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"I don't know why I write science fiction. The voices in my head told me to!"
- Charles Stross
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| Cartograph | ||
| A device that shows you a record of your travels - a GPS readout. |
Marooned on Neptune (the icy part that the planetary engineers had not remade into usable farmland), Bob Star and his companions seem lost. But are they?
| He reached to unsnap the cartograph from his belt. He had brought that tiny instrument to map their movements. He opened the cover and peered at the strip.
"We're nearly seven miles from where the prison used to be," he said thoughtfully. |
| Technovelgy from The Cometeers,
by Jack Williamson. Published by Street and Smith in 1936 Additional resources -
|
How might this amazing device be constructed without a network of GPS satellites? Williamson was probably thinking about using intertial guidance systems to indicate position; I haven't read about anyone who had thought of providing a read-out of path.
The basic idea behind inertial guidance systems is simple. Take a set of gyroscopes and set them in a known direction; if left to float freely, they will continuously indicate true direction. Then, use accelerometers to determine motion. These systems have the advantage of not relying on outside signals (which could be jammed); however, they are prone to cumulative errors.
Gyroscopes have been used to indicate direction on ships since the early 1900's. Rocket scientist Robert Goddard theorized that they would be useful in rocketry. The first successful inertial guidance systems were used in V2 rockets in the mid-1940's by German scientists. Read more about inertial guidance systems.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Cometeers
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and Technology by Jack Williamson
Tech news articles related to The Cometeers
Tech news articles related to works by Jack Williamson
Cartograph-related
news articles:
- GPS Shoes Track Alzheimer's Patients
- Location History Dashboard By Google
- Menlo Device By Microsoft Tracks You Precisely
- Google's Cartographer Backpack For Indoor Mapping
- Airnest Drone Flight Logging Tool
- Roomba Hoovers Up More Than Dirt
| Google's Cartographer Backpack For Indoor Mapping |
| Live Luggage Ready To Roll |
| Porter 'Robots' For Baggage, If Not People |
| Tweel - (Almost) A Smart Wheel |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
