“The acceleration cots.”
Tom chuckled. “On this ship we don’t need them.”
“What?” Bud was baffled.
“In a rocket ship you get tremendous acceleration from short blasts of power,” Tom explained. “But with our energy-conversion units we can get a steady supply of power from the sun. So we can accelerate gradually to high speed, without taking so many G’s all at once.”
“Now you’re talking!” Bud said enthusiastically. “No more getting the daylights crushed out of us!”
Tom nodded. “It simplifies a lot of things. For instance, we won’t need automatic tape control at blast-off, because we can adjust our steering in fine amounts any time we want to.”
“Terrific!” Bud said. “Now, how about briefing me on all these control gadgets?”
Tom pointed to a row of indicator lights and push buttons above the pilot’s windows. “This is
A POWERFUL TAKEOFF 83
the element selector panel,” he said. “As you can see, it lists all the ninety-two natural elements.”
“Just push the button for whatever element you want to repel?” Bud asked.
“Right. And these dial switches below let you select the exact isotope. They work through this interplugging board.”
“Pretty neat! And this is the astro-gyrocompass, eh?” Bud pointed to an instrument on the central control board.
“Yes-for steering operations after the ship is underway,” Tom told him. “And these big twin dials are the power indicators.”
He explained the various levers for operating the directional radiators and auxiliary rockets. Then Bud asked about the huge fluorescent screen on the left.