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"It is change ... that is the dominant factor in society today... the world as it will be. This means that ... every man must take on a science fictional way of thinking.""
- Isaac Asimov
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| Rocket Side Tubes | ||
| An early description of attitude jets, course correction by small emissions of gas. |
This is an early use of this concept, usually called a reaction control system (RCS); it's a spacecraft system that uses thrusters to provide attitude control.
| Left alone in the pilot-house, Evans sat at the control-board with eyes glancing from one to another of the recording dials above it. Now and then he depressed a firing-lever, firing one of the rocket’s side tubes to keep it from leaving its proper space-lane, but for the most part the great craft hurtled steadily onward in its course, and he occupied himself in contemplating through the windows the moon’s bright sphere and the dazzling light-patches on it that marked the position of the lunar cities. |
| Technovelgy from Evans of the Earth-Guard,
by Edmond Hamilton. Published by Air Wonder Stories in 1930 Additional resources -
|
Compare to the emergency corrective rockets from The Emperor of the Stars (1931) by Nat Schachner (w. AL Zagat) and the handheld personal rocket jet from Space Cadet (1948) by Robert Heinlein.
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