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"There's a tendency to think that maybe if we can just throw enough hardware at the AI problem, then evolution can take care of the rest. Certainly that's how God went about making us."
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Space travel in Niven's Known Space stories is best accomplished with one of the General Products hulls; however, space inside was typically very limited. Additional space for exercise or living was available in the form of inflatable expansion bubbles.
This item comes from the story Flatlander, published in 1967.
The bubble itself could be unfolded without air pressure using an electromagnetic field (normally used to collapse the bubble after use).
(Thanks to Winchell Chung for suggesting this item.)
An early expression of this idea is seen in this concept from Werner von Braun in the 1950's:
![]() (Von Braun flexible space station concept)
In a 1952 series of articles written in Collier's, Dr. Wernher von Braun, then Technical Director of the Army Ordnance Guided Missiles Development Group at Redstone Arsenal, wrote of a large wheel-like space station in a 1,075-mile orbit. This station, made of flexible nylon, would be carried into space by a fully reusable three-stage launch vehicle. Once in space, the station's collapsible nylon body would be inflated much like an automobile tire. See also an earlier version of this idea, the airtight tent from Raymond Z. Gallun's 1951 novella Asteroid of Fear. Compare to the space bubble from The Planet Strappers by Raymond Z. Gallun, the life-globe from The Beat Cluster (1961) by Fritz Leiber and to the Survival Bubble (Beach Ball) from Footfall (1985) by Larry Niven (w/J. Pournelle). Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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