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"Conspiracy theories are big because they're comforting. Any conspiracy is infinitely less multiplex than the real deal, which is multiplex to the point of being unknowable."
- William Gibson
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| Lunocycle (Lunar Bicycle) | ||
| A bicycle specially adapted for lunar travel. |
A prospector's life is never easy. But prospecting on the moon?
| ...all the prospectors took bicycles along as a matter of course, just as they carried climbing ropes and spare oxygen...
The solitary prospector, deprived of his traditional burro, found the bicycle an acceptable and reliable, if somewhat less congenial, substitute. A miner's bike would have looked odd in the streets of Stockholm; over-sized wheels, doughnut sand tires, towing yoke and trailer, battery trickle charger, two-way radio, saddle bags and Geiger-counter mount made it not the vehicle for a spin in the park - but on Mars or on the Moon it fitted its purpose the way a canoe fits a Canadian stream. |
| Technovelgy from The Rolling Stones,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Scribner's in 1952 Additional resources -
|
In his story Coventry, published in 1940, Heinlein wrote about a steel tortoise, a fascinating (and ecologically friendly) device that also substituted for burros.
If you like science fiction and prospecting, you'll enjoy Little Fuzzy, a classic story by H. Beam Piper.
Compare to the volplane from Blood of the Moon (1936) by Ray Cummings.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Rolling Stones
More Ideas
and Technology by Robert Heinlein
Tech news articles related to The Rolling Stones
Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein
Lunocycle (Lunar Bicycle)-related
news articles:
- NASA's Electric Motor Scooter
- HyperBike - NASA-Supported Heinlein Lunocycle?
- NASA's Chariot Is Not Your Father's Moon Rover
| Is China Mining Helium-3 On The Moon's Farside? |
| Solitary Black Hole Wanders In Space |
| Spaceplane From Virgin Atlantic |
| Taikonauts Exercise In China's Tiangong Space Station |
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'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
