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"Bureaucracies hide their mistakes, because people's careers are tied to those mistakes. Therefore, bureaucracies are a perfect mechanism for perpetuating mistakes."
- Frank Herbert
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| Artificial Island For Ocean Rocket Launch | ||
| An entirely artificial, floating island used as a launch platform. |
| It was a remarkable island, circular, about half a kilometer in diameter. It rose from the sea, floating on it and fastened to the bottom only by strong anchors. It actually was a huge hemisphere of metal and concrete, open underneath. Above it was shaped to a single perfectly level platform, which rose so high above the water that it was not splashed by the waves. From this platform steps led down to the water all around. On all four sides, ribs several hundred meters long extended out into the sea, forming four harbors which could be used according to the direction of the wind.
 (Artificial Island) "Hey! Look here!" No answer - nobody - no guard at the shore. There was only the great steel colossus, which held the upright rocket in its spidery arms as if in a tender embrace, rising up alone in the air. |
| Technovelgy from Between Earth and Moon,
by Otfrid von Hanstein. Published by Wonder Stories Quarterly in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Compare to rocket float from Too Many Boards! (1931) by Harl Vincent, Freezone from Freezone (1985) by John Shirley, the floating island from Saturn's Race (2000) by Larry Niven (w/S. Barnes) and the float-home from Whipping Star (1969) by Frank Herbert.
As far as I know, the first actual launch of a missile from a floating platform occurred in 1947, a V2 rocket from a US Navy vessel.
6 September 1947. Operation
— Ron Eisele (@ron_eisele) September 5, 2019
Sandy: US Navy aircraft carrier USS Midway launched a captured V-2 rocket from
its deck. First launch of a large rocket from a ship at sea. pic.twitter.com/ReVbGTJ23r
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Additional
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More Ideas
and Technology from Between Earth and Moon
More Ideas
and Technology by Otfrid von Hanstein
Tech news articles related to Between Earth and Moon
Tech news articles related to works by Otfrid von Hanstein
Artificial Island For Ocean Rocket Launch-related
news articles:
- Seasteading Floating Cities
- A Floating Cosmodrome
- SpaceX Will Build Floating Spaceports!
| BeamBike Solar Power Canopy For Electric Bikes |
| REALLY Remote Control Excavators |
| Your Solar Electric Paint Is Ready, Larry Niven |
| How Long Till We Have These Tattoos? |
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'... the expressionless face before me was therefore that of the golem-wrestler, Rolem, a creature that could be set for five times the strength of a human being.'
'Waldo put his arms into the primary pair before him; all three pairs, including the secondary pair mounted before the machine, came to life.'
'... the glittering little rocket bolted to the black iron behind him.'
'The slender stalks of a sunshade-photocell collector...'
'The operation that had transformed half his body... had located the control switchboard in his teeth.'
