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"the [science fiction] writer should be able to convince the reader (and himself) that the wonders he is describing really can come true...and that gets tricky when you take a good, hard look at the world around you."
- Frederik Pohl
 |
| Lifezone | ||
| An enclosed biosphere; a pod-like greenhouse attached to a space-going vessel. |
These spaces, or devices, could be easily moved. They could be hung in places to take advantage of space or sunlight.
| He puffed heavily as he angled around the bulbous lifezones - huge bubbles extruded from the sleek lines of the Argo, like immense, bruised bodies of parasites. Inside, their opalescent walls ran with dewdrops, shimmering moist jewels hanging a bare finger's width away from hard vacuum. Green fronds pressed here and there against the stretched walls - a sight which at first had terrified him, until he understood that somehow the rubbery yet glassy stuff could take the pokes and presses of living matter without splitting. |
| Technovelgy from Tides of Light,
by Gregory Benford. Published by Bantam in 1989 Additional resources -
|
This approach can be contrasted with the use of large hydroponics farms, which have a more industrial flavor to them. The lifezones are themselves of a lifelike form, rather than looking like a factory.
Compare to the spaceship garden from The Heritage of the Earth (1932) by Harley S. Aldinger,
Martian sawgrass from QRM - Interplanetary (1942) by George O. Smith, the
asteroid garden from Asteroid of Fear (1951) by Raymond Z. Gallun,
bubbleworld from At the Bottom of a Hole (1966) by Larry Niven and the
lunar greenhouse tunnel from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966) by Robert Heinlein.
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Tides of Light
More Ideas
and Technology by Gregory Benford
Tech news articles related to Tides of Light
Tech news articles related to works by Gregory Benford
Lifezone-related
news articles:
- Chinese 'Seed Satellite'
- Giant Space Vegetables Now On Earth!
- Space Agriculture For Long-Term Space Exploration
- Harvest-Time On The International Space Station
- NASA Harvests Lettuce On ISS
- Underwater Balloon Gardens
- Tasty Space Lettuce!
- BioPod Inflatable Membrane From Interstellar Lab
| Vast Apartment Living Will Get Even More Vast |
| LiquidView Ersatz Windows, ala Philip K. Dick |
| Solar House Concept Unfolds Solar Panels Like A Flower |
| San Fran's Tiny Homeless |
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