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Rama Series
''Rendezvous with Rama'' is a science fiction novel by British writer Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1973. Set in the 2130s, the story involves a cylindrical alien starship that enters the Solar System. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. The novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards upon its release, and is regarded as one of the cornerstones in Clarke's bibliography. The concept was later extended with several sequels, written by Clarke and Gentry Lee. Plot After an asteroid falls in Northeast Italy on 11 September 2077, creating a major disaster, the government of Earth sets up the Spaceguard system as an early warning of arrivals from deep space. The "Rama" of the title is an alien starship weighing at least ten trillion tons, initially mistaken for an asteroid categorised as "31/439". It is detected by astronomers in the year 2131 while it is still outside the orbit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur C
Arthur is a common male given name of Brythonic origin. Its popularity derives from it being the name of the legendary hero King Arthur. The etymology is disputed. It may derive from the Celtic ''Artos'' meaning “Bear”. Another theory, more widely believed, is that the name is derived from the Roman clan '' Artorius'' who lived in Roman Britain for centuries. A common spelling variant used in many Slavic, Romance, and Germanic languages is Artur. In Spanish and Italian it is Arturo. Etymology The earliest datable attestation of the name Arthur is in the early 9th century Welsh-Latin text ''Historia Brittonum'', where it refers to a circa 5th to 6th-century Briton general who fought against the invading Saxons, and who later gave rise to the famous King Arthur of medieval legend and literature. A possible earlier mention of the same man is to be found in the epic Welsh poem ''Y Gododdin'' by Aneirin, which some scholars assign to the late 6th century, though this is still a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northeast Italy
Northeast Italy ( it, Italia nord-orientale or just ) is one of the five official statistical regions of Italy used by the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT), a first level NUTS region and a European Parliament constituency. Northeast encompasses four of the country's 20 regions: *Emilia-Romagna *Friuli-Venezia Giulia *Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol *Veneto Culturally and historically, Emilia-Romagna is part of Northwest Italy, but is included in Northeast Italy for statistical reasons. Culture Italian is the main language. Other languages include Venetian, widely spoken in Veneto and along the coast to Trieste and Istria, as well as in the towns of Pordenone and Gorizia in Friuli, and in most of Trentino, but only recognised by the Veneto region; Friulian, spoken in most of Friuli and nationally recognized, and Ladin, spoken by a few thousand people in the Dolomites. Other languages are German, the primary language of South Tyrol, where Italian is spoken by about ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Biorobot
Biorobotics is an interdisciplinary science that combines the fields of biomedical engineering, cybernetics, and robotics to develop new technologies that integrate biology with mechanical systems to develop more efficient communication, alter genetic information, and create machines that imitate biological systems. Cybernetics Cybernetics focuses on the communication and system of living organisms and machines that can be applied and combined with multiple fields of study such as biology, mathematics, computer science, engineering, and much more. This discipline falls under the branch of biorobotics because of its combined field of study between biological bodies and mechanical systems. Studying these two systems allow for advanced analysis on the functions and processes of each system as well as the interactions between them. History Cybernetic theory is a concept that has existed for centuries, dating back to the era of Plato where he applied the term to refer to the " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Drogue Parachute
A drogue parachute is a parachute designed for deployment from a rapidly-moving object. It can be used for various purposes, such as to decrease speed, to provide control and stability, or as a pilot parachute to deploy a larger parachute. Vehicles that have used drogue parachutes include multi-stage parachutes, aircraft, and spacecraft recovery systems. The drogue parachute was invented by the Russian professor and parachute specialist Gleb Kotelnikov in 1912, who also invented the knapsack parachute. The Soviet Union introduced its first aircraft fitted with drogue parachutes during the mid 1930s; use of the technology expanded during and after the Second World War. A large number of jet-powered aircraft have been furnished with drogue parachutes, including the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber and the Eurofighter Typhoon multirole aircraft; they were also commonly used within crewed space vehicle recovery programmes, including Project Mercury and Project Ge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human-powered Aircraft
A human-powered aircraft (HPA) is an aircraft belonging to the class of vehicles known as human-powered transport. Human-powered aircraft have been successfully flown over considerable distances. However, they are still primarily constructed as engineering challenges rather than for any kind of recreational or utilitarian purpose. History Early attempts at human-powered flight were unsuccessful because of the difficulty of achieving the high power-to-weight ratio. Prototypes often used ornithopter principles which were not only too heavy to meet this requirement but aerodynamically unsatisfactory. First attempts In 1904, Scientific American published an article and a photograph of a bicycle plane built by Steward Winslow of Riparia, Washington. He attempted to fly his plane on 30 July 1904, but one of the wheels failed. An early human-powered aircraft was the Gerhardt Cycleplane, developed by W. Frederick Gerhardt at McCook Field in Dayton, Ohio in 1923. The aircr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Artificial World
Artificial worlds or artificial planets have been created by writers in the fields of science speculation, speculative fiction and fiction. Such megastructures could have a variety of advantages over natural planets, such as efficient use of solar energy and immense living space, but their construction and/or maintenance would require technologies so much more advanced than those of 21st-century Earth that it is currently unknown if they are even achievable. It was often stated, that it is more possible to build a 2-gigaton Dyson sphere than a laser rifle, but still ringworlds etc. are treated in sci-fi as symbol of immense power, often relic of Precursor civilization or symbol of all-powerful future empire. Examples of artificial worlds include: * Culture Orbitals * Dyson spheres *Globus Cassus *Ringworld The main plot of the Neill Blomkamp science fiction action movie Elysium focuses on a dystopian future where the poor live on a post apocalyptic Earth in ruins, working ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phobos (moon)
Phobos (; systematic designation: ) is the innermost and larger of the two natural satellites of Mars, the other being Deimos. The two moons were discovered in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall. It is named after Phobos, the Greek god of fear and panic, who is the son of Ares (Mars) and twin brother of Deimos. Phobos is a small, irregularly shaped object with a mean radius of . Phobos orbits from the Martian surface, closer to its primary body than any other known planetary moon. It is so close that it orbits Mars much faster than Mars rotates, and completes an orbit in just 7 hours and 39 minutes. As a result, from the surface of Mars it appears to rise in the west, move across the sky in 4 hours and 15 minutes or less, and set in the east, twice each Martian day. Phobos is one of the least reflective bodies in the Solar System, with an albedo of just 0.071. Surface temperatures range from about on the sunlit side to on the shadowed side. The defining surfa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
