Central capsule

“ With undiminished velocity they were flashing downward in a long slant toward the beleaguered Third City, and from the flying vessel there was launched toward the city's central lagoon a torpedo. No missile this, but a capsule containing a full ton of allotropic iron, which would be of more use to the Nevian defenders than millions of men. ”

“ In other words, the capsule would become a vacuum in which nothing on Earth could live. The astronaut would then have to depend upon his spacesuit which, being pressurized, and being really a capsule within a capsule, with its own supply of oxygen, would be the one hope of survival.
That day, the test had consisted of the "puncturing" of the capsule. At a given signal, the pressure inside it had been reduced to that of fifty miles above the Earth's surface—in other words, to zero—by pumping out the air inside it. Richardson, the ace of the astronauts, had been chosen for this important test. ”

“ During approach to a space station, cosmonauts piloted the TKS from a control post at the front of the FGB. The control post had a viewport overlooking the probe docking apparatus. FGB and capsule could be controlled independently from the ground. The capsule could detach from the FGB and return to Earth, leaving it in free flight or attached to a station. The FGB could be docked by ground control with a space station. TKS or FGB could remain docked to a station for months, providing it with attitude control, orbital maintenance, additional volume, and power from its solar arrays. ”

“ Since his capsule, like all heavenly bodies, was stable in position with respect to the entire universe and, thanks to Sir Isaac Newton and his laws, never changed, the Earth and the stars alternated over his head during each orbit. ”

“ Higher still and higher he rose in the southern sky, and then, when he had reached his zenith, he dropped swiftly down past the dark edge of the Earth and disappeared from sight. A boy grown up too soon, riding round and round the world on a celestial carousel, encased in an airtight metal capsule in an airtight metal chariot ... ”

“ More than 40 Progress and Progress-M freighters have delivered more than 100 tons of supplies and fuel to Mir. The improved Progress-M occasionally carries a capsule for returning to Earth a small quantity of experiment results and industrial products from the station. Occasionally cargo comes back to Earth with cosmonauts in Soyuz-TM capsules. ”

“ Cosmonauts could develop film from the Agat camera on the station. Important or interesting images were printed, then scanned by a TV imaging system for broadcast to Earth. [30] The cosmonauts needed as little as 30 minutes to shoot, develop, and scan a photograph. Other images were packed in the small Earth-return capsule, which was then ejected from thechamber under the spherical airlock. ”

“ The Capsule, the dry and dehiscent fruit of any compound pistil. The capsule may discharge its seeds through chinks or pores, as in the [Pg 123] Poppy, or burst irregularly in some part, as in Lobelia and the Snapdragon; but commonly it splits open (or is dehiscent) lengthwise into regular pieces, called Valves.
Fig. 395. Capsule of Iris, with loculicidal dehiscence; below, cut across.
Fig. 396. Pod of a Marsh St. John's-wort, with septicidal dehiscence.
371. Regular Dehiscence in a capsule takes place in two ways, which are best illustrated in pods of two or three cells. ”

“ The capsules or thécæ (θἡκη, a case) , a magnified group of which is represented in fig. 11, consist each of an aggregation of cells, fixed to a stalk (fig. 12) ; and along the back of the capsule is a close row of thicker cells, forming an elastic ring, the an ́nulus. When the seed-like bodies or spores (σπορἁ, a seed) are ripe, the annulus becomes straightened from its elastic power, and tears the capsule open, so that the spores are set free and scattered. ”

“ Spinning always on its axis, substituting centrifugal force for the gravity tug of Earth, the Station was a complete world, a self-contained macrocosm so immense that the magnetic-shod mechanics who inspected it in relays, the passenger-carrying shuttle rockets from Earth that came and went, and even the thousand-foot ships that berthed for re-fueling and clearance seemed hardly to encroach at all on its vast central bulk. ”

“ I have, however, no evidence that the fibers from the prism cells extend beyond the prisms in whose axis they lie. The capsule lies very closely applied to the lens, never becoming separated from it in sections, and is, hence, regarded as a secretion from the lens cells. Just what its function may be is difficult to surmise. The proximal complex eye possesses no capsule. I have thought, however, that if the lens should be adjustable, the capsule might [45] serve as a protection to the prisms of the vitreous portion of the retina during the adjusting movements of the lens. ”

“ They are narrow and slender, and each is composed of two longitudinal portions (fig. 18 a) , one of which is pale yellow, the other reddish brown, like the capsule, and both are fringed and covered with very minute papillæ. The capsule (fig. 18) is oblong, the ring or annulus remaining for some time. The lid is conical (fig. 19) , with a longish somewhat oblique beak, and the calyptra is dimidiate (fig. 20) . The stems are very short; the leaves (fig. 17) are oblong, obtuse; the nerve strong, and projecting as a colourless spirally striated bristle. ”

“ Evidently the Germans wanted the capsule as well as the men who had arrived in it. When the long vehicle had passed the half-track ground forward again. It was growing dark when the shapes of two large tanks loomed up ahead, cannons following them as they bounced down the rutted track. Behind these sentries was a car park of other vehicles, tents and the ruddy glow of gasoline fires burning in buckets of sand. The half-track stopped before the largest tent and at gunpoint the two astronauts were pushed through the entrance. ”

“ And while you're changing suits you'd better put on some stuff I've got here--Service special phones and detectors. Stick this little disk onto your chest with this bit of tape; low down, out of sight. Just under your wishbone is the best place. Take off your wrist-watch and wear this one continuously--never take it off for a second. Put on these pearls, and wear them all the time, too. Take this capsule and hide it against your skin, some place where it can't be found except by the most rigid search. Swallow it in an emergency--it goes down easily and works just as well inside as outside. ”

