Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"There was a time when one old eccentric guy with a notebook could do something important to science. Now even the resources of a major university are often not enough."
- Jerry Pournelle
 |
| Orbital Mirror | ||
| A huge reflective surface in orbit around a planet or moon, the purpose of which is to focus sunlight onto the surface. |
This is the earliest use of this idea in science fiction that I know of, but it was not originated by sf authors.
| That ship was quite something. There may be a few of them left - bulky old KH-type ore carriers. The series has been discontinued now, but it seems to me I saw one or two of them on the inter-asteroid runs a few years ago. Her capacity was something like two hundred thousand tons net and she was loaded to the ceil-plates with granular magnesium and sodium for the Sun mirrors of Titan. I don't have to tell you about the seven two-mile-diameter orbital mirrors that circulate around the satellite, making it habitable. You may not know, though, that the girders are all solid mag, because great rigidity isn't needed out there, and mag is cheap. The mirrors are silvered with sodium, which is bright and easy to handle. They have a patrol for each of the mirrors, which patches up meteorite punctures when they occur, squirting liquid sodium around the holes until they fill, then shaving them down with N rays. Well, we were bringing them their stock in trade, and it was interesting cargo to handle. |
| Technovelgy from Completely Automatic,
by Theodore Sturgeon. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
In 1923, German physicist Hermann Oberth described space mirrors with a diameter of 100 to 300 km in his book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen, consisting of a grid network of individually adjustable mirrors. Space mirrors in orbit around the Earth are intended to focus sunlight on individual regions of the earth's surface.
Here's another use of this term, from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith by Mathew Stover (2005):
The artificial daylight spread by the capital's orbital mirrors is sliced by intersecting flames of ion drives and punctuated by starburst explosions...
Compare to the electrono-mirror from The Day We Celebrate, by Nelson S. Bond (1941).
The skies of Coruscant blaze with war.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 5 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Completely Automatic
More Ideas
and Technology by Theodore Sturgeon
Tech news articles related to Completely Automatic
Tech news articles related to works by Theodore Sturgeon
Orbital Mirror-related
news articles:
- NYC Heliostats And Star Wars Orbital Mirrors
- Crowdfunded Russian Beacon Satellite Is An Orbital Mirror
- Reflect Orbital Offers 'Sunlight on Demand' And Light Pollution
| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
| The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds |
| Will Space Stations Have Large Interior Spaces Again? |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Then she looked up with a smile and moved closer to the camera.'
'... folios and tapes and playable discs of platinum alloy.'
'... another corner of his mind began to think about the shields.'
'Michel Ardan, as a Frenchman, was declared chief cook, an important function, which raised no rival.'
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
