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
"We follow the scientists around and look over their shoulders. They're watching their feet: provable mistakes are bad for them. We're looking as far ahead as we can, and we don't get penalized for mistakes."
- Larry Niven
 |
| Stellene | ||
| A tough, transparent material used to make domes or even spacecraft. |
| Made of stellene, mostly—an improved form of polyethylene—almost the same stuff as a weather balloon."
"A few millimeters thick, light, perfectly flexible when deflated," Nelsen added. "Cut out and cement your bubb together in any shape you choose. Fold it up firmly, like a parachute—it makes a small package that can be carried up into orbit in a blastoff rocket with the best efficiency. There, attached flasks of breathable atmosphere fill it out in a minute. Eight pounds pressure makes it fairly solid in a vacuum. So, behold—you've got breathing and living room, inside. There's nylon cording for increased strength—as in an automobile tire—though not nearly as much. There's a silicone gum between the thin double layers, to seal possible meteor punctures. A darkening lead-salt impregnation in the otherwise transparent stellene cuts radiation entry below the danger level, and filters the glare and the hard ultra-violet out of the sunshine. So there you are, all set up." |
| From The Planet Strappers,
by Raymond Z. Gallun. Published by Pyramid Books in 1961 Additional resources -
|
If you're lucky you can find the nedessary materials on a likely moon:
The self-sealing nature of stellene is pretty slick; Gallun plagiarizes his own idea from From Asteroid of Fear (1951) (see self-sealing plastic). It won't help if the object is too big, though:
"There is an extensive underlying layer of gypsum, here," he said. "The water-bearing rock. A mile away there's an ample deposit of graphite—carbon. Thus, there exists a complete local source of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, ideal for synthesizing various hydrocarbonic chemicals or making complicated polyethylene materials such as stellene, so useful in space. Lead, too, is not very far off. Silicon is, of course, available everywhere. There'll be a plant belonging to Hoffman Chemicals here, before too long. I was prospecting for them, for a site like this. Actually I was very lucky, locating this spot almost right away—which is fortunate. They think I'm still looking, and aren't concerned..."
Then there were some tiny radar-blips, which could have indicated meteors. Nelsen and Ramos changed the angle of the ion guides of their ionic motors to move their bubbs from course, slightly, and dodge. During the first hour, they were successful. But then there were more blips, in greater numbers.
Fist-sized chunks flicked through their vehicles almost simultaneously. Air puffed out. Their rings collapsed under them—the sealer was no good for holes of such size. At once, the continued spin of the bubbs wound them, like limp laundry, into knots.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Planet Strappers
More Ideas
and Technology by Raymond Z. Gallun
Tech news articles related to The Planet Strappers
Tech news articles related to works by Raymond Z. Gallun
| Johns Hopkins Says Asteroid Deflection Will Be Difficult |
| Hayabusa 2 To Begin Asteroid Mining |
| Can Musk Starship Astronauts Use Magnetic Boots? |
| Giant Dolphin Spotted On Jupiter! |
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.
|
These drones can provide situational awareness beyond visual line-of-sight capability.
'It resembled conventional human-operated transportation vehicles, but with one exception -- there was no driver's cabin.'
'Each one consists of a hub with many tiny spokes... On the end is a squat foot, rubber tread on the bottom...'
'A paper thin polycarbon screen unfurled silently from the top of the unit and immediately grew rigid.'
'The Dwoskin Morality Rating-Computer could 'spot the slightest tendency to deviation' from the social norm...'
'At least there was no mandatory Whuffie check on the monorail platform...'
'He waved his hand and the circuit switched abruptly.'
