In article <hck3n7$ob...@panix2.panix.com>, wdst...@panix.com (William December Starr) writes:
>In article <da5649b7-b24d-4824-b006-049169b1d...@b15g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>, Robert Carnegie <rja.carne...@excite.com> said: >> But with real scarcities in prospect in the very near future - >> really already happening - that needs to be explored. With not >> enough to satisfy all the consumers in the world, what do you do? >> Start genocidal wars against your neighbours so you can use all of >> the limited resource yourself? It makes sense.
>Isn't it easier to start genocidal wars against members of your own >population? Less travel time and all that.
"Time Out of Mind" by Pierre Boulle shows a genocidal war being conducted by somebody against their own population, sort of. But there is more time travel, rather than less.
Oh, you said "travel time". Too bad.
-- Michael F. Stemper #include <Standard_Disclaimer> 91.2% of all statistics are made up by the person quoting them.
On Oct 31, 10:07 am, "Eric S. Harris" <eric_harris...@wahoo.com> wrote:
> F'rinstance, there was a story in Analog long ago about orbital > mechanics that stuck with me -- or at least the gimmick did. Don't just > throw it away; its orbit intersects yours now ... and will later, too. > Oops. (Who did the throwing of what and why and how is almost totally > forgotten, as is the nature of the "oops". Earth orbit, late 20th > Century, possibly a radioactive thingus. YASID, anyone?)
This probably isn't the one you're thinking of...
There was a story (or more?) in Analog set on a space station which was built around a very long linear accelerator/decelerator. Ships were launched from Earth vertically, but did not bother to add to their component of velocity tangent to Earth's radius. When the space station swung around, the ships entered the linear accelerator at the "front" and were brought up to the station's speed (of course, slightly lowering the overall station velocity). When departing the ships were spit out the back end with as much velocity as possible that would still let them reenter Earth's atmosphere, thus giving the station a little boost.
trag <t...@io.com> wrote: >On Oct 31, 10:07 am, "Eric S. Harris" <eric_harris...@wahoo.com> >wrote:
>> F'rinstance, there was a story in Analog long ago about orbital >> mechanics that stuck with me -- or at least the gimmick did. Don't just >> throw it away; its orbit intersects yours now ... and will later, too. >> Oops. (Who did the throwing of what and why and how is almost totally >> forgotten, as is the nature of the "oops". Earth orbit, late 20th >> Century, possibly a radioactive thingus. YASID, anyone?)
>This probably isn't the one you're thinking of...
>There was a story (or more?) in Analog set on a space station which >was built around a very long linear accelerator/decelerator. Ships >were launched from Earth vertically, but did not bother to add to >their component of velocity tangent to Earth's radius. When the >space station swung around, the ships entered the linear accelerator >at the "front" and were brought up to the station's speed (of course, >slightly lowering the overall station velocity). When departing the >ships were spit out the back end with as much velocity as possible >that would still let them reenter Earth's atmosphere, thus giving the >station a little boost.
That's Donald Kingsbury's novella The Moon Goddess and the Son (1979), which was expanded into the novel The Moon Goddess and the Son (1986). There are two related essays: The Spaceport, Part 1 (1979) and The Spaceport, Part 2 (1979), both with with Roger Arnold. -- http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)
James Nicoll wrote: > In article <da8e404c-0f38-4fc9-a770-252fb2064...@g27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>, > trag <t...@io.com> wrote:
>>On Oct 31, 10:07 am, "Eric S. Harris" <eric_harris...@wahoo.com> >>wrote:
>>>F'rinstance, there was a story in Analog long ago about orbital >>>mechanics that stuck with me -- or at least the gimmick did. Don't just >>>throw it away; its orbit intersects yours now ... and will later, too. >>>Oops. (Who did the throwing of what and why and how is almost totally >>>forgotten, as is the nature of the "oops". Earth orbit, late 20th >>>Century, possibly a radioactive thingus. YASID, anyone?)
>>This probably isn't the one you're thinking of...
>>There was a story (or more?) in Analog set on a space station which >>was built around a very long linear accelerator/decelerator. Ships >>were launched from Earth vertically, but did not bother to add to >>their component of velocity tangent to Earth's radius. When the >>space station swung around, the ships entered the linear accelerator >>at the "front" and were brought up to the station's speed (of course, >>slightly lowering the overall station velocity). When departing the >>ships were spit out the back end with as much velocity as possible >>that would still let them reenter Earth's atmosphere, thus giving the >>station a little boost.
> That's Donald Kingsbury's novella The Moon Goddess and the > Son (1979), which was expanded into the novel The Moon Goddess and > the Son (1986). There are two related essays: The Spaceport, > Part 1 (1979) and The Spaceport, Part 2 (1979), both with with > Roger Arnold.
You're right. That's the one. I do recall that concept and the articles that accompanied or preceded the fiction -- it fascinated me for a time, and I discussed it with a co-worker over lunch -- but do not recall the story so much. There were people and a conflict or other problem, or maybe several, and the people figured things out.
