ing
rockets at them. They didn't collide with the bombs. They simply
touched off the bombs' proximity fuses. If we surround the Platform with
a cluster of tin cans and such things, they may do as well. Things we
throw away won't drop to Earth. Ultimately, they'll actually circle us,
like satellites themselves. But if we can get enough of them between us
and Earth, any bombs that come up will have their proximity fuses
detonated by the floating trash we throw out."

Sanford laughed.

"We might ask for aluminum-foil ribbon to come up in the next supply
ship," said Joe. "We could have masses of that, or maybe metallic dust
floating around us."

"I much prefer used tin cans," said Sanford humorously. "I'll take the
watch here and let everybody go out with you. By all means we must
defend ourselves. Forward with the garbage! Go ahead!"

His eyes were almost hysterically scornful as he waited for Joe to
leave. Joe did not like it at all, but there was nothing to do but get
out.

He found the Chief with a net bag filled with emptied tin cans. Haney
had another. There were two more, carried by members of the Platform's
four-man crew. They were donning their space suits when Joe came upon
them. Mike was grotesque in the cut-down outfit built for him. Actually,
the only difference was in the size of the fabric suit and the length of
the arms and legs. He could carry a talkie outfit with its batteries,
and the oxygen tank for breathing as well as anybody, since out here
weight did not count at all. There were plastic ropes, resistant to
extremes of temperature.

Joe got into his own space suit. It was no such self-contained space
craft in itself as the fantastic story tellers dreamed of. It was not
much more than an altitude suit, aluminized to withstand the blazing
heat of sunshine in emptiness, and with extravagantly insulated soles to
the magnetic boots. In theory, there simply is no temperature in space.
In practice, a metal hull heats up in sunshine to very much more than
any record-hot-day temperature on Earth. In shadow, too, a metal hull
will drop very close to minus 250 degrees Centigrade, which is something
like 400 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. But mainly the space boots were
insulated against the almost dull-red-heat temperatures of
long-continued sunshine.

A crewman named Corey moved into an airlock with one of the bags of
empty tin cans. Brent watched in a routine fashion through a glass in
the lock-door.