Whirling through Tom’s mind was the fact that every object in the universe attracts every other object. The earth exerts a pull to keep objects on it. The moon and the earth attract each other as do the sun and the planets.
Tom continued, “I hope to invent a device for increasing the gravitational pull which is exerted by the earth or any other heavenly body on my space kite. By aiming the device in the right direction-say at the earth or moon or sun or any suitable planet-the pilot will be able to produce a strong pull to act as a ‘kite string’ for his craft.”
“Hmm. Most ingenious.” Mr. Swift frowned. “But it certainly won’t be easy to devise such a
SPACE KITE 27
gravity concentrator. Also, to be effective, the device would have to step up the gravitational attraction to a strength thousands or millions of times as great as normal.”
“Yes,” Tom admitted, “but I think I’ve figured out how to tackle the problem.
I’m calling my new device the gravitex.”
“I wish you luck,” Mr. Swift said.
Once at Swift Enterprises, Tom parted from his father and hurried to his laboratory. Quickly he sketched a design for his space kite. Then he phoned Arv Hanson, the expert who turned out scale models of the Swifts’ inventions as the first step past the idea stage.
Two minutes later, Arv, a good-natured hulking six-footer, reported to the laboratory. “What’s up, skipper?” he asked eagerly.
“Take a look.”
Tom showed him the rough drawings of the space kite. Hanson was fired with enthusiasm.
“Boy, this makes space travel look like fun!” he exclaimed. “How soon do you want the model?”
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127