Arthur C. Clarke died at the age of 90. Fittingly, he died on March 19, 2008 — and I am writing this on March 18, 2008. (He lived a few time zones in the future).
Clarke was regarded as a technological seer as well as a science-fiction writer, and was known as “the godfather of the telecommunications satellite.”
Besides that, he seemed like a genuinely decent human being; which, at the end of the day, is probably the best epitaph to which any of us can aspire.
During World War II, the Royal Air Force put him in charge of a new radar blind-landing system. Then, after the war, he proposed the idea of using geostationary satellites as relays for wireless communication. It took decades for the idea to bear fruit, but it eventually earned him a claim to fame almost as great as his science-fiction stories. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are today called Clarke orbits.
Also during the 1940s, Clarke predicted that man would reach the moon by the year 2000 — an idea that some experts dismissed as nonsense. In the late 1960s, Clarke served as a commentator along with CBS broadcaster Walter Cronkite for the Apollo missions that turned his prediction into reality. Later, NASA Administrator Tom Paine wrote in an inscription to Clarke that the science-fiction author “provided the essential intellectual drive that led us to the moon.”
Rest in peace, sir.
Oh wow. One of my first intruductions to SciFi (early 1970’s for me).
My early introduction to Clarke helped me learn how to dream at an early age. RIP Arthur C. Clarke and thank you.