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"[Science fiction] is the one literary medium left in which we have a free hand. We can do any damn thing we please."
- Alfred Bester
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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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Tech news articles related to The Scrambler
Tech news articles related to works by Harry Walton
| ISS Plagued By Leak - Again! |
| Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug |
| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
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'Chris, the City Fathers are not interested in your welfare; I suppose you know that. They're interested in only one thing: the survival of the city.'
'Drake was the young spatial engineer he employed to terraform the little rock...'
'It diverts integers of the data, the fundamental message-units, so that they no longer agree.'
'Clothes are no longer made from dead fibers of fixed color and texture that can approximate only crudely to the vagrant human figure...'
'Books were just a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces.'
