R. R. Winterbotham

Name: Message from Venus
Author: R. R. Winterbotham

Message from Venus

Summary

“Message from Venus”, is a work by R. R. Winterbotham. It explores elements such as Venusians, speed and lifeboat.

Quotes from Message from Venus (R. R. Winterbotham)

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ Captain Bonnet nodded to the major. "You're right, sir!" He turned to the members of his crew who were manning an anti-rocket gun. "Did you hear that? Knock 'em out of the sky!"
The gun coughed Amorg vapor into the sky. A gaping hole appeared directly overhead where the bodies of at least a hundred Venusians were disintegrated. Before the gun could be recharged the hole disappeared, filled by more bulging Venusians.
Lieutenant Bill Riley wiped the sweat from his face with his soiled coat sleeve.
"It's like bailing a boat with a sieve!" he said. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ In the first place we'll be going too fast. If we tried to get into an orbit we'd sail right out again. To become a satellite of the earth—and I suppose that's what you're thinking of—we'd have to slow ourselves down to exactly the right speed necessary to overcome the earth's gravity. That would be hard to do with the instruments on this lifeboat, even if we had the fuel necessary to brake. In the second place, if we got close enough to the earth to be seen by a telescope, our orbital speed would be too fast for any 'scope to keep us in focus. We'd be mistaken on photographs for a meteor. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ Rocket engineers in developing machines for space travel had found speed the foremost bugaboo. It was the speed a rocket had to attain to leave terrestrial gravity that balked engineers. There also was man's instinctive fear of going fast, in spite of the assurances of science that speed, in itself, was harmless. It was acceleration and deceleration that killed people.
One might travel seven miles a second indefinitely and suffer no ill effects, once he got going that rate of speed. However, one might die quickly while attaining it. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ The craft was speeding in an orbit parallel to the surface of the earth. Captain Bonnet had brought the space ship out of a tail spin.
Instantly he shut off the fuel valves, leaving the remainder of the fuel available for the cooling apparatus.
Lieutenant Riley looked wide-eyed at the hemisphere beneath the craft.
"Well, we're here and we've less than a gallon of fuel," he said. "What next?"
"Unless there's an accident, we're going to land on an ounce or two," Captain Bonnet replied. "A meteor doesn't use any fuel, but it has accidents. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ He lifted his hand and showed a bottle to the captain.
"Look what a close shave we had," he said. "This bottle of Martian Zingo was in the lockers all the way from Venus and neither of us suspected it. Lord, if we'd crashed we'd never have been able to sample it!" ”

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Source: Gutenberg

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ The escape velocity of the earth is gravity in reverse—if we can twist our minds around to think of it that way. We manufacture the escape velocity with our rocket fuel and use it to neutralize gravity. An object going 6.9 miles a second goes far enough around the earth in a second that the earth's curvature doesn't catch up with it, so to speak. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ Any piece of matter is sure to obey the laws of the universe. Captain Bonnet supposed that if the lifeboat succeeded in taking off, and if it were put on the right orbit, it could reach the earth in time to send reinforcements back to Venus.
As Captain Paul Bonnet and Lieutenant Bill Riley took their places in the ship, Major Rogers explained that the craft had been equipped with a small parachute to be used just before the lifeboat crashed in dropping a message to authorities that Outpost 53 had been attacked and that reinforcements were needed. ”

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Source: Gutenberg

R. R. Winterbotham, Message from Venus

“ It was powered by fourteen rocket valves, fed from detachable fuel containers, so arranged that as fast as a fuel drum was emptied it could be dropped from the rocket. The ship was streamlined from the nose to tail, but it was flattened on the bottom, so that either of two possible types of landing maneuvers could be attempted.
Attempted was the correct word, for lifeboats of space ships were never the last word in navigable machines. They were to be used only as a last resort under desperate circumstances. No lifeboat had ever been built as a machine for lengthy interplanetary travel. ”

R. R. Winterbotham

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