Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (16
December 1917 – 19 March 2008[2]) was a
British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most
famous for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating
with director Stanley Kubrick on the film
of the same name.
Biography
Clarke was born in Minehead, Somerset, England.[2] 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). After secondary school and studying at Huish's Grammar School,
Taunton, he was unable to afford a university education and got a job as an auditor in the
pensions section of the Board of Education.
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 spent most
of his service time working on Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) radar as
documented in his semi-autobiographical novel Glide Path. Although GCA did not see much practical use in the war, after
several years of development it was vital to the Berlin Airlift of 1948–1949. He was
demobilised with the rank of Flight
Lieutenant. After the war he earned a first-class degree in mathematics and physics at King's
College London.
In the postwar years Clarke became involved with the British Interplanetary
Society and served for a time as its chairman. Although he was not the
originator of the concept of geostationary satellites, one of his most
important contributions may be his idea that they would be ideal telecommunications
relays. He advanced this idea in a paper privately circulated among the core technical members of the BIS in 1945. The concept
was published in Wireless World in October of that year.[3][4][5] 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 a geostationary
orbit is officially recognized by the International Astronomical
Union as a "Clarke orbit".[citation needed]
While Clarke had a few stories published in fanzines, between 1937 and 1945, his first
professional sales appeared in Astounding Science Fiction in
1946: "Loophole" was published in April, while "Rescue Party", his first sale, was published in May. Along with his writing Clarke briefly
worked as Assistant Editor of Science Abstracts (1949) before devoting himself
to writing full-time from 1951 onward. Clarke also contributed to the Dan Dare series
published in Eagle, and his first three published novels were written for children.
Clarke corresponded with C. S. Lewis in the 1940s and 1950s and they once met in an
Oxford pub, the Eastgate, to discuss science fiction and space travel. Clarke, after Lewis's death, voiced great praise for him,
saying the Ransom Trilogy was one of the few works of science fiction that
could be considered literature.
In 1948 he wrote "The Sentinel" for a BBC
competition. Though the story was rejected it changed the course of Clarke's career. Not only was it the basis for
A Space Odyssey, but "The Sentinel" also introduced a more mystical
and cosmic element to Clarke's work. Many of Clarke's later works feature a technologically advanced but prejudiced mankind being
confronted by a superior alien intelligence. In the cases of The City and the
Stars, Childhood's End, and the 2001 series, this encounter
produces a conceptual breakthrough that accelerates humanity into the next stage of its evolution.
In 1953 Clarke met and quickly married Marilyn Mayfield, a 22-year-old American divorcee
with a young son. They separated permanently after six months, although the divorce was not finalised until 1964.[6]
Clarke lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in 2008, having emigrated there when it
was still called Ceylon, first in Unawatuna on the south
coast, and then in Colombo.[7] Clarke held citizenship of both the UK and
Sri Lanka.[8] He was an avid scuba diver and a member of the
Underwater Explorers Club. Living in Sri Lanka afforded him the opportunity to
visit the ocean year-round. It also inspired the locale for his novel The
Fountains of Paradise in which he first described a space elevator. This, he
believed, ultimately will be his legacy, more so than geostationary satellites, once space elevators make space shuttles
obsolete.[9]
His many predictions culminated in 1958 when he began a series of essays in various magazines that eventually became
Profiles of the Future published in book form in 1962. A timetable[10] up to the year 2100 describes inventions and ideas including such
things as a "global library" for 2005.
Early in his career Clarke had a fascination with the paranormal and stated that it was
part of the inspiration for his novel Childhood's End. He also said that he was one of several who were fooled by a
Uri Geller demonstration at Birkbeck
College. Although he eventually dismissed and distanced himself from nearly all pseudoscience he continued to advocate research into purported instances of psychokinesis and similar phenomena.
In the early 1970s Clarke signed a three-book publishing deal, a record for a science-fiction writer at the time. The first of
the three was Rendezvous with Rama in 1973, which won him all the main genre
awards and has spawned sequels that, along with the 2001 series, formed the backbone of his later career.
In 1975 Clarke's short story "The Star" was not included in a new high school
English textbook in Sri Lanka because of concerns
that it might offend Roman Catholics even though it had already been selected. The
same textbook also caused controversy because it replaced Shakespeare's work with
that of Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Isaac Asimov.
In the 1980s Clarke became well known to many for his television programmes Arthur C. Clarke's
Mysterious World and Arthur C. Clarke's World of Strange Powers.
