Art by John Polgreen from “Space Stations” by Willy Ley. Poughkeepsie: Guild Press, (1958}
One of the five bodies circling the earth is the third stage of a rocket ship manned by three men. The other four bodies are the “cargo pods” of other rocket ships. And one more pod is on the way.
The principle of operation is this. . . “If a large amount of material has to be carried into an orbit it is not necessary to carry every pound of it in manned ships. The cheapest way is to put the material into the cargo pods of unmanned ships. However, remote control from the ground could not get a number of cargo pods together in the same place. Therefore, a manned ship must be in the orbit all the time to direct the unmanned cargo pods by remote control.” [Summarizing and Quoting from the text]
Art by John Polgreen from “Space Stations” by Willy Ley. Poughkeepsie: Guild Press, (1958}
One of the five bodies circling the earth is the third stage of a rocket ship manned by three men. The other four bodies are the “cargo pods” of other rocket ships. And one more pod is on the way.
The principle of operation is this. . . “If a large amount of material has to be carried into an orbit it is not necessary to carry every pound of it in manned ships. The cheapest way is to put the material into the cargo pods of unmanned ships. However, remote control from the ground could not get a number of cargo pods together in the same place. Therefore, a manned ship must be in the orbit all the time to direct the unmanned cargo pods by remote control.” [Summarizing and Quoting from the text]