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"I think we're still on that topic, still trying to figure out what computers are, how they change us, why we use them."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Space Mittens | ||
| Protect your hands in space. |
As Khan Noonien Singh says in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (1982), it is very cold in space.
So, be sure to wear your mittens!
| Fumbling feverishly, his fingers impeded by his space mittens, he loosened the straps which bound his magnetic boots to his feet. |
| Technovelgy from Space Flotsam,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1934 Additional resources -
|
Surprisingly, this is not a one-off use of this phrase. In his 1939 story The Luck of Ignatz (1939), Lester Del Rey used it:
Gallun uses it again in Coffins to Mars (1950), published in Thrilling Wonder Stories:
“Star-shaped," she said. “Just regular snowflakes. Of course it has to be — here or any place. Out to the farthest Earth-like planet in the farthest galaxy." Then she laughed — with real pleasure. “I hardly believe it — on Mars !” she added.
Compare to hinged space suit mittens from The Bluff of the Hawk (1932) by Anthony Gilmore.
Jerry was rocking on his heels, cursing the heat with every labored breath. He wore ice packs on every safe place, and still couldn’t keep cool. The blowers were working again, keeping a steady current of air moving, but the air was hot. Under the Master’s shoes were heavy pads of rubberoid, and he wore stiff space mittens on his hands, but still the heat came through from the hot floor and control rods. A few more degrees would spell the limit.
That was when, from a thin pearly veil of cloud from the Pole, a few fine dry flakes drifted down. Joan caught two on the palms of her space mittens. She stared at them wonderingly, as if they were a part of home, as if they didn't belong here at this distance from Earth at all.
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and Technology from Space Flotsam
More Ideas
and Technology by Raymond Z. Gallun
Tech news articles related to Space Flotsam
Tech news articles related to works by Raymond Z. Gallun
| 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.'
