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"I was perfectly satisfied to write science fiction knowing that it would pay very little, that it would be seen by only a very few people."
- Isaac Asimov
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| Multigyros | ||
| Allows known stable movement in four dimensions, thus making space travel possible. |
| FLANKED by the two guards, Donald followed Danvril along the narrow passage between the exterior isochromin glass and the multigyros set in the very bottom of the spaceship, under a dome that rose between the cargo that was stacked fore and aft.
These consisted of a dozen top-like mechanisms, set at various angles, imparting what had been the last difficulty to overcome in interplanetary navigation, stability in absolute space, viewed as a four-dimensional continuum. |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on Inferno,
by Victor Rousseau. Published by Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
Does the ship still have a captain?
Inasmuch as the complete course of the space-ship had been set by the experts before she left Earth, and the multigyros maintained it without the slightest variation, old Croft’s task was largely a routine one. Nevertheless, upon the bridge, he seemed to typify those old traditions of the sea, which had come down as legends through the years.
Navigation is carefully calculated:
Donald nodded. Matters had suddenly assumed a serious aspect. Jupiter’s giant bulk was as big a bugbear to space-travel as any shoals or rocks had been to sea-ships in earlier centuries.
“When do we start?” Donald asked.
“Exactly five-thousandths of a second after 23, which means in four hours’ time. But when I say there is no navigating, I mean, of course, outside Earth’s atmosphere. It’s Cohaine’s job to see we land at Chicago instead of falling into the Atlantic.”
On the bridge stood Captain Crofts, a sturdy old man whose history went back almost to the first interplanetary voyage, apart from the first fugitive rocket-journeys to the moon.
“We don’t navigate. The course and return course are both plotted from Earth. The calculations must be exact to the millionth part of a second. Otherwise we might collide with our Moon, or, worse yet, fall into Jupiter.”
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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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'He had travelled the space-lanes of the solar system for the greater part of his life...'
'The dinner was excellent. It was completely vegetarian — grown in specially prepared gardens in this Moon base...'
'Telepaths had their sensitiveness enlarged to an immense range by the pin-sets, which were telepathic amplifiers adapted to the mammal mind.'
'It was a relief to enter one of the comfortable autos, whisper a direction down the tube, and just know that you would be taken to your destination in the quickest, safest, and cheapest manner.'
'But he didn't get very far with it before another noise in his ear radio scattered his thoughts. George winced...'
'The vast spinning sphere of Factory in the Sky loomed above and ahead of us, gleaming white against the unfathomable jet depths of surrounding space.'
'And if it doesn’t work,' inquired Lazarus, 'what does that make us? Sunspots?'
'The Dillard people had performed a miracle and put all the works in a girl-modeled case.'
'Our study of your race has convinced us that you are not fitted to leave your planet in the present state of your civilization.'
