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"The point sticks in your head: physics rules. Virtue does not triumph unless the physics allows it."
- Larry Niven
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| Tractatruck | ||
| Combination tractor and truck used for hauling and exploration. |
| Two light tractor-treaded trucks were included in the equipment. The chassis and treads of the trucks had originally been landing gear for the great rocket, and their engines had served as air pumps and furl pumps...
Most of the exploration was done by foot rather than by tractatruck, since men afoot could make better time over the incredibly jagged rock and the frequent chasms..." |
| Technovelgy from The Moon is Hell,
by John W. Campbell. Published by Fantasy Press in 1950 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the electrotruck from The Corkscrew of Space (1956) by Poul Anderson, the planetruck from The Slave Ship to Andrigo (1951) by Ross Rocklynne and the automatic truck from Mechnocracy (1932) by Miles J. Breurer.
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More Ideas
and Technology from The Moon is Hell
More Ideas
and Technology by John W. Campbell
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Tech news articles related to works by John W. Campbell
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| First Trips To Mars Announced By Elon Musk |
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'...the rocket’s landing-arms automatically unfolded.'
'...points and patches of light... sliding all over their faces in a programmed manner that had been designed to foil facial recognition systems.'
'...the combined Wind-Suncatcher, like a spray of tulips mounted fanwise.'
'I went to the control room where the three other men were manipulating their mechanical men.'
'The low-slung monorail car, straddling its single track, bored through the shadows on a slowly rising course.'
'It was a smooth ovoid floating a few inches from the floor...'
'... he thrust in his charging arm to replenish his store of energy.'
'...the terrible Jovian gravity that made each movement an effort.'
