Yay for me. It was Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke. Considering that this was written before anyone had even launched a satellite, I think the amount of things he got spot on was excellent. It was an amazing vision he had.
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Yay for me. It was Islands in the Sky by Arthur C. Clarke. Considering that this was written before anyone had even launched a satellite, I think the amount of things he got spot on was excellent. It was an amazing vision he had.
Honored Member
A bit late, but congradulations!
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Clarke was a very astute forteller of science to come. He is the only SF author I can think of who said computers would actually get smaller. Of course, he was also a scientist.
Established Member
Murray Leinster wrote a short story in 1946 titled "A Logic Named Joe."Originally Posted by Geoff394
It predicted desktop sized computers, computers using monitor screens, home based access to a global network to access news and weather and other content, age based content filtering, network addresses, built-in help systems, centralized software updates, software that adapts to the user and pay for use public network access.
It can be found in this collection:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...e&n=507846
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I thought HAVOC was kind of funny though. It was described as this huge thing that they used for calculations of planetary missions, but in fact, I could probably programme my calculator to do the job.
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I have some doubts about that--maybe someone familiar with the trajectory calculation programs has some input. Someone in the past posted that the calculations on occasion have to take into account relativistic effects; i don't know if this is true or just hyperbole. Certainly if the mission involves a gravitational flyby you're going to have to get a lot more accurate models than those in Duffet-Smith's or Meeus' books.
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A.C.Clarke is definely worth the reads. I just finished rereading the 2001 series, The Fountains of Paradise, and the first two Rama books. Great stuff! I would love to know if his idea of a space elevator will ever happen.
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Me too...A.C.Clarke is definely worth the reads. I just finished rereading the 2001 series, The Fountains of Paradise, and the first two Rama books. Great stuff! I would love to know if his idea of a space elevator will ever happen.
I love his quote on this: "It’ll be built 10 years after everybody stops laughing ... and I think they have stopped laughing"
Established Member
Glom, whenever I see the title of this thread I keep thinking it sounds like that you are an almost illiterate person who has never read a book before. I can only assume that that is not the case since you belong to this board.
Sorry, I just had to make a comment to this effect, because I kept felling like saying something mean as a response, and I figured a semi-neutral comment was better.
Again, due to your participation on this board I do not in any way think of you or anyone else who frequents this board as illiterate.
Established Member
Research is underway.
http://www.eurekasci.com/SPACE_ELEVA..._Homepage.html
Order of Kilopi
My personal favorite Clarke prediction, and one that will haunt him to the end of his days, "There are no mountains on Mars."
Asimov's The Final Question is another example from that period of computers that grow smaller.He is the only SF author I can think of who said computers would actually get smaller.
But thenOf course, he was also a scientist.
Established Member
Asimov also had clip-board sized personal computation devices in Foundation.
Established Member
Well, apparently, he didn't take his own advice. In his SF short story "Superiority", written in the 1940s, he had a space war between civilizations in the far future. One side invented a warship controlled by a supercomputer called the Battle Analyzer. The Battle Analyzer contained over a million vacuum tubes and required its own separate spacecraft to haul it around!
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I've been making way with Rendezvous with Rama. Has there been any movies made based on it? My first impression is that it could make a good one, if done right (and how likely is that?).
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I've been gone for a while. Thanks for the link. Very interesting stuff.Research is underway.
http://www.eurekasci.com/SPACE_ELEVA..._Homepage.html
Member
I believe Morgan Freeman's production company is working on a Rama adaptation. I had heard awhile back that there was a screenwriter working on it, and that David Fincher was attached to direct, but I haven't heard anything recently.
http://www.cinescape.com/0/Editorial...p;obj_id=35147
Order of Kilopi
Space elevator,
will definately happen, since once it is created it becomes an extremely cheap way of moving items into orbit.
I also like the bola method, almost as cheap.
Member
I know that NASA is always working on a cheaper way to get things to orbit. Currently they are working on a cheaper version of the space shuttle, seeing as how that program is starting to show it's age. I'm sure they are working very hard on either the magnetic rail gun or space elevator also.
Established Member
I don't believe that's the way NASA works. They have a small research arm that's looking into things like a maglev 0th stage (they're not developing a real one, just looking at a small one and seeing what it would take to make it real). They've done paper studies of a number of things (VASIMR for one, beanstalks for another). They've asked companies to submit proposals for a space plane, which is not necessarily a plane, but is supposed to ferry a small crew to and from orbit. That, at least, is not a shuttle replacement--it won't have the cargo capacity of the shuttle, and will be launched on an expendable. If it ever materializes.
Member
I know that the maglev isn't just a theory anymore. There's a ride based on it at Six Flags Magic Mountain in SoCal and I'm pretty sure I saw a show about a train in Japan using the technology. Probably just a question of application at this point for getting out of the gravity well.
Established Member
The main question is if it is more useful than just strapping on another booster. There are power problems if you're using the maglev to accelerate the payload (getting that much power to the motor); there are control problems if you're not (otherwise you're using a booster (rocket or jet) and using the maglev just for levitation--you need your train to stay precisely on track or things get really messy). There are some other problems involving orbital inclinations (you can't adjust the angle of a maglev track to allow for different type orbits).
So, yes, you can build a maglev--that's been known for a long time. The question is whether it would be a good idea to build one for launches. I'm not sure if their study went even that far--it might have stopped with determining the characteristics of a maglev built for launch assist, and allow someone else to draw their own conclusions about practicality.
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