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"I'm a fairly visual thinker. In doing science, I think in terms of pictures of things happening, and then do the mathematics."
- Gregory Benford
 |
| Orbiting Factories | ||
| Manufacturing centers in orbit around the Earth. |
Several engineers are discussing 1D diamond crystals, and how they are produced.
| "...What is it?"
"The result of two hundred years of solid-state physics. For whatever good that does, it is a continuous pseudo-one dimensional diamond crystal - though it's not actually pure carbon. There are several trace elements in carefully controlled amounts. It can be mass-produced only in the orbiting factories, where there's no gravity to interfere with the growth process." |
| From The Fountains of Paradise,
by Arthur C. Clarke. Published by Ballantine in 1978 Additional resources -
|
The first efforts to implement (or at least experiment) with creating materials in orbit occurred in the early 1970's, during the Skylab mission (which was launched in 1973). The station was equipped with a materials processing facility that included a multi-purpose electric furnace, a crystal growth chamber, and an electron beam gun. A bit earlier, in 1969, the Russians experimented with welding in space during the Soyuz missions.
Compare to the automated space factories (1988), from Mona Lisa Overdrive, by William Gibson.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Fountains of Paradise
More Ideas
and Technology by Arthur C. Clarke
Tech news articles related to The Fountains of Paradise
Tech news articles related to works by Arthur C. Clarke
Orbiting Factories-related
news articles:
- First 3D Printer In Space?
- Students! NASA Wants To 3D Print Your Tool Design In Space!
- Jeff Bezos Wants Orbiting Factories (Clarke-style)
- Archinaut Orbiting Robotic Factory
- Made In Space To Manufacture Optical Fiber In Orbit
| A 'Genuine Nanorobotic Production Factory' |
| Made In Space To Manufacture Optical Fiber In Orbit |
| Self-Assembling Bacteria Build A Pressure Sensor |
| Artificial Spider Silk |
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'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
There's a lesson in this for neural net AI engineers everywhere.
