2001: A Space Odyssey
By ersmommy1
@ersmommy1 (12587)
United States
4 responses
@ShepherdSpy (8544)
• Omagh, Northern Ireland
19 Mar 08
As a Mathematician He was also credited with calculation of the orbit for satellites around the Earth...so that where the Satellites fly is known as the "Clarke Belt"..
@desertdarlene (8911)
• United States
19 Mar 08
I really like 2001, I've read the book and seen the two movies based on the whole series. But, I never got through 2010 or 2061. I think I've read other books by Clarke, but I really can't say that I'm a great fan of his. I hear "Hammer of God" is a great book, I should probably read it.
1 person likes this
@owatagoosiam (751)
• United States
20 Mar 08
He was a productive writer who's imagination also made contributions to science. A moment of reflection for this man is appropriate, I think.
-----------------------------------
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke
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?", published in Wireless World in October 1945. The geostationary orbit is now sometimes known as the Clarke Orbit or the Clarke Belt in his honour.
However, it is not clear that this article was actually the inspiration for the modern telecommunications satellite. John R. Pierce, of Bell Labs, arrived at the idea independently in 1954, and he was actually involved in the Echo satellite and Telstar projects. Moreover, Pierce stated that the idea was "in the air" at the time and certain to be developed regardless of Clarke's publication. Nevertheless, Clarke described the idea so thoroughly that his article has been cited as prior art in judgements denying patents on the concept.[citation needed]
Though different from Clarke's idea of telecom relay, the idea of communicating with satellites in geostationary orbit itself had been described earlier. For example, the concept of geostationary satellites was described in Hermann Oberth's 1923 book Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen[46](The Rocket into Interplanetary Space) and then the idea of radio communication with those satellites in Herman Potocnik's (written by pseudonym Hermann Noordung) 1928 book Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums — der Raketen-Motor (The Problem of Space Travel — The Rocket Motor) section: Providing for Long Distance Communications and Safety [47] published in Berlin. Clarke acknowledged the earlier concept in his book Profiles of the Future.[48]





