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"Science and science fiction, how do you even distinguish the two?"
- Jerry Pournelle
 |
| Hyperspace Beacon | ||
| Located in real space, these devices provide reference points in hyperspace to make navigation possible. |
How can you find your way through hyperspace, that featureless void outside of real space? You need beacons to show the way.
| The first ships to enter hyperspace had no place to go - and no way to tell if they had even moved. The beacons solved that problem and opened up the entire universe. They are built on planets and generate tremendous amounts of power. This power is turned into radiation that is punched through into hyperspace. Every beacon has a code signal as part of its radiation and represents a measurable point in hyperspace. Triangulation and quadrature works for navigation - only it follows its own rules.
For a hyperspace jump, you need at least four beacons for an accurate fix. For long jumps, navigators use up to seven or eight. So every beacon is important and every one has to keep operating. That is where I and the other troubleshooters come in. |
| From The Repairman,
by Harry Harrison. Published by Galaxy Science Fiction in 1959 Additional resources -
|
What happens when one of them breaks down? You can't get to it directly through hyperspace; you can get close and then travel for months through real space.
The old ones break down more often. Like the Mark III -
This is an early description of the hyperspace beacon concept. The same idea and term were used in the television show Babylon 5; without beacons, ships would drift endlessly through featureless hyperspace, unable to discern their location relative to real space.
You'll find an earlier example in Troubled Star, a 1952 novel by George O. Smith: see space beacon. You'll find another version (not quite the same idea) in The Cosmic Blinker (1953) by Eando Binder; see Artificially Pulsating Star.
Compare to the Photoelectric Telescope (Photoelectric Eyes) from The Cometeers (1936) by Jack Williamson, the
Liquid Mirror Telescope from Old Faithful (1934) by Raymond Z. Gallun, the
electro-telescope from Blood of the Moon (1936) by Ray Cummings, the
ultra-telescope ray from The Moon Weed (1931) by Harl Vincent, and the robot observatory from Space Rating (1939) by John Berryman.
I looked at the blueprints he gave me and felt my eyes glaze with horror. "It's a monstrosity! It looks more like a distillery than a beacon - must be a few hundred meters high...
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and Technology from The Repairman
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and Technology by Harry Harrison
Tech news articles related to The Repairman
Tech news articles related to works by Harry Harrison
Hyperspace Beacon-related
news articles:
- Is 'The Pulsar Positioning System' Evidence For SETI?
- NASA SEXTANT First With X-Ray Nav In Space
| Space Domes Over-rated? Science Fiction Authors Have Answers |
| NASA 'Broomstick' Recalls SciFi Ideas |
| Orbital Display's Low Earth Orbit Advertisements |
| Trillionaires Still Earth-Bound |
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