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
"What has allowed so many Psychopathic Personalities to rise so high in corporations and government, is that they are so decisive. Unlike normal people, they are never filled with doubts, for the simple reason that they cannot care what happens next."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
 |
| Water to Cushion Acceleration | ||
| The use of water to cushion and protect against extreme ship accelerations. |
As far as I know, this is the earliest reference to this idea in sf.
A large, lightly loaded freighter heads to Mars, carrying executives and a large tank of sea water for use in a chemical plant. Duke Stetson decides to take a swim.
| The moment his body sank into the water, the excess weight he was carrying slipped off. Floating in the water, the effect was the same as though he was on Earth, for the water buoyed him up perfectly.
Suddenly there came a crash... the rockets, without control, opened up to full. Rocket motors, designed to produce an acceleration four times gravity on the ship when loaded to capacity, broke loose when the ship was practically empty... the ship rocketed forward under an acceleration seven and three-quarters times the gravity of Earth. Stetson lapsed into unconsciousness almost instantly as the enormous acceleration weight pressed down on him. But the water he floated in saved him from death.
|
| From The Derelicts of Ganymede,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Wonder Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the cider press from Double Star (1956) by Robert Heinlein and the acceleration-tank from Triplanetary (1934) by E.E. 'Doc' Smith.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from The Derelicts of Ganymede
More Ideas
and Technology by John W. Campbell
Tech news articles related to The Derelicts of Ganymede
Tech news articles related to works by John W. Campbell
| Powdered Regolith Propulsion |
| Tether Asteroids To Save Us All |
| Perhaps You Might Be Interested In Habitable Exoplanet Moon Real Estate |
| SpaceX Will Build Floating Spaceports! |
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.
|
'... filling their great tanks with the finely divided dust which the ionic rockets would spit out in electrified jets.'
'In the napcap a client became an instant yoga master...'
'Employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors...'
'Jeremiah is a sports-model to begin with and that kind is awfully hot-tempered.'
'If anything can glue the asteroids back into the planet they once were, magnology will do it.'
A cooling unit had to be strapped to every commuter's back, by law.
'...lined with durite, that strange close-packed laboratory product.'
'He was still roaring when the knife missile flicked past him...'
'Swallow it in an emergency--it goes down easily and works just as well inside as outside.'