In 1986 he was named a Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America.[11]
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.[7] On 10
September, 2007, while commenting on the Cassini
probe's flyby of Iapetus (which plays an important role in 2001: A Space Odyssey) Clarke mentioned that he was completely wheelchair-bound by
polio and did not plan to leave Sri Lanka again.[12]
In 1989 Clarke was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire
(CBE). The same year he became the first Chancellor of the International Space University, serving from 1989 to 2004 and he also served as
Chancellor of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka
from 1979 to 2002.
On 26 May 2000 he was made a Knight Bachelor for his Services to Literature at a ceremony in Colombo. The investiture of the
award had been delayed, at Clarke's request, since 1998 because of an accusation, by the British tabloid The Sunday Mirror, of paedophilia, was found to be baseless by Sri Lankan police and retracted by the
paper soon after.[13][14][15][16][17] The award of knight bachelor carries the title of "Sir" and no
post-nominal letters[18] meaning that the previous postfix of "CBE" stood.
In December 2007 on the occasion of his 90th birthday, Clarke recorded a video message to his friends and fans bidding them
good-bye.[19]
Clarke died in Sri Lanka at 1:30am on 18 March 2008
local time ([[UTC+5:30]]), after suffering from breathing problems according to Rohan de
Silva, one of his aides.[20][21][7]
Themes, style, and influences
Clarke's work is marked by an optimistic view of science empowering mankind's exploration of the solar system. His early
published stories would usually feature the extrapolation of a technological innovation or scientific breakthrough into the
underlying decadence of his own society.
"The Sentinel" (1948) introduced a religious theme to Clarke's work, a
theme that he later explored more deeply in The City and the Stars. His interest in the paranormal was influenced by Charles Fort and embraced the belief that
humanity may be the property of an ancient alien civilisation. Surprisingly for a writer who is often held up as an example of
hard science fiction's obsession with technology, three of Clarke's novels have this as a theme[citation needed]. Another theme of "The Sentinel" was
the notion that the evolution of an intelligent species would eventually make them something close to gods, which was also
explored in his 1953 novel Childhood's End. He also briefly touched upon this
idea in his novel Imperial Earth. This idea of transcendence through evolution seems to have been influenced by
Olaf Stapledon, who wrote a number of books dealing with this theme. Clarke has said of
Stapledon's 1930 book Last and First Men that "No other book had a greater
influence on my life ... [It] and its successor Star Maker (1937) are the twin
summits of [Stapledon's] literary career".[22]
Adapted screenplays
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke's first venture into film was the Stanley Kubrick-directed 2001: A
Space Odyssey. Kubrick and Clarke had met in 1964 to discuss the possibility
of a collaborative film project. As the idea developed, it was decided that the story for the film was to be loosely based on
Clarke's short story "The Sentinel", written in 1948 as an entry in a BBC
short story competition. Originally, Clarke was going to write the screenplay for the film, but this proved to be more tedious
than he had estimated. Instead, Kubrick and Clarke decided it would be best to write a novel first and then adapt it for the film
upon its completion. However, as Clarke was finishing the book, the screenplay was also being written simultaneously.
Clarke's influence on the directing of 2001: A Space Odyssey is also felt in one of the most memorable scenes in the
movie when astronaut Bowman shuts down HAL by removing modules from service one by one. As this
happens, we witness HAL's consciousness degrading. By the time HAL's logic is completely gone, he begins singing the song
Daisy Bell. This song was chosen based on a visit by Clarke to his friend and
colleague John Pierce at the Bell Labs
Murray Hill facility. A speech
synthesis demonstration by physicist John Larry Kelly, Jr was taking place.
Kelly was using an IBM 704 computer to synthesise speech. His voice recorder synthesiser
vocoder reproduced the vocal for Daisy Bell, with musical accompaniment from
Max Mathews. Arthur C. Clarke was so impressed that he later told Kubrick to use it in this
climactic scene.[23]
Due to the hectic schedule of the film's production, Kubrick and Clarke had difficulty collaborating on the book. Clarke
completed a draft of the novel at the end of 1964 with the plan to publish in 1965 in advance of the film's release in 1966.
