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On Mars, Hilder's allies are pressing Sankov to terminate all water exports to the
Martian colony. When he hears from the returning Scavengers, Sankov signs. Two days later, the Scavengers land their ice-spacecraft in full view of the press, and Sankov announces that the fragment they brought holds
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The final journey back to Mars is described to be under constant acceleration (except for brief shutdowns for rest) which took five weeks, with the acceleration being well above the comfortable threshold for human beings. However, even with the maximum distance possible between Mars and Saturn, the
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was expressed in his portrayal of John Hilder's anti-Waster campaign. Asimov wrote in his autobiography that he expected to be either lionized or condemned for his attack on McCarthyism, but the story actually generated no reaction at all. He said elsewhere, "I must have been too subtle—or too
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A fleet of 25 Scavenger ships makes the trip. Reaching the rings, the
Scavengers choose a fragment approximately one cubic mile in volume, carve it into a rough cylinder, embed their spaceships in it, and fly it back to Mars, using the fragment's ice as reaction mass, in five weeks.
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200 times the amount of water that Earth had been sending to Mars annually, and that if Earth cannot afford to lose any more water, the
Martians will sell some of theirs. Long takes this situation as confirmation that Martians, instead of Terrestrials, shall colonize the remaining
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A year later, Hilder has used his campaign against "Wasters" to gain power in Earth's
Assembly, and has just reduced shipments of water to Mars, putting the Scavengers out of work. When Hamish Sankov, the head of the Martian colony, learns of Hilder's plan to terminate
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When Asimov wrote "The
Martian Way" in 1952, it was thought that the fragments making up Saturn's rings might be over a mile in diameter. It is now known that none of the ring fragments is more than a few meters in diameter.
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has interpreted Asimov's choice of a mixture of Anglo-Saxon, Slavic, Latin and
Scandinavian names (respectively, Ted Long, Hamish Sankov, Mario Rioz and Richard Swenson) for the Martian characters as a celebration of the
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Protagonists Mario
Esteban Rioz and Ted Long are Scavengers: Mars-born humans who scour space for the spent lower stages of spacecraft, which are then recycled on the Martian moon
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insisted that one be included. Asimov complied by giving
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water shipments to Mars, he authorizes Long's plan to travel to
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Mars. Asimov's distaste for the anti-Communist campaigns of
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509:The Martian Way and Other Stories
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172:(1986). It was also included in
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294:Frederick Jackson Turner
163:The Best of Isaac Asimov
737:Works about McCarthyism
349:Spinrad, Hyron (2004).
410:Asimov, Isaac (1973).
151:Galaxy Science Fiction
78:Galaxy Science Fiction
459:title listing at the
302:Arnold Joseph Toynbee
722:Novels set on Saturn
365:on December 29, 2010
389:, Doubleday, 1979,
386:In Memory Yet Green
296:and the idea of a "
144:by American writer
712:1952 short stories
608:Marooned off Vesta
306:Joseph F. Patrouch
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650:The Last Question
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671:Anniversary
547:Sucker Bait
369:February 8,
311:melting pot
701:Categories
336:References
330:spacewalks
326:astronauts
217:, and the
187:H. L. Gold
103:Media type
89:Periodical
615:Nightfall
315:immigrant
257:Influence
241:to Mars.
116:Paperback
95:Publisher
636:The Deep
540:The Deep
351:"Saturn"
276:and the
274:McCarthy
160:(1955),
112:Hardback
108:Magazine
63:Genre(s)
53:Language
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470:at the
438:74-2863
185:editor
142:novella
106:Print (
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43:Country
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235:Saturn
207:Phobos
183:Galaxy
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239:rings
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424:ISBN
391:ISBN
371:2010
359:NASA
219:Moon
211:Mars
594:by
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328:on
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