Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"Money to me is freedom, and freedom is essential. Money allows me to say that I will now devote my life to being me, rather than putting on my shoes and tie, and going to an office every day."
- Robert Silverberg
 |
| Atom-Driven Drill | ||
| An atomic-powered auger, for use in drilling deep into asteroids. |
In this story, it is assumed that the asteroid Vesta is an intact surface fragment of an ancient planet.
| The next task prescribed by the Homesteaders' School was to secure a supply of air and water in quantity. Again, following the instructions they had received, the Endlichs uncrated and set up an atom-driven drill. In an hour it had bored to a depth of five-hundred feet. Hauling up the drill, Endlich lowered an electric heating unit on a cable from an atomic power-cell, and then capped the casing pipe.
Yes, strangely enough there was still sufficient water beneath the surface of Vesta. Its parent planet, like the Earth, had had water in its crust, that could be tapped by means of wells. And so suddenly had Vesta been chilled in the cold of space at the time of the parent body's explosion, that this water had not had a chance to dissipate itself as vapor into the void, but had been frozen solid. The drying soil above it had formed a tough shell, which had protected the ice beneath from disappearance through sublimation... Drill down to it, melt it with heat, and it was water again, ready to be pumped and put to use. And water, by electrolysis, was also an easy source of oxygen to breathe.... The soil, once thawed over a few acres, would also yield considerable nitrogen and carbon dioxide—the makings of many cubic meters of atmosphere. The A.H.O. survey expeditions, here on Vesta and on other similar asteroids which were crustal chips of the original planet, had done their work well, pathfinding a means of survival here. |
| From Asteroid of Fear,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Planet Stories in 1951 Additional resources -
|
You might want to compare this idea with the more dramatic Romulan flame drill used in the new Star Trek movie series (and the real-life flame jet drill deveolped for drilling into solid rock).
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Asteroid of Fear
More Ideas
and Technology by Raymond Z. Gallun
Tech news articles related to Asteroid of Fear
Tech news articles related to works by Raymond Z. Gallun
Atom-Driven Drill-related
news articles:
- WINE Spacecraft To Extract Water From Asteroids
| Blaux Your Personal Commuter Cooling Unit |
| SunnyFive 'Window' Has Full Spectrum Angled Natural Light |
| Liftware Level, Google's Smart Spoon |
| Prufrock The Newest Boring Machine |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
'Toran resigned himself to days of careful plotting between Jumps.'
'Most of the stuff written about Bats' Cave gives a wrong impression.'
'The tiger stripes on Jim's mask... made the young people easy to identify.'
I have no mouth and I must scream.
'If he sent out two or three of the small tele-operated devices... [he] could see machinery and construction details in real time from both above and below.'
'THEY sent A SLAMHOUND on Turner's trail in New Delhi...'
'...the balls sent by this gun are not ordinary balls, but little cases of glass.'
'A man could carry AIs or complete planetary dataspheres in a Schrön loop.'
