Word: airlessness
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...principle; nor do modern railroad cars bear much resemblance to the horse-drawn carriage prototypes. There must be a somewhat visionary or even fanciful approach to the future as well as a conventional one." New approaches to knowledge are as out of this world as the moon itself. Its airless environment and its fantastic temperature range make an ideal laboratory for high-vacuum and cryogenic (refrigerants) research; the vast amounts of solar energy, if properly harnessed on the moon, might be used to affect or control the earth's weather...
Cause of the disaster, as in similar instances rarely but regularly reported in the U.S., was botulin-a deadly nerve poison secreted by a microbe (Clostridium botulinum), probably from soil. The germs produce botulin only under airless conditions, are hard to kill even by boiling. And since the beets were served cold, Mrs. Gruwell had not boiled them-which might have destroyed the poison...
First Magnitude. Those brief seconds of gradual fading and slow reappearance were the reason for all the excitement. When the earth's airless moon occults a star, the star winks out instantaneously. But Venus has an abundant atmosphere, and so a star that it covers fades slowly, its light changing and diminishing like the setting sun. Careful observation is sure to tell volumes about the Venusian atmosphere, its density at various heights, its temperature and chemical makeup...
...Planets. Nearest planet to the earth is Venus. It is about as big as the earth and has an atmosphere, but it seems even less attractive as real estate than the airless, sun-seared moon. Its atmosphere is so cloudy that outsiders, peering from the earth, can see only its slightly yellowish cloud deck, which sometimes shows faint, impermanent markings...
...space art improves, instrumented vehicles will make soft landings on the moon, braked gently to the airless surface by retrorockets. Once they get there, they can look around with television eyes, telling the earth what they see. When the probes get good enough to tackle the planets, they can swoop into the atmosphere of Venus for a look at its unknown surface, swing around Mars looking for signs of life...