen stool, gyro-stabilized...'
'The greatest problem of all was the elimination of the human element of braking together with its inevitable time lag.'
'Across the ancient sea floor a dozen tall, blue-sailed Martian sand ships floated, like blue smoke.'
'Power could be compressed thus into an inch-square cube of what looked like blue-white ice'
