MANKIND HAS LOST ONE OF ITS GREAT FUTURISTS IN ARTHUR C. CLARKE

Arthur C. Clark was considered the modern-day Jules Verne. He was born in Minehead, Somerset, England. As a boy he enjoyed stargazing and reading old American science fiction pulp magazines (many of which made their way to the UK in ships with sailors who read them to pass the time). During the Second World War he served in the Royal Air Force as a radar specialist and was involved in the early- warning radar defence system, which contributed to the RAF's success during the Battle of Britain. Clarke's most important scientific contribution may be his idea that geostationary satellites would be ideal telecommunications relays. He described this concept in a paper titled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays— Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?" Clarke also wrote a number of non-fiction books describing the technical details and societal implications of rocketry and space flight. The most notable of these may be "The Exploration of Space" (1951) and "The Promise of Space" (1968).

In recognition of these contributions the geostationary orbit 22,000miles above the equator is officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union as a "Clarke Orbit.” Clarke corresponded with C. S. Lewis in the 1940s and 1950s and they once met to discuss science fiction and space travel. Clarke's work is marked by an optimistic view of science empowering mankind's exploration of the solar system.

Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his recent death in 2008. He was an avid scuba diver there and a member of the Underwater Explorers Club. His novel The Fountains of Paradise in which he described a space elevator, he believed, ultimately will be his legacy--more so than geostationary satellites--once space elevators make space shuttles obsolete. This concept is under development currently, although it may not happen in our time. In 1988 he was diagnosed with post-polio syndrome, having originally contracted polio in 1959 and needed to use a wheelchair most of the time thereafter. In the 1989 Queen's Birthday Honors Clarke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) "for services to British cultural interests in Sri Lanka". Clarke's first venture into film was the Stanley Kubrick-directed 2001: A Space Odyssey. In 1982 Clarke continued the 2001 epic with a sequel, 2010: Odyssey Two. This novel was also made into a film, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. There were two more sequels that have not been adapted to the cinema as yet: 2061: The Third Odyssey and 3001: The Final Odyssey.