Re: Dyson Dumb ells: Was: Re: the ultimate refrigerator

Hal Finney (hal@rain.org)
Wed, 17 Dec 1997 06:41:52 -0800


Wei Dai, <weidai@eskimo.com>, writes:
> I remember reading a shoft SF story in which superfluid He played a big
> part. It was about a group of military recruits training on the planet
> Pluto. Does anyone know who wrote it?

Sounds a bit like Joe Haldeman's novel The Forever War, in which
recruits training on Charon had to avoid hazards related to frozen gases.
Frozen lakes of gas were treacherous because the space suits, even with
insulation, would vaporize a layer of the gas underfoot, which could make
you slip and fall. If the heat exchanger mounted between the shoulder
blades then came in contact with the frozen gas, it would explosively
vaporize and could kill you. Trapped on a lake you had to scrabble
along on your stomach, trying to dig your hands and feet in enough to
get traction so you could coast off the frozen region.

Hal