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Tale of the 'Evans, Fall 1944
Page 5
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page 5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- done in the pure spirit of adventure, as we neither expected to, nor did we, find anything of interest on the rock on which we landed. But we had became so proficient in our landing work, that the Master Scientists granted our request for this experiment. It was to land on a fragment only slightly larger than the ship itself. Strictly speaking, of course, it was not a landing. We merely "came alongside" as the old ocean skippers of Earth used to say; and made fast to the piece of rock with our magnetic grapples and gravity plates. Yet we can, truthfuly also, speak of it as a landing, for we approached it from "above"; settled downward toward it, and rested on it with out keel-plates. And I am sure you Space Pups will re-live with me the thrill of that achievement. The gravity of the rock and that of our ship, with our almost total metallic content, were nearly the same, and there was some speculation, from the first, as to which would "out-pull" the other. I guess we did pull it quite a bit out of its former orbit, at that. All in all, I don't mind admitting that we had a very thrilly hour. At first we thought we might not be able to make it, as we had to exert every ounce of power we possessed in order to make our rotation spin" equal that of the rock, and small enough to approach it properly. But at last we came near enough to its speed so that we could make a slanting power dive towards its surface, increasing our circling speed and at the same time decreasing the radius of our arch. And thus at last we came down and made our contact with its surface. Leaving and asteroid, after the landing is completed, is not as simple as it might sound at first, either, as we found out from the very beginning. Great care must be taked because of the centrifugal force of the asteroid's rotation, which can be very dangerous unless watched constantly while the ascent is being made. Circling in a counter-clockwise direction, of course, tends to offset this force to some extent. Firstly, we increase our gravity pull a bit while the magentic grapples arc loosened, and the pull is very slowly and carefully decreased and the propulsion motors started, so that the ship rises nearly vertically until high enough above the surface so that no mountainous projections can be a menace. We then turn about so that we are "facing away" from the direction of the rotation. Out speed of rotation is increased and the gravitational pull constantly lossened untill we are high enough to be beyond the point of asteroidal pull. at which moment the body appears to begin circling beneath us. The ship is then in free space. Motor speed can then be increased, and the journey up to one's next objective. Another thought in connection with the departure is apparently so simple that many pilots -- unused to this work -- might tend to overlook it entirely, as we nearly did. This is, that the smaller the bit, the slower must be the lift. And though I mentioned this before, I wish to emphasize it again -- you must be very careful lest the ship be actually "through" away from he asteroid by its centrifugal force, in which case you will have no little trouble in orienting yourself, particularly in a space crowded with small rock
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page 5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- done in the pure spirit of adventure, as we neither expected to, nor did we, find anything of interest on the rock on which we landed. But we had became so proficient in our landing work, that the Master Scientists granted our request for this experiment. It was to land on a fragment only slightly larger than the ship itself. Strictly speaking, of course, it was not a landing. We merely "came alongside" as the old ocean skippers of Earth used to say; and made fast to the piece of rock with our magnetic grapples and gravity plates. Yet we can, truthfuly also, speak of it as a landing, for we approached it from "above"; settled downward toward it, and rested on it with out keel-plates. And I am sure you Space Pups will re-live with me the thrill of that achievement. The gravity of the rock and that of our ship, with our almost total metallic content, were nearly the same, and there was some speculation, from the first, as to which would "out-pull" the other. I guess we did pull it quite a bit out of its former orbit, at that. All in all, I don't mind admitting that we had a very thrilly hour. At first we thought we might not be able to make it, as we had to exert every ounce of power we possessed in order to make our rotation spin" equal that of the rock, and small enough to approach it properly. But at last we came near enough to its speed so that we could make a slanting power dive towards its surface, increasing our circling speed and at the same time decreasing the radius of our arch. And thus at last we came down and made our contact with its surface. Leaving and asteroid, after the landing is completed, is not as simple as it might sound at first, either, as we found out from the very beginning. Great care must be taked because of the centrifugal force of the asteroid's rotation, which can be very dangerous unless watched constantly while the ascent is being made. Circling in a counter-clockwise direction, of course, tends to offset this force to some extent. Firstly, we increase our gravity pull a bit while the magentic grapples arc loosened, and the pull is very slowly and carefully decreased and the propulsion motors started, so that the ship rises nearly vertically until high enough above the surface so that no mountainous projections can be a menace. We then turn about so that we are "facing away" from the direction of the rotation. Out speed of rotation is increased and the gravitational pull constantly lossened untill we are high enough to be beyond the point of asteroidal pull. at which moment the body appears to begin circling beneath us. The ship is then in free space. Motor speed can then be increased, and the journey up to one's next objective. Another thought in connection with the departure is apparently so simple that many pilots -- unused to this work -- might tend to overlook it entirely, as we nearly did. This is, that the smaller the bit, the slower must be the lift. And though I mentioned this before, I wish to emphasize it again -- you must be very careful lest the ship be actually "through" away from he asteroid by its centrifugal force, in which case you will have no little trouble in orienting yourself, particularly in a space crowded with small rock
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