gravity well n.
the area of space near a large mass (such as a planet or star) in which significant energy must be expended in order to counteract the object’s gravitational pull
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[1951
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Willy Ley
In other words the sun will furnish power only for moving in its own gravitational ‘well’.]
Letter in Astounding Science Fiction May 154/1 -
1954
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G. Harry Stine
bibliography
Ever hear of maneuvering through a gravity well?
Amateur in Astounding Science Fiction Feb. 97/1
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1955
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Poul Anderson
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They were aiming only to get off a small world with negligible air resistance, and not even to leave its gravity well entirely.
Snows of Ganymede in Startling Stories Winter 52/1 -
[1957
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Poul Anderson
bibliography
He was the pilot and engineer, the only other Terrestrial on Mercury. When you dove this far down into the sun’s monstrous gravitational well, you couldn’t take a big crew along. ]
Life Cycle in Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction July 53/2 -
1963
Poul Anderson
bibliography
It’s actually harder to maintain human-type conditions on so big a mass, with a useless atmosphere around you, than on a lump in space like this. And the gravity wells are so deep.
Industrial Revolution in Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction Sept. 22/1 -
1966
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Robert A. Heinlein
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But Luna has energy of position; she sits at top of gravity well eleven kilometers per second deep and kept from falling in by curb only two and a half km/s high.
Moon Is a Harsh Mistress in Worlds of If Jan. 62/2 -
1966
Larry Niven
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Even the ships of Earth use only a little of their fuel getting in and out of their pet gravity well. Most of it gets burned getting them from place to place fast. And Mars is lighter than Earth.
At the Bottom of a Hole in Galaxy Dec. 102/1 -
1970
Arthur C. Clarke
They were still accelerating when a fantastically unlikely accident occurred. Flatbush ran straight into the gravity well of a neutron star.
in Galaxy Magazine May 84/1 -
1987
John M. Ford
bibliography
They’re headed straight for the surface… Any deeper in the gravity well and the tractors won’t be reliable.
How Much for Just the Planet? 36 -
1992
Allen Steele
bibliography
Once having escaped Earth’s gravity well, beyond the orbit of the Moon, the vessels had rendezvous-ed in deep space.
Labyrinth of Night 21 -
1993
Kim Stanley Robinson
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Given the acute population and environmental problems on Earth, and the space elevator currently being constructed there to match the one already on Mars, the gravity wells could be surmounted and mass emigration would certainly follow…
Green Mars (new ed.) 334 -
2005
Charles Stross
bibliography
Mars is just dumb mass at the bottom of a gravity well; there isn’t even a biosphere there.
Accelerando 15 -
2006 Analog June 101/1
The interstellar drive could not be operated safely deep within the gravity well of the Double Suns, but nature had provided.
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2015
Neal Stephenson
bibliography
Endurance was at least as maneuverable now as she had been at the beginning, when she had wallowed at the bottom of Earth’s gravity well, burdened with years’ worth of propellant.
Seveneves 510
Research requirements
antedating 1954
Earliest cite
G. Harry Stine, in Astounding
Research History
Mike Christie submitted a cite from Larry Niven's "At the Bottom of a Hole" in the December 1966 Galaxy.David Tate submitted a cite from Robert Heinlein's "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" in the January 1966 If.
Edward Bornstein submitted a cite from a reprint of Arthur C. Clarke's "Neutron Tide"; Mike Christie verified the cite in the 1970 original magazine appearance.
Enoch Forrester submitted a 1987 cite from John M. Ford's "How Much for Just the Planet?"
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1993 reprint of Vernor Vinge's 1992 "A Fire Upon the Deep".
Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1983 reprint of Alan Dean Foster's "The Tar-Aiym Krang"; Douglas Winston verified the cite in the 1972 first edition.
Mike Christie submitted a 1963 cite from Poul Anderson's "Industrial Revolution", which was published as by Winston P. Sanders.
David E. Siegel submitted a cite from an undated reprint of Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones"; we would like to verify this in its original publication (Charles Scribner's sons, 1952).
Fred Galvin submitted a 1957 cite for "gravitational well" from Poul Anderson's "Life Cycle".
Jesse Sheidlower submitted a 1955 cite from Poul Anderson's "Snows of Ganymede".
Bill Mullins submitted a 1951 cite from Willy Ley for "gravitational well".
Bill Mullins submitted a 1954 cite from G. Harry Stine (writing as "Lee Correy") in Astounding.
Last modified 2022-08-31 18:13:16
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entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries
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