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"I kind of take it for granted that our great-grandchildren will regard us as a sort of precursor species. That they won't think of us as human and if we could see them, we probably wouldn't think of them as human either."
- William Gibson
 |
| Fueling Island (Pie Pan) | ||
| A space station placed (and held) between distant planets in the solar system. |
When making the run between Pluto and Neptune, you'll want to stop at a refueling station:
He was proud of all his terrestrial crew. Thoroughbreds of Earth they were, incarcerating themselves in this space prison, making it possible for ships to make the two billion-mile trip without using too much valuable space for fuel.
| Captain Heath, in command of the new fueling “island,” 88-X, located between Neptune and Pluto at the beginning of their forty years of approximate conjunction, sat before a table poring over stellar charts...
Together they took the steps two at a time. The fueling “island,” built in the shape of a huge disc with a solid block on top, was popularly known among spacemen as the “Pie Pan.” A shelf flanked two sides of it, permitting the landing of ships to refuel on the direct run between Pluto and Neptune. Great airlocks swallowed them as they disappeared within. And above all protruded a small but massive quartzite cylindrical knob, giving an unobstructed view of the heavens. |
| Technovelgy from Crossroads of Space,
by A.G. Stangland. Published by Wonder Stories in 1932 Additional resources -
|
Rather than being in a "natural" orbit around the sun, the fueling island was held in place using fuel:
Heath stood up and read the angle. Just as surely as if she had slipped some huge steel cables holding her midway between the two planets, the 88-X was roaming farther out afield with each spurt of her giant back-thrust rocket tubes. The radio pilot-beams from Pluto and Neptune automatically guiding her in space, were dead, no longer actuating the delicate tynes of the electric control slider that set off the rocket tubes to keep position.
“For at least the last thirty hours this firing pattern
has been maintained on the electric tynes, Rawlins, driving us off our point. You’ll have to operate this typon by hand, and get the island back on position.” Heath released the robot steersman from its locked position so that it swung free. He faced the two men, a sober expression in his grey eyes.
“I don’t doubt that you two are quite aware of the fact that we are in great danger right now. If that collier doesn’t arrive in several more days, we’ll be out of fuel, and that means we’ll start drifting around the sun in our own natural orbit.
As a space station, compare to the brick moon from The Brick Moon (1869) by Edward Everett Hale, the city of space from The Prince of Space (1931) by Jack Williamson, the New Moon Casino from One Against the Legion (1939) by Jack Williamson, the Venus Equilateral Relay Station from QRM - Interplanetary (1942) by George O. Smith, Wheelchair from Waldo (1942) by Robert Heinlein, the space transfer station from Between Planets (1951) by Robert Heinlein, the Sargasso Asteroid from The Stars My Destination (1956) by Alfred Bester,
the tether space station from Tank Farm Dynamo (1983) by David Brin and the high orbit archipelago from Mona Lisa Overdrive (1988) by William Gibson.
“I don’t know what to think, sir, but I do know we’re a million miles out of position, and still drifting — God knows where!” answered Rawlins gravely, his face a grim mask of tense lines.
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| Crystalline Structures In Space, You Say? |
| Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail |
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