Arthur C. Clark passed away, too.
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Re: Arthur C. Clark passed away, too.
"A hundred years ago, the electric telegraph made possible-indeed, inevitable-the United States of America. The communications satellite will make equally inevitable a United Nations of Earth; let us hope that the transition period will not be equally bloody."
Arthur C. Clarke, First on the Moon, 1970-2008
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Re: Arthur C. Clark passed away, too.
Sad passing, but a great life well-lived. And now finally he knows what the Star Child ending was all about, and is probably already reincarnated and lounging about beneath the twin suns on Europa.sigpic
"As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -
that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves."
-Mahatma Gandhi.
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Arthur C. Clarke
Originally posted by Great White Mark View PostMany don't know this, but the communications satelite was Clark's idea.
If I were a patent examiner, I would have rejected Clarke's application on the basis of prior art, (citing the works of Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Herman Potočnik). Also, the invention would have been impractical with the technology available in 1945. There weren't any rockets capable of launching an earth-orbiting satellite, and the current vacuum tube technology of radios would have made it impractical, (with its need for constant maintenance and re-supply). Without more powerful rockets and transitors, Clarke's "thought experiment" wasn't worth the numerous papers that were written upon it, nor did he deserve the credit for it.
"...the space station has at its disposal large radio equipment that makes possible both telegraph and telephone communications with the ground at any time. Overcoming a relatively significant distance as well as the shielding effect exerted by the atmosphere on radio waves (Heaviside layer), are successful here (after selecting an appropriate direction of radiation) by using shorter, directed waves and sufficiently high transmission power, because conditions for this transmission are favorable since electric energy can be generated in almost any quantities by means of the solar power plant and because the construction of any type of antenna presents no serious problems as a result of the existing weightlessness." ~ Herman Potočnik, Das Problem der Befahrung des Weltraums - der Raketen-Motor (1929)JEKYLL & CANADA (free .mp4 download @ Vimeo.com)
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