Arthur C. Clarke, December 16, 1917 – March 19, 2008
Today is a very sad day for me. One of the greatest Science Fiction writers of our time, Arthur C. Clarke has died in a hospital in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. According to Reuters “He died of respiratory complications and heart failure doctors linked to the post-polio syndrome that had kept him wheelchair-bound for years.”
Many of you may remember him as the author of ’2001: A Space Odyssey‘, but he was also well known for writing over 100 Science Fiction novels, among them ‘Childhoods End‘, ‘Rendezvous with Rama‘ and the two sequels to 2001, 2010: Odyssey Two and ‘2061: Odyssey Three‘. He also wrote many short story collections and many non-fiction books.
Not only was he a prolific Science Fiction writer, he was also a prolific Science writer. In 1945 he published a paper entitled ‘Extra-Terrestrial Relays – Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?’ in ‘Wireless World’ magazine. In this article he described how a rocket (satellite) orbiting the earth at 22,300 miles would appear stationary to the earth below and could serve as a relay station to radio waves, providing a world-wide communications network. 25 years later this became a reality that we enjoy to this day and is the backbone for such services as GPS Satellite navigation, Global Tele-Communications, etc.
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