After many delays the film was released in the spring of 1968, before the book was completed. The book was credited to Clarke
alone. Clarke later complained that this had the effect of making the book into a novelisation, that Kubrick had manipulated circumstances to downplay his authorship. For these and other
reasons, the details of the story differ slightly from the book to the movie. The film is a bold artistic piece with little
explanation for the events taking place. Clarke, on the other hand, wrote thorough explanations of "cause and effect" for the
events in the novel. Despite their differences, both film and novel were well received.[24][25][26]
In 1972, Clarke published The Lost Worlds of 2001, which included his account of the production and alternate versions
of key scenes. The "special edition" of the novel A Space Odyssey
(released in 1999) contains an introduction by Clarke, documenting his account of the events leading to the release of the novel
and film.
2010
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, directed by Peter Hyams for release in 1984. Due to the political
environment in America in the 1980s, the novel and film present a Cold War theme, with the
looming tensions of nuclear war. The film was not considered to be as revolutionary or
artistic as 2001, but the reviews were still positive.
Clarke's email correspondence with Hyams was published in 1984. Titled The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010, and co-authored with Hyams, it illustrates his fascination with the
then-pioneering medium and its use for them to communicate on an almost daily basis at the time of planning and production of the
film while living on different continents. The book also includes Clarke's list of the best science-fiction films ever made.
Rendezvous with Rama
Clarke's award-winning 1972 novel Rendezvous with Rama was optioned many
years ago, but is currently in "development hell". Director David Fincher is assigned to
the project together with actor Morgan Freeman.
Essays and short stories
Most of Clarke's essays (from 1934 to 1998) can be found in the book Greetings, Carbon-Based
Bipeds! (2000). Most of his short stories can be found in the book The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke (2001). Another collection of
early essays was published in The View from Serendip (1977), which also included one short
piece of fiction, "When the Twerms Came". He wrote short stories under the
pseudonyms of E. G. O'Brien and Charles Willis. He also wrote a story called "The Secret."
Concept of the geostationary communications satellite
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[27](The Rocket into Interplanetary Space) and then the idea of radio
communication with those satellites in Herman Potočnik'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 [28] published in Berlin. Clarke acknowledged the earlier concept in his book Profiles of the Future.[29]
Awards, honors and other recognition
- Following the release of 2001, Clarke became much in demand as a commentator on science and technology, especially at
the time of the Apollo space program. The fame of 2001 was enough to get the
Command Module of the Apollo 13 craft
named "Odyssey".
- In 1986, Clarke provided a grant to fund the prize money (initially £1,000) for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for the best science fiction novel published in Britain in the previous
year. In 2001 the prize was increased to £2001, and its value now matches the year (e.g., £2005 in 2005).
- In 2003, Sir Arthur was awarded the Telluride Tech Festival Award of Technology where he appeared on stage via a 3-D hologram
with a group of old friends which included Jill Tarter, Neil Armstrong, Lewis Branscomb, Charles Townes, Freeman Dyson, Bruce
Murray and Scott Brown.
- In 2005 he lent his name to the inaugural Sir Arthur Clarke Awards —
dubbed "the Space Oscars". His brother attended the awards ceremony, and presented an award specially chosen by Arthur (and not
by the panel of judges who chose the other awards) to the British Interplanetary
Society.
- On 14 November 2005 Sri Lanka awarded Arthur C. Clarke its
highest civilian award, the Sri Lankabhimanya (The Pride of Sri Lanka) , for
his contributions to science and technology and his commitment to his adopted country.
- An asteroid was named in Clarke's honour, 4923 Clarke
(the number was assigned prior to, and independently of, the name - 2001, however
appropriate, was unavailable, having previously been assigned to Albert Einstein).
- As featured on Sky One's "50 Terrible Predictions" programme, Clarke once predicted that
apes would function as household servants by the 1960's; "...with our present knowledge of animal psychology, we can certainly
solve the servant problem with the help of the monkey kingdom" he said, but quipped "..of course, eventually, our super
chimpanzees would start forming trade unions and we'd be right back where we started."
