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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
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| Solar Power Apparatus | ||
| An ingenious device to gather solar energy, melt water, power a turbine and get hydrogen and oxygen fuel from ice. |
Ingenious idea for getting unlimited electric power on the moon, without complicated electronic solar panels.
| The engineer had judged correctly for the ground on which the space ship had landed consisted of ice...
"...Now be quick, get out the solar power apparatus and send it down to us from the air-lock by the crane."
 A huge parabolic mirror built of light sheet silver collected the intense heat of the sun and first melted a small amount of ice in a closed container. The water thus formed - which cannot exist free on the airless moon - was heated to boiling, and provided the steam for a little turbine. This was connected with a generator of electric energy, whose current was used for the electrolytic dissociation of melted ice in special containers. The entire system was of such dimensions that in four terrestrial days it would exactly fill the tanks of the ship with liquid hydrogen and oxygen in the right proportions. |
| Technovelgy from A Daring Trip To Mars,
by Max Valier. Published by Wonder Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
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and Technology from A Daring Trip To Mars
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and Technology by Max Valier
Tech news articles related to A Daring Trip To Mars
Tech news articles related to works by Max Valier
Solar Power Apparatus-related
news articles:
- TransAstra Lunar Mining Idea Was Max Valier's In 1931
- Chang'e-5 Lunar Lander Seeks Water
- Privatized Moon Mining Appeals To Entrepreneurs
| 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.'