In other words, it was an Analog story. ("Not that there's anything wrong with that.") Sure beats stories where people mope, or screw things up worse because they're foolish/neurotic/whatever, or otherwise deal poorly with life's challenges.
For some reason I'm recalling a different name (Charles? Sheffield) but trag's description fits exactly with what I remember of the concept. And the year you give for the novella and essays fits well with the timeframe for the lunchtime discussions.
Thanks, and thanks to trag, too. -Eric
-- Replace the "w" with a "y" when replying via e-mail. If I haven't replied to an alleged rebuttal (yet), it may not be the most deserving of correction; it's a big Internet: http://xkcd.com/386 May 2008: The yahoo.com address has technical difficulties. Dec: Yahoo is fixing ...
In article <JJKdnSyZp7d98GzXnZ2dnUVZ_uGdn...@earthlink.com>, Eric S. Harris <eric_harris...@wahoo.com> wrote:
>For some reason I'm recalling a different name (Charles? Sheffield) but >trag's description fits exactly with what I remember of the concept. >And the year you give for the novella and essays fits well with the >timeframe for the lunchtime discussions.
Sheffield was more a beanstalks and rotating tethers guy and for soem reason I associate him more with Jim Baen's periodicals (Galaxy and Destinies) than I do with Analog.
> In article <da8e404c-0f38-4fc9-a770-252fb2064...@g27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>,
> trag <t...@io.com> wrote: > >On Oct 31, 10:07 am, "Eric S. Harris" <eric_harris...@wahoo.com> > >wrote:
> >> F'rinstance, there was a story in Analog long ago about orbital > >> mechanics that stuck with me -- or at least the gimmick did. Don't just > >> throw it away; its orbit intersects yours now ... and will later, too. > >> Oops. (Who did the throwing of what and why and how is almost totally > >> forgotten, as is the nature of the "oops". Earth orbit, late 20th > >> Century, possibly a radioactive thingus. YASID, anyone?)
> >This probably isn't the one you're thinking of...
> >There was a story (or more?) in Analog set on a space station which > >was built around a very long linear accelerator/decelerator. Ships > >were launched from Earth vertically, but did not bother to add to > >their component of velocity tangent to Earth's radius. When the > >space station swung around, the ships entered the linear accelerator > >at the "front" and were brought up to the station's speed (of course, > >slightly lowering the overall station velocity). When departing the > >ships were spit out the back end with as much velocity as possible > >that would still let them reenter Earth's atmosphere, thus giving the > >station a little boost.
> That's Donald Kingsbury's novella The Moon Goddess and the > Son (1979), which was expanded into the novel The Moon Goddess and > the Son (1986). There are two related essays: The Spaceport, > Part 1 (1979) and The Spaceport, Part 2 (1979), both with with > Roger Arnold.
> James Nicoll wrote: > > In article <da8e404c-0f38-4fc9-a770-252fb2064...@g27g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>, > > trag <t...@io.com> wrote:
> >>On Oct 31, 10:07 am, "Eric S. Harris" <eric_harris...@wahoo.com> > >>wrote:
> >>>F'rinstance, there was a story in Analog long ago about orbital > >>>mechanics that stuck with me -- or at least the gimmick did. Don't just > >>>throw it away; its orbit intersects yours now ... and will later, too. > >>>Oops. (Who did the throwing of what and why and how is almost totally > >>>forgotten, as is the nature of the "oops". Earth orbit, late 20th > >>>Century, possibly a radioactive thingus. YASID, anyone?)
> >>This probably isn't the one you're thinking of...
> >>There was a story (or more?) in Analog set on a space station which > >>was built around a very long linear accelerator/decelerator. Ships > >>were launched from Earth vertically, but did not bother to add to > >>their component of velocity tangent to Earth's radius. When the > >>space station swung around, the ships entered the linear accelerator > >>at the "front" and were brought up to the station's speed (of course, > >>slightly lowering the overall station velocity). When departing the > >>ships were spit out the back end with as much velocity as possible > >>that would still let them reenter Earth's atmosphere, thus giving the > >>station a little boost.
> > That's Donald Kingsbury's novella The Moon Goddess and the > > Son (1979), which was expanded into the novel The Moon Goddess and > > the Son (1986). There are two related essays: The Spaceport, > > Part 1 (1979) and The Spaceport, Part 2 (1979), both with with > > Roger Arnold.
> You're right. That's the one. I do recall that concept and the > articles that accompanied or preceded the fiction -- it fascinated me > for a time, and I discussed it with a co-worker over lunch -- but do not > recall the story so much. There were people and a conflict or other > problem, or maybe several, and the people figured things out.
> In other words, it was an Analog story. ("Not that there's anything > wrong with that.") Sure beats stories where people mope, or screw > things up worse because they're foolish/neurotic/whatever, or otherwise > deal poorly with life's challenges.
I didn't know Tina Hall was giving literature appreciation classes. :-)
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