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"I'm a fairly visual thinker. In doing science, I think in terms of pictures of things happening, and then do the mathematics."
- Gregory Benford
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| Launch Shock | ||
| Astronauts need protection from the shock of being launched into space. |
This is a very early, probably the first, reference to the idea that the shock and pressure of launching a person into space will require careful placement.
| In every instance the take-off hits him as a severe shock, for he is hurled just as though he had been shot aloft by gunpowder to sail over mountains and seas. For this reason at the outset he must be lulled to sleep immediately with narcotics and opiates. His limbs must be arranged in such a way that his torso will not be torn away from his buttocks nor his head from his body, but the shock will be distributed among his individual limbs... |
| Technovelgy from Somnium (The Dream),
by Johannes Kepler. Published by Not Known in 1634 Additional resources -
|
Compare to water springs from From the Earth to the Moon (1867), by Jules Verne and the shock-absorbing seats from Evans of the Earth-Guard (1930) by Edmond Hamilton.
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Tech news articles related to works by Johannes Kepler
| Sunbird Pulsar Fusion Like Leinster's Space Tug |
| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
| The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds |
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'...it rears and spreads its fan. It can pick one man out of a crowd.'
'...a new plastic with the characteristics of an avian eggshell.'
'It was a pushpot, which could not possibly be called a jet plane because it could not possibly fly. Only it did.'
'She wouldn't stop until Antar had told her everything he knew about whatever it was that she was playing with on her screen.'
'Does thinking you're the last sane man on the face of the Earth make you crazy?'
'It hurtled on down with inconceivable speed until it was visible as thousands of tiny robot planes...'
