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"...in fifty years, do you believe that people will be recognizably human?"
- Greg Bear
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| Parking Orbit | ||
| An orbit from which access to the planet's surface via a small auxiliary vessel is quick and uncomplicated. |
As far as I know, Heinlein coined this term (and first mentioned the idea) in this story.
| Approaching Earth, he called over the patrol frequency and asked for a parking orbit, as he did not wish to
put the Chili down on Earth. It would waste fuel and might cause talk. To be sure, he could have picked an orbit without permission, but there was a long chance that the Chili might be noticed and charted in his absence, and investigated as a derelict. It was safer to be legal about it.
An orbit having been assigned, he attained it and settled down in the groove. That done, he set the echo mechanism in the ship's communicator to his own combination, made sure that the set in the ship's gig could trigger it, and dropped away in the gig. |
| Technovelgy from Methuselah's Children,
by Robert Heinlein. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1941 Additional resources -
|
This term also appears in Heinlein's Starman Jones (1953).
Here's another usage, this time in orbit around the Moon, from Enemies of the System, a 1978 novella by Brian W. Aldiss:
It's interesting to note that the term "parking orbit" is used by NASA in a manner that is (in a sense) the opposite of this one. Heinlein used it to mean an orbit that a ship assumed as it approached Earth from afar. The current meaning of the term refers to a temporary orbit achieved by a satellite or space probe leaving the surface. There are a variety of reasons why a temporary parking orbit is a good choice on a space mission.
They hung in parking orbit while their possible future home was examined from the control room.
From the ferry, the passengers transfer to a gulfhopper awaiting them in parking orbit around the Moon.
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Tech news articles related to Methuselah's Children
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Parking Orbit-related
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| SpaceX's Starman Tesla Roadster In Space |
| Warp Drive Tech Back On The Menu |
| JAXA Int Ball 2 Coming Right Along As Star Wars Remote |
| Space Traffic Management (STM) Needed Now |
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'You couldn't have the capstone without the pyramid to hold it up.'
'the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers...'
I'm hoping that this procedure becomes a normal part of medical practice!
'... nothing was perfected until M. Pantalon announced the completion of his automatic valet.'
'...its streets were of remarkable width, with few or no buildings so high as mosques, churches, State-offices, or palaces in Tellurian cities.'
'...it was all composed of tiny, identical cubes, carefully laid to form a tilelike surface.'
