• thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    This reminds me of that part of that space opera I read where there was a nomadic colony on mercury which needed to always be moving at exactly the right speed to stay on the dark side of the terminator.

    • BalderSion@real.lemmy.fan
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      4 hours ago

      Wow. I was in middle school and had to do a creative writing assignment, and I wrote a science fiction short story set in a colony on that boundary of Mercury. I thought Mercury was tidal locked. I was praised for my creativity.

      I was today years old when I found that Mercury is not tidal locked.

    • Weirdfish@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      That was in the Red / Green / Blue mars trilogy, one of my favorites. Though I think I’ve seen the concept in other works as well.

      Basically the temp difference between day / night caused contraction of the rail tracks, pushing the whole city forward so it was always just ahead of dawn.

      • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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        1 hour ago

        The nomadic colony got expanded on in KSR’s novel 2312. I don’t actually remember much about it in the Mars Trilogy.

        But I’ve seen the concept before in an old EU Star Wars novel, one of the Solo books maybe, where Lando was operating something similar as his new venture.

        And before that maybe mentioned by Sagan. And before that…