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"I kind of take it for granted that our great-grandchildren will regard us as a sort of precursor species. That they won't think of us as human and if we could see them, we probably wouldn't think of them as human either."
- William Gibson
 |
| 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... |
| 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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