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"Does it open a new horizon for my thinking? Does it lead me to think new kinds of thoughts, that I would not otherwise perhaps have thought at all? These qualities are what [make] science fiction ...unique."
- Frederik Pohl
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| Reflected Artificial Sun | ||
| Sending light to another planet via mirror. |
One of the earliest uses of this idea in science fiction - but not in science, see below.
| The artificial sun was reflected to Inferno by means of the huge parabolic mirrors of the super-power station in the Rockies. But the relative positions of the luminary, of Earth, and of Inferno had to be calculated to” a nicety.
And, according to Mackay, in spite of the most ingenious reflecting devices, there must be a period of one hour during which the intervention of Jupiter threw the artificial sun into eclipse. That period was now due, and Mackay had calculated it by means of a wrist-chronometer stolen from the station by a slave, who had later been expelled. The three were to approach as near as possible to the station, then to await the onset of the eclipse; in the darkness, to make an attempt to scale the fence. |
| Technovelgy from Revolt on Inferno,
by Victor Rousseau. Published by Miracle Science and Fantasy Stories in 1931 Additional resources -
|
In 1923, German physicist Hermann Oberth described space mirrors with a diameter of 100 to 300 km in his book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen, consisting of a grid network of individually adjustable mirrors. Space mirrors in orbit around the Earth are intended to focus sunlight on individual regions of the earth's surface.
Compare to the electrono-mirror from The Day We Celebrate (1941) by Nelson S. Bond.
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More Ideas
and Technology from Revolt on Inferno
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Tech news articles related to Revolt on Inferno
Tech news articles related to works by Victor Rousseau
| 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.'
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'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...'
