Word: frictionlessness
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Verne's underground hike would, have taken far less time, says Cooper, if he had simply fallen into a frictionless tunnel bored through the earth's center. Accelerated by the force of gravity on the first half of his trip, he would have gained just enough kinetic energy to coast up to the other side-against the pull of gravity-in a total time of only 42.2 minutes...
...rocket is likely to prove to be the Mighty Mouse of the space age. On earth it develops no more thrust than several milli-pounds (engineers call it the "milli-mouse burp"), barely enough to lift a one-carat diamond an inch off a desk. But in frictionless, gravity-free space, such burps can propel the biggest payloads. And the ion rocket's assignment is just that: to take over the task of propelling huge space cargoes to the planets and back after the mighty chemical rockets lift them clear of the earth's gravitational pull...
...automatic and fly-by-wire. The manual system has direct mechanical connections between the control stick and the valves of a set of peroxide jets. When the astronaut moves the stick, steam blasts through selected jets to give the capsule the desired turning motion. Once it starts turning in frictionless space, it continues to turn, and it cannot be stopped without using more peroxide. Vigorous use of the manual system will quickly empty its fuel tank...
...keeps them slow. Last week Britain's Saunders-Roe, Ltd. (aircraft) demonstrated a hybrid craft that is neither ship nor airplane, but has some of the advantages of both. Called the Hovercraft, it moves a little way above the surface of land or water, supported on a nearly frictionless cushion...
Placid Space. The best way to think of space as a navigable medium is to imagine the frictionless surface of a calm, glassy pond. Small objects drift across it easily, propelled by feeble forces. Scattered at wide intervals over the mirror surfaces are deep, sucking whirlpools. If a floating leaf drifts close to one of them, it plunges down to the bottom. A self-powered object, say a water insect, that gets sucked into a whirlpool has a terrible time battling back to the surface...