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"In 1970 I found little difficulty staying 30 years ahead of the man in the street, and now I find it difficult to stay 18 months ahead of the man on the street."
- Vernor Vinge
 |
| Mass Detector (Gravitator) | ||
| A device that finds substantial masses, particularly in the path of a space craft. |
| As if in answer, a loud clangor came from the Orford mass detector, on the wall back of them. Dubold shut off the rockets, while Mansell leaped to the telescope. Dubold narrowed the detector beam to a tiny spear of electron stream, and turned to the screen. The feed-back of that narrowed beam would detect a tiny mass a thousand miles out in space through the disturbance of its flowing electrons and locate it in space as accurately as if sighted by a gun. At the intersection of the cross-bar lines a tiny shadow showed like a blot of ink in its intensity. Yet Mansell could see nothing..
Mansell changed the course of the ship slightly and the clangor ceased. Dubold shifted the needle beam a bit and located the mass again. A light- ning calculation by Mansell told them that the mass was at least fifteen hun- dred miles ahead. Its detection informed them that the mass was large enough to be seen with the naked eye. Yet Mansell could see nothing. Mansell and Dubold looked at each other doubtfully, but Shafton was not watching them. Instead, he had his eyes glued to the gravitator as if he could not believe what he saw. "Strange, I could see nothing," Mansell admitted to Dubold, in an under- tone. "Must be a phenomenon of space, something we don't understand. However, we are out of its path..." fE looked toward Shafton as he spoke. A flicker of alarm crossed his sharp-cut features as his attention riveted upon the young spaceman's face. For Shafton's eyes were staring aghast into the gravitator's dial. "The gravitator!" Shafton cried. "It has swung over to 10-x." "Impossible," the commander snapped,"why—why, it is unthinkable. There must be something wrong." Suddenly he switched the floor magnets off. So sensitive were the spacemen's sensations to gravitational pulls out there in almost weightless space, a slight but decided tug toward the prow could be felt. Again the commander scanned the surrounding space. |
| Technovelgy from Roamer of the Stars,
by Clyde Wilson. Published by Thrilling Wonder Stories in 1938 Additional resources -
|
This phrase was also used in Hands Off (1954) by Robert Sheckley:
The readings were uninteresting. They showed a planet smaller than Earth, uncharted, and with no commercial value other than oxygen atmosphere.
As they swung past, their heavy-metals detector came to life.
"There's stuff down there!" Agee said, quickly interpreting the multiple readings. "Pure. Very pure — and on the surface!"
He looked at Barnett, who nodded. The ship swung toward the planet.
Compare to the gravity detector from The Cometeers (1936), by Jack Williamson
THE ship's mass detector flared pink, then red. Agee had been dozing at the controls, waiting for Victor to finish making dinner. Now he looked up quickly. "Planet coming," he called, over the hiss of escaping air...
(Mass Detector from 'Hands Off' (1954) by Robert Sheckley)
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| Cislunar Space And The Space Lanes of Golden Age Fiction |
| NASA Moonbase Update |
| The Solar Oberth Slingshot |
| 'If Anyone Is Watching Earth...' |
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