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"Fuzzy logic tries to get machines to think like people do, with inexact fuzzy terms."
- Bart Kosko
 |
| Starlight Sail (Light Sail) | ||
| A light sail capable of sailing between solar systems. |
I don't know of an earlier reference to light sails in science fiction.
| "Now this is the way that the foresail works. That sail will be twenty thousand miles at the wide part. It tapers down and the total length will be just under eighty-thousand miles. It will be retracted or extended by small servo-robots. The servo-robots are radio-controlled." |
| Technovelgy from The Lady Who Sailed The Soul,
by Cordwainer Smith. Published by Galaxy in 1960 Additional resources -
|
The pilot lived in a tiny control room; flights lasted an average of forty years. The ship had a string of thousands of adiabatic pods, each containing a passenger.
See the longer discussion of light sails (solar sails) from Jack Vance's Sail 25.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Lady Who Sailed The Soul
More Ideas
and Technology by Cordwainer Smith
Tech news articles related to The Lady Who Sailed The Soul
Tech news articles related to works by Cordwainer Smith
Starlight Sail (Light Sail)-related
news articles:
- Cosmos 1 Sets Solar Sail - Update
- NanoSail-D Solar Wind-Rider
- Ikaros Solar Sail Craft Photo Of Venus
- Bigrating Laser Beam-Riding Light Sail Is Self-Correcting
| ESA To Build Moon Bases Brick By Printed LEGO Brick |
| FLOAT Levitating Train On The Moon ala Clarke |
| SpaceX Intros Extravehicular Activity Suit |
| SpaceX Wants A Moonbase Alpha |
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'The pitiless M rays pierced Earth and steel and densest concrete as if they were so much transparent glass...'
'Pina2bo would have to operate full blast for many years to put as much SO2 into the stratosphere as its namesake had done in a few minutes.'
'Nanny is different,' Tom Fields murmured... 'she's not like a machine. She's like a person.'
'We made a crude , small cell and were delighted - and, I admit, somewhat surprised - to find it worked.'
'...we've promised him a generous pension from the royalties.'
'The clothes and jewelery drew their tiny power requirements from her movements.'
'At the end of each appendage's eight fingers there are tinier appendages...'
'We want to do something to help those who are suffering from tooth loss or absence,' said lead researcher Katsu Takahashi.
