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"Every scientist worth his salt that I know of has read science fiction."
- Greg Bear
 |
| Puff (Puff Balls) | ||
| Material that is used to help Skyrines dropped to the surface of Mars get rid of some of that excess velocity. |
Okay, you've arrived in orbit around Mars. What's a (fast) way to get to your destination on the surface?
| We ride ten to a [aero] shield for a few minutes... we all roll off...
My drop pack spins out millions of threads like gossamer, almost invisibly thin. We call this puff. The threads expand to a lumpy ball fifty meters wide, which wobbles and snatches at Mars's thin, thin air - and then gloms onto other balls, other Skyrines enveloped in puff. All around our jammed puffballs, curling thread tips burn away... |
| Technovelgy from War Dogs,
by Greg Bear. Published by Orbit in 2014 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the ablative heat shield from EE 'Doc' Smith's 1934 novel Triplanetary.
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| Nuclear Rockets To Fly In Space! |
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'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'If you surf over a bump... If you surf over a pothole...'
'Then the spreading beam of the deranging ray struck them, and they stood an instant transfixed...'
'Noiselessly, on rubber-tired wheels, they journeyed...'
'...copy two of the original document no longer can be superimposed on copy one.'
My prize robot, tall, dashing would speak and act for me...
'A palm lock must be keyed to one individual's hand shape and palm lines.'
'I have transferred the ego of a dog to a synthetic dog brain in the skull case of a robot dog.'
