Answering the question "What is your favorite SF propulsion concept?" recently on Quora.com reminded me of a science fiction story I read many many years ago.
I can’t recall the name of the writer. Nor the title of the story. It may have been called something like “Walking Home,” though that’s not the title, I don’t think.
Here's a synopsis: a ship is stranded out beyond Neptune, and it’s got this nifty tech, a machine used for moving cargo that can grab onto space. So the crew are trying to get back to Earth by using this device to anchor to a point in space and then everyone pushes the machine to the stern of the ship, where they let go of space, push the machine back to the bow, grab space again, and walk the machine back to the rear of the ship, wash rinse repeat, wash rinse repeat. The ship has become a generation ship with people walking home.
I hope someone can help resurrect the author’s name and the story’s title. I read this as a kid over 50 years ago (I think), and it really stirred my imagination. It had a Cordwainer Smith kind of brashness and originality to it, though the writer wasn’t Cordwainer Smith.