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"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
- Neal Stephenson
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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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and Technology from Methuselah's Children
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Tech news articles related to Methuselah's Children
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
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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'Midges have many capabilities. To the untrained eye, they look like sparrows.'
'I made disks of my own voice to the number of five hundred very carefully chosen words.'
'His sensors out and working, and the whirring of the tape that sucked up sight and sound and shape and smell and form...'
'It sounds to me as though you had invented a kind of metal earthworm.'
'I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable.'
'The steel tortoise gave MacKinnon a feeling of Crusoe- like independence.'
'...then back to their work, though little enough it was on these automatic cultivators.'