Partial bibliography
Novels
Omnibus editions
- Across the Sea of Stars (1959) (including Childhood's End, Earthlight
and 18 short stories)
- From the Ocean, From the Stars (1962) (including The City and the Stars, The
Deep Range and The Other Side of the Sky)
- An Arthur C. Clarke Omnibus (1965) (including Childhood's End, Prelude to
Space and Expedition to Earth)
- Prelude to Mars (1965) (including Prelude to Space and The Sands of
Mars)
- The Lion of Comarre & Against the Fall of
Night (1968)
- An Arthur C. Clarke Second Omnibus (1968) (including A Fall of Moondust,
Earthlight and The Sands of Mars)
- Four Great SF Novels (1978) (including The City and the Stars, The Deep
Range, A Fall of Moondust, Rendezvous with Rama)
- The Space Trilogy (2001) (including Islands in the Sky, Earthlight and
The Sands of Mars)
Short story collections
Non-fiction
- Interplanetary Flight: an introduction to astronautics. London: Temple Press,
1950
- The Exploration of Space. New York: Harper, 1951
- The Coast of Coral. New York: Harper, 1957 — Volume 1 of the Blue planet trilogy
- The Reefs of Taprobane; Underwater Adventures around Ceylon. New York: Harper, 1957 — Volume 2 of the Blue
planet trilogy
- The Making of a Moon: the Story of the Earth Satellite Program. New York: Harper, 1957
- Boy beneath the sea, Photos by Mike Wilson. Text by Arthur C. Clarke. New York: Harper, 1958
- The Challenge of the Space Ship: Previews of Tomorrow’s World. New York: Harper, 1959
- The Challenge of the Sea. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1960
- Profiles of the Future; an Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible. New York: Harper & Row, 1962
- The Treasure of the Great Reef. New York: Harper & Row, 1964 — Volume 3 of the Blue planet
trilogy
- Voices from the Sky: Previews of the Coming Space Age. New York: Harper & Row, 1965
- The Promise of Space. New York: Harper, 1968
- Into Space: a Young Person’s Guide to Space, by Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Silverberg. New York: Harper & Row,
1971
- Report on Planet Three and Other Speculations. New York: Harper & Row, 1972
- The Lost Worlds of 2001. London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1972
- Voice Across the Sea. HarperCollins, 1975
- The View from Serendip. Random House, 1977
- The Odyssey File. Email correspondence with Peter Hyams. London: Panther
Books, 1984
- 1984, Spring: a Choice of Futures. New York: Ballantine Books, 1984
- Ascent to Orbit, a Scientific Autobiography: The Technical Writings of Arthur C.
Clarke. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984
- Astounding Days: A Science Fictional Autobiography. London: Gollancz, 1989
- How the World Was One: Beyond the Global
Village. New York : Bantam Books, 1992 — A history and survey of the communications revolution
- By Space Possessed. London: Gollancz, 1993
- The Snows of Olympus - A Garden on Mars (1994, picture album with comments)
- An Encyclopedia of Claims,
Frauds, and Hoaxes of the Occult and Supernatural, 1995, St. Martin's
Press ISBN 0-312-15119-5 (Online
Version)
- Fractals: The Colors of Infinity (1997, narrator)
- Arthur C. Clarke & Lord Dunsany: A Correspondence 1945-1956. ed. Keith Allen Daniels. Palo Alto, CA, USA:
Anamnesis Press, 1998.
- Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! : Collected Works 1934-1988. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1999
- Profiles of the Future; an Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible (updated edition). New York: Harper & Row,
1999, ISBN 057506790X, ISBN 9780575067905
- From Narnia to a Space Odyssey: The War of Letters Between Arthur C. Clarke and C. S. Lewis (2003) with C. S.
Lewis
- The Coming of the Space Age; famous accounts of man's probing of the universe,
selected and edited by Arthur C. Clarke.
In popular culture
- Clarke attempted to write a six word story as part of a Wired Magazine article but wrote ten words instead. ("God said, 'Cancel Program GENESIS.' The
universe ceased to exist.") He refused to lower the word count.[31]
- At the start of the movie 2010, Dr. Heywood Floyd is engaged
in a conversation in front of the White House. Clarke is the man feeding the pigeons to the left of the shot. Later on in the
movie, in the hospital scene where Mrs. Bowman dies, the cover of Time shows a
photograph of Clarke as the American president, and one of Kubrick as the Russian Premier.
- He survived the tsunami caused by the 2004
Indian Ocean earthquake, which did however claim his "Arthur C. Clarke Diving School" at Hikkaduwa,[32] which has since been
rebuilt.
- He was a Distinguished Supporter of the British Humanist
Association.
- Clarke's novel, Songs of Distant Earth, was the theme for an
album of the same name released by ambient musician Mike Oldfield, the creator of the 1973 album Tubular Bells.
Most of the sections in the album are named after elements of the novel, such as "The Space Elevator" and "The Sunken Forest".