“ He collected the smaller articles first, setting them down in a row on a long metal bench directly opposite the airlock: three compasses, each weighing perhaps twenty ounces; a cathode ray compass; a non-magnetic compass and a sun compass. The sun compass would perhaps prove the most valuable until darkness fell. The sun, shining down with brilliance from the clear Martian sky, could throw a directional kind of shadow, enabling a man on foot to take fairly accurate bearings without the use of sighting and viewing instruments. ”

“ The heat pressed them relentlessly, always increasing—
"Take the capsule, Lejeune. You've no reason to remain."
"I prefer to stay, Captain Rogers. You have relatives—it is only proper that you should fly the capsule."
"Under any circumstances, Lejeune, the captain does not leave his ship in distress. Should I return to earth without the rest of you, I would lose my rank unquestionably. Now, before we draw too close, take the cylinder to Mercury! You're a fool not to!" ”

“ I am going to compress you and your new playmates into this spherical capsule and surround you with a stasis of time. Then I am going to send you on a trip. As soon as you are out of the Galaxy this bar here will throw in a cosmic-energy drive—not using the power of the bar itself, you understand, but only employing its normal radiation of energy to direct and to control the energy of space—and you will depart for scenes unknown with an acceleration equal to the sixth power of the velocity of light. You will travel at that acceleration until this small bar is gone. ”

“ One of these is a large, high-altitude, balloon-supported laboratory in which most conditions of space environment could be simulated. His balloon-supported laboratory would not only allow a substantial amount of research on the equipment needed by the space crew and on the effects of space environment needed by the space crew and on the effect of space environment on the capsule and its inhabitants, but could also be valuable for basic environmental studies. ”

“ The control ship proceeded directly to the most pleasant of the planets, with its guard, and the other ships were sent to watch the planets lest the Atomic Creatures return. Then on the planet the men began to set up one of the great receiving stations. From the sides of the ships ran mighty power cables to the powerful station. Then across space there came expert engineers, workmen, instruments and tools, working machines, constructor robots, and then great pieces of machinery so huge they could send only one section at a time. ”

“ Each man was packed into a break-proof, shock-proof, water-proof, wind-proof plastic capsule, and ejected safely beyond the slipstream area of the carriers, at which point, each capsule sprouted a silken chute that lowered the enclosed men gently down into range of the enemy's rocket-fire ... ”

“ It took a long time for human beings to accept that our little piece of meteoric rubble wasn't the exact and absolute center of the Universe. It does appear that way, doesn't it? It may not take so long for a spaceman to learn ... By JOHN CORY Illustrated by Gardner
ear the end of his fifteenth orbit as Greenland slipped by noiselessly below, he made the routine measurements that tested the operation of his space capsule and checked the automatic instruments which would transmit their stored data to Earth on his next pass over Control. ”

“ But back on the old planets, mighty works were being undertaken. They were building two thousand ships, the biggest ships that had ever been built. Millions of tons they weighed, and each ship was one vast power plant. Down through the heart of it ran a mighty cylinder of glistening metal. A tiny control room, invisible among the titanic machines, governed all its vast energies. It was a gargantuan projector of the nullifying field, a mighty ship that could hurl its energies into space to form a field of the force that could reach out across a million and a half miles. ”

“ The mariner’s compass, with which this article is concerned, is an instrument by means of which the directive force of that great magnet, the Earth, upon a freely-suspended needle, is utilized for a purpose essential to navigation. The needle is so mounted that it only moves freely in the horizontal plane, and therefore the horizontal component of the earth’s force alone directs it. ”

“ Thus, when a degree on the card is observed opposite the lubber’s point, the angle between the direction in which the ship is steering and the north point of the compass or course is at once seen; and if the magnetic variation and the disturbing effects of the ship’s iron are known, the desired angle between the ship’s course and the geographical meridian can be computed. In every ship a position is selected for the navigating or standard compass as free from neighbouring iron as possible, and by this compass all courses are shaped and bearings taken. ”

“ If electrical instruments similar to those of our time are used to locate the Capsule, it should be indicated by the distortion of a magnetic field, the increased conductivity of the soil, or other such indications. Certain steps have been taken to increase the Time Capsule's responsiveness in this respect. The soil in which the Time Capsule is buried is fairly homogeneous, and though there are scraps of metals, mostly ferrous, buried in it, these should all have disappeared by corrosion before many centuries have passed. ”

“ The compass is the mariner's guide across the trackless ocean, and it is essential to find out everything possible about that mysterious agent, magnetism, which directs the compass needle by its attractive force. The earth itself is a huge magnet with positive and negative poles. The poised needle of the compass maintains its relative position because of the magnetic poles of the earth, one located in the north polar regions, on the western side of the peninsula of Boothia, and the other in the south polar regions, on Victoria Land. ”

“ Almost instantly there was a loud report and a blinding flash of yellow light so brilliant that for the next instant or two to Thornton's eyes the room seemed dark. Slowly the afternoon light regained its normal quality. Bennie relit his pipe unconcernedly.
"That's the germ of the idea," he said between puffs. "That capsule contains a mixture of vapours that give out disintegrating rays when the temperature is raised by thermic induction above six thousand. Most of 'em are stopped by the zirconium atoms in the capsule, which break down and liberate helium ”