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"I forged a concept which is relatively simple and possibly unique in theology, and that is, the irrational is the primordial stratum of the universe."
- Philip K. Dick
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| Igloo-Shaped Space Shelter | ||
| Easy to set up on airless asteroids. |
I think this is the earliest expression of this excellent idea.
| By the time they returned to the little polar cup, the shelters were pitched - igloo shapes of woven metal, lined with lead foil and self-sealing plastic, fastened down with cables welded to the living iron, and inflated with oxyhelium. Small cylindrical airlocks gave entrance. Standing at the end of a short taut cable, above the crown of each shelter was a small peegee [paragravity] unit. Set to negative polarity, these provided a comfortable pressure against the floor, and some protection against meteor drift... |
| Technovelgy from Collision Orbit,
by Jack Williamson. Published by Astounding in 1942 Additional resources -
|
Here's another detail:
Compare to the plastic igloo from Love Among The Robots (1946) by Emmett McDowell, the Igloo Inflatable Moon Habitat from A Fall of Moondust (1961) by Arthur C. Clarke and the airtight tent from Raymond Z. Gallun's 1951 novella Asteroid of Fear.
...she kept getting up, against her will, to peer out through the tiny lead-glass peepholes in the thick, inflated fabric.
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Science Fiction
Timeline
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'Nemourlon armor of reasonable weight resists penetration by most fragments and any bullet that is not both reasonably heavy and fairly high-velocity.'
'Several thousand of them formed the positioning grid on the rubble pile.'
'Its slack walls tightened, bulged, were crossed by ripples and waves of movement.'
'Norman... had never ridden any motorized device that lacked onboard steering and balance systems.'
You will note that HG Wells also figured out the aspect ratio of the future!
'As though a switch had been turned off, the pain stopped...'
'At the ringside opposite them a table had been removed to make room for a large transparent plastic capsule on wheels.'
'... he realized that the moving thing inside was - of course - a robot.'