The inlay/sleevenotes include a short piece written by Clarke. Oldfield also used other titles from Clarke's work for songs,
including "Sentinel" and "Sunjammer", on Tubular Bells II.
- In the Millennium (TV series) the log in voice phrases for Peter Watts and
Lara Means are quotes from 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Divine Comedy recorded a song entitled "Arthur C. Clarke's Mysterious
World" for their 2006 album, Victory For The Comic Muse, in tribute to
Clarke's well-known TV programme.
- In an episode of The Goodies,
Arthur C. Clarke's show is cancelled after it is claimed he doesn't exist (it is later claimed in the same episode that Clarke
was just Graeme Garden in a wig).
Quotes
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
- "Life is just one big banana. Science fiction allows us all to peel open the reality and discover the yellow truth
inside."
-
- "When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he
states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
- "The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the
impossible."
- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- "The truth, as always, will be far stranger."
- "Sometimes I think we're alone in the universe, and sometimes I think we're not. In either case the idea is quite
staggering."
- "How inappropriate to call this planet Earth, when clearly it is Ocean."
- Of UFOs: "They tell us absolutely nothing about intelligence elsewhere in the universe, but they do prove how rare it is
on Earth."
- "Somewhere in me is a curiosity sensor. I want to know what's over the next hill. You know, people can live longer without
food than without information. Without information, you'd go crazy."
- "The greatest tragedy in mankind's entire history may be the hijacking of morality by religion."
- "We should always be prepared for future technologies, because otherwise they will come along and clobber us."
See also
Cited references
- ^ a b "books and writers" Arthur Charles Clarke bio, retrieved
2008-03-18.
- ^ a b "Science fiction author Arthur C Clarke dies aged 90", The Times, 18 March 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-19. “Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died aged 90 in his adopted home of Sri
Lanka, it was confirmed tonight.”
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke Extra
Terrestrial Relays. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Peacetime Uses for V2 (JPG).
Wireless World (February 1945). Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL RELAYS Can Rocket
Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?. Wireless World (October 1945). Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ McAleer, Neil. "Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Biography",
Contemporary Books, Chicago, 1992. ISBN 0-8092-3720-2
- ^ a b c "Arthur C. Clarke, Premier
Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 90.", New York Times, March 18, 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-19. “Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic
imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday [1] in
Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90.”
- ^ Happy Birthday Sir Arthur C.
Clarke!. Sunday Observer (20051211). Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Personal e-mail from Sir Arthur Clarke to Jerry Stone, Director of
the Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, 1 November 2006
- ^ Chart of the
Future. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ SFWA Grand Masters
- ^ Video greeting
to NASA JPL by Arthur C. Clarke. Retrieved 24 September 2007
- ^ Sci-fi novelist cleared of sex charges. Retrieved on 2008-02-11.
- ^ Clarke Denies Pedophile Allegations.
Science Fiction News of the Week (19980206). Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke. Retrieved
on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke. NNDB. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ File 770:123. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Orders of Chivalry. British Government. Retrieved on 2007-08-30.
- ^ Sir Arthur C Clarke 90th Birthday reflections (2007-12-10). Retrieved on 2008-02-22.
- ^ Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90, BBC News, 18 March 2008
- ^ Sci-fi guru Arthur C. Clarke dies at 90, MSNBC, 18 March 2008
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke Quotes.
Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Bell Labs: Where "HAL" First Spoke (Bell
Labs Speech Synthesis Web Site). Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on
2007-02-08.
- ^ Movies. Go.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Amazon.com. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Kelso, Dr. T. S. (1998-05-01). Basics of the Geostationary Orbit. Satellite
Times. Retrieved on 2007-02-08.
- ^ Providing for Long Distance
Communcations and Safety. Retrieved on 2008-03-18.
- ^ Clarke, Arthur C. (1984). Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the Limits of the Possible. New
York, New York: Holt, Rinehart & WIlson, 205n. ISBN 0030697832.
"INTELSAT, the International Telecommunications Satellite Organisation which operates the global system, has started calling it
the Clarke orbit. Flattered though I am, honesty compels me to point out that the concept of such an orbit predates my 1945 paper
'Extra Terrestrial Relays' by at least twenty years. I didn't invent it, but only annexed it."
- ^ Burns, John F. "Colombo Journal; A Nonfiction Journey to a More Peaceful World" New York Times,
November 28, 1994
- ^ Wired 14.11: Very Short Stories
- ^ Author Arthur Clarke loses Lanka school - Sify.com
External links