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"The answer to the problem of information overload on the Net is reputations… engineer a system called a reputation server."
- Neal Stephenson
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| Charged Catching Net | ||
| A net used in space; current can be used. |
| “Close haul, men. Let him hit the net — that does it!”
Spacesuited men clinging to the Argonaut’s life lines gripped the net tighter as their prey floated into it. A reddish-white globe ten feet in diameter, it evidenced life only by a rhythmic swelling and shrinking of its bulk, like an animated bellows there in the airless reaches of space. “Hold all! Close around now — ” The exultant voice of Matt Brend, captain, fell silent in astonishment. For the thing had breasted the net — and was flowing through it like water through a sieve. Whereupon eight men held slack lines, and upon the ether was borne a, torrent of spaceworthy oaths. Men who knew Matt Brend, smiled grimly and reached for the repulsors at their belts. “Follow me. Blast!” The words cracked like shots. “Ahoy, Argonaut! Two inductors full tension on the net lines. We’ll see if the thing can eat juice.”
 (Catching net from 'The Scrambler' (1941) by Harry Walton) Again the net was flung into a cupped semicircle across the globe’s path, mesh aglow with cathode current from the ship’s generators, men and lines pricked out against black space by pale, fiery discharge fringes. The globe kept on. |
| Technovelgy from The Scrambler,
by Harry Walton. Published by Astounding Science Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
The first reference to asteroid mining Is from Edison's Conquest of Mars (1898) by Garrett P. Serviss; see this page for lots of links to asteroid mining in general.
Compare to asteroid space flyer from The Death's Head Meteor (1930) by Neil R. Jones, landing on an asteroid from Murder on the Asteroid (1933) by Eando Binder and asteroid rocket from Salvage in Space (1933) by Jack Williamson.
For exotic asteroid capture methods, see magno-bars and meteor swarm mining from The Meteor Miners (1935) by L.A. Eshbach and
asteroid nets from Asteroid Justice (1947) by V.E. Thiessen.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Scrambler
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and Technology by Harry Walton
Tech news articles related to The Scrambler
Tech news articles related to works by Harry Walton
| The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds |
| Will Space Stations Have Large Interior Spaces Again? |
| Reflect Orbital Offers 'Sunlight on Demand' And Light Pollution |
| Chrysalis Generation Ship to Alpha Centauri |
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