Clarke, Arthur Charles (1917-2008)

UK

British author (resident in Sri Lanka since 1956) of science fiction and popular science who worked on the development of radar during World War II, originated the concept of communications satellites in the Oct. 1945 issue of Wireless World, and earned a first-class degree in physics and mathematics from Kings College, London (1948). His nonfiction books of the early 1950s, including The Exploration of Space (1951), brought him fame as an enthusiastic advocate of space travel, although he had begun writing science fiction two decades earlier, influenced most significantly by Olaf Stapledon's Last and First Men. Informed by his science and engineering background and suffused with his liberal optimism about man's destiny among the stars, Clarke's writings combine meticulous technical authenticity with an almost mystical vision of the future. The notion that mankind's further evolution is inextricably bound up with extraterrestrial contact is recurrent throughout his work. In Childhood's End (1953), The City and the Stars (1956), and 2001: A Space Odyssey (1977) and its sequels, Clarke employs highly advanced aliens as agents of human transformation, while in Rendezvous With Rama (1973) and its sequels, he explores the idea of first contact with an outside intelligence in the form of a robotic alien ship which temporarily enters orbit around the Sun (see Bracewell probe). Several prognostications made by Clarke in his novels have subsequently been borne out in fact, including the possibility of life on Europa and the existence of a moon around Pluto. Among his scientific contemporaries who used fiction to speculate about the nature of alien life and intelligence, and the consequences of human-alien contact were Hal Clement, in the United States, and Fred Hoyle, in Britain.

Introduced geosynchronous orbits for satellites, noted science fiction writer.
  • Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, England on December 16, 1917. Raised on his family's farm, he became interested in science when he was six, and built his first telescope at the age of thirteen. The following year his father died, and four years later, in 1936, Arthur dropped out of school due to financial difficulties and moved to London. There he joined the British Interplanetary Society (BIS) while working as a government auditor. He started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS while writing the BIS Bulletin and science fiction stories.
  • During World War II, as a Royal Air Force officer, Clarke was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment, the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental trials. After the war, he returned to London and to the BIS, resuming his role as president from 1946 to 1947, and again from 1950 to 1953.
  • In 1945, Clarke published the technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays," in which he expounded the principles of improving communication by placing satellites in geostationary orbits (meaning each satellite would stay directly above a fixed point on the Earth's equator). His idea did not become reality until 1963 with America's launch of the first satellite in a geostationary orbit, Syncom 2. Today, the geostationary orbit 26,000 miles above the Earth is named the Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union, and the satellites in the orbit are called the Clarke Belt.
  • One of the most prolific science fiction writers in history, Arthur C. Clarke was perhaps best known for writing the 1948 short story, "The Sentinel," which became the basis for the classic 1968 motion picture 2001: A Space Odyssey. His novels and stories often centered on space travel and other ways in which technology shapes the future. His works were noted for their scientific accuracy and their discussion of man's role in an ever more technological society.
  • Arthur C. Clarke also helped popularize actual space exploration, helping to broadcast the Apollo 11, 12, and 15 missions with Walter Cronkite and Wally Schirra for CBS television. In 1982, he published a sequel to 2001, 2010: Odyssey Two and helped write the 1984 movie adaptation, 2010.
  • In 1981, his TV series Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious World debuted followed by Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers in 1984. On May 26, 2000, Clarke was formally presented with the "Award of Knight Bachelor" by the British government. Sir Arthur C. Clarke passed away on March 19, 2008 at his home in Sri Lanka. Asteroid 4923 Clarke is named in his honor.
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