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"When you're making a revolution in cyberspace, things look rather different from the way the 1980s cyberpunks wrote it."
- Charles Stross
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| Joy-boat Junior | ||
| A private space yacht, capable of suborbital journeys. |
At this point in Heinlein's Future History, humanity had conquered space to the point of colonizing the Moon, Venus and Mars. A faster-than-light drive had not yet been invented; spacecraft worked in a manner similar to those in use today, in that the craft was pushed forward by throwing mass the other way as fast as possible.
Lazarus Long was on a large ship in orbit, when a smaller craft locked on to a port - somewhat unexpectedly.
| Why, the ship wasn't a proper deep-space craft at all. It did not have an airlock but merely a seal to let it fasten to a larger ship; Lazarus was staring right into the body of the craft. It looked like - yes, it was a "Joy-boat Junior," a little private strato-yacht, suitable only for point-to-point trajectory, or at the most for rendezvous with a satellite provided the satellite could refuel it for the return leg. |
| Technovelgy from Methuselah's Children,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
In the novel, wealthy individuals owned their own small spacecraft in the same way that wealthy individuals today own Lear jets. Once you filed a flight plan at your space field (and "cut through the red tape of interplanetary travel"), you were free to go wherever your craft could take you.
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Tech news articles related to Methuselah's Children
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Joy-boat Junior-related
news articles:
- SpaceShipOne - The First Strato-Yacht?
- SpaceX Dragon To Land On Any Planet
- SpaceX Dragon First Private Craft To Dock With ISS
- Orion's 'Skip-to-M'Lou' Entry
| Europa Clipper Plate Carries A Special Message |
| China Wants To Build Mega Space Ships |
| Dream Of Building Your Own Rocket? |
| Used Dragon Cargo Spacecraft Will Fly Again |
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'Within seconds the material was spread out over fifty yards, in a matter of hours it might occupy several cubic miles of space...'
'And the lifter was being piloted by a large pizza with extra cheese...'
'Young people found the driverless car admirable for petting.'
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'... completely forgetting the ship at sight of the awesome figure and great head of the giant Gaut...'
