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"Science fiction and science have always danced around each other. Science fiction is the subconscious of science."
- Greg Bear
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| Inertia Screen | ||
| A device that canceled out the law of inertia to help decelerating space craft occupants. |
This is a very handy thing to have, when you are slowing down from interstellar speeds.
| Six days out from Earth found the Little Falls decelerating as it approached Rigel VI, its crew of ten protected from instant annihilation by the inertia screens, screens that permit humans to survive accelerations so stupendous that the stars were brought within easy reach of the Solar System. |
| Technovelgy from Space Rating,
by John Berryman. Published by Astounding Science-Fiction in 1939 Additional resources -
|
I believe that ol' 'Doc' Smith thought about canceling inertia in a somewhat different context several years earlier; see the entry for drop shafts.
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Tech news articles related to works by John Berryman
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| Can A Human Land A SpaceX Rocket On Its Tail? |
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'But the stars are only atoms in larger space, and in that larger space the star-atoms could combine to form living matter, thinking matter, couldn't they?'
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'And he had been sent with troops, supplies and bombs to command Russia's most trusted post, the Moonbase.'
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