As the orange orb of the sun slid down behind English mountain, splashing the sky with rose, vermillion and mauve, the day’s heat began to wane. The air started to move; a cool caress of their faces as they sat in their rockers on the porch before it drifted off to play among the trees. The rustling leaves were like soft music.
The breeze wafted first from the south, then paused, and resumed again from the northwest, paused and swung back again as though it were playing a game. “I wonder what makes the wind change like that.” She sighed. Continue reading “Whence Blows the Wind?”
Arthur C. Clarke’s 1979 Hugo and Nebula Award winning novel, The Fountains of Paradise is Science Fiction’s definitive novel about the “space elevator,” or “Skyhook”. This concept enjoyed a brief period of enthusiastic interest among SF circles in the early 1980’s. The concept deals with an elevator (more like a monorail train car actually) that stretches from Earth’s surface to a space station in geosynchronous orbit, which would in turn serve as a construction, servicing and launching facility for ships voyaging to the moon, planets and even deep space. A primary plus was eliminating the need for expensive, inefficient, and environmentally unfriendly rocket launches from the ground. The whole idea seems incredible but is not outside the realm of engineering possibility. Clarke makes a strong case for the feasibility of such an unconventional project within the context of a completely engrossing story set mostly in the 22nd century. 
