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"If you turn away from the natural gifts that God has given you, or the universe has given you, you're going to grow old too soon."
- Ray Bradbury
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| Venus Equilateral Relay Station | ||
| A converted asteroid that served as the relay station for telecommunications throughout the solar system. |
| The Venus Equilateral Relay Station was a modern miracle of engineering if you liked to believe the books. Actually, Venus Equilateral was an asteroid that had been shoved into its orbit about the Sun, forming a practical demonstration of the equilateral triangle solution of the Three Moving Bodies. It was a long cylinder, about three miles in length by about a mile in diameter... This was the center of Interplanetary Communications. This was the main office. It was the heart of the Solar System's communication line, and as such, it was well manned. Orders for everything emanated from Venus Equilateral.
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| Technovelgy from QRM - Interplanetary,
by George O. Smith. Published by Street and Smith in 1942 Additional resources -
|
Here's another image:
This image is from the original publication of the story:
(Venus Equilteral Station from 'QRM: Interplanetary')
Compare to the Interplanetary Radiograph Station from On The Martian Way (1907) by Harry Gore Bishop and the messagecraft from The Faithful Messenger (1969) by George Scithers.
As a space station, compare to the brick moon from The Brick Moon (1869) by Edward Everett Hale, the city of space from The Prince of Space (1931) by Jack Williamson, the New Moon Casino from One Against the Legion (1939) by Jack Williamson, the asteroid space station from Misfit (1939) by Robert Heinlein, Wheelchair from Waldo (1942) by Robert Heinlein, the space transfer station from Between Planets (1951) by Robert Heinlein, the Sargasso Asteroid from The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester, the tether space station from Tank Farm Dynamo (1983) by David Brin and the high orbit archipelago from Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from QRM - Interplanetary
More Ideas
and Technology by George O. Smith
Tech news articles related to QRM - Interplanetary
Tech news articles related to works by George O. Smith
Venus Equilateral Relay Station-related
news articles:
- Mars Telecommunication Orbiter - Interplanetary Broadband
- Mars Telecommunications Orbiter Canceled
- Internet Routing In Space Now, Venus Equilateral Station Later
- Interplanetary Internet - Disruption Tolerant Network
- The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
- Elon Musk, Google To Extend Internet Into Earth Orbit, Then Mars
- NASA's Interplanetary Internet DTN
- NASA Wants Low Earth Orbit Wifi
- Queqiao 2 Communications Relay Satellite Will Support Lunar Missions
| Space Weather To Universe Weather |
| That's MOXIE! Terraforming Mars Baby Steps |
| Solar X-Flares Disrupt North American Radio And Navigation |
| Restructure An Asteroid, Spin It, Get A 'Space Habitat' With Gravity? |
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'Then they press one of these here thirteen buttons...'
'You're a stable, rock-bottom mining robot, except that you're equipped to handle six subsidiaries in direct coordination...'
'The crawling, exploring object was V-Stephen's surgeon-hand...'
'It radiates outward in a cone which, by the time it has reached our section of space, is many lightyears across.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock.'
'... with a weird simulation of life, the ten forked ends of each arm commenced a rattling pressing of the buttons.'
'Each of the four areas is enclosed by a sonic wall...'
