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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Spaceport | ||
| A location on the surface of a planet used for launching vehicles into space. |
| The space-ports at the three great cities, were, of course, occupied or blockaded by the Tellurian fleets; and Doane was obliged to make his bases of operations the lonely craters that once had been pirate strongholds. |
| Technovelgy from The Birth of a New Republic,
by M. Breuer (w/J. Williamson). Published by Amazing Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
This word quickly became the standard term. However, even years later, the term was sometimes hyphenated, as in Asimov's 1951 novel Foundation. "His name is nothing... He followed you from the space-port."
Consider this use in The First Martian (1932) by Eando Binder:
To enhance their sales, certain combines of the sharks
put up signs and billboards:
“This marks the spot where the great Martian Space
Port will be built. Reliable backing. Buy stock now
and realize millions before a year’s time,” and accom-
panying it, would be a vivid, florid picture of a gigantic
space-ship, or perhaps a grotesque Martian, beckoning
and urging.
There's a whole page of pictures and information about spaceports at projectrho.
Compare to Earthport from Cordwainer Smith's 1950 story the Ballad of Lost C'Mell and don't forget the launching facility from Jules Verne's 1867 blockbuster From the Earth to the Moon.
An era of “wildcat speculation,” far transcending that
of the Civil War Period, set in and the gullible public
bought worthless stock from convincing and voluble professional sharks, for Martian-Earthian Freight Lines,
Inter-Space Express Co.'s, and Planetary Service Lines,
etc.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Birth of a New Republic
More Ideas
and Technology by M. Breuer (w/J. Williamson)
Tech news articles related to The Birth of a New Republic
Tech news articles related to works by M. Breuer (w/J. Williamson)
Spaceport-related
news articles:
- Britain To Build Spaceport, First In Europe
| Tumblin' Tumbleweed Rovers To Eplore Mars |
| Tentacled Robot Captures Space Debris |
| Reflect Orbital Sunlight On Demand |
| Elon Musk Wants Data Centers In Space |
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'A broken circle with arrows pointing to a right-hand flow appeared in the chalf.'
'The object seemed melted together like wax — nothing was distinguishable.'
'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.'
