Monday, July 25, 2005
Extra-terrestrial relays
After stumbling across a secondhand copy of Mysterious World, I was reminded of a little known fact, that I would like to share with the world, regarding a scientific paper published in 1945. It was written by Arthur C. Clarke, Sri Lankan citizen, co-writer of 2001: A space odyssey along with Stanley Kubrick, Knight Bachelor and one of the greatest visionaries of the 20th century.
Clarke's paper, carrying the same scary title as this blog, was the first to discuss the concept of geostationary rocket satellites and their possible uses, like "worldwide radio coverage", a "space-station ... with living quarters" and "point to point beam transmissions".
In terms of scientific conceptual thinking, I suggest that this paper can only be rivalled by James Watson's 1955 paper outlining the workings of DNA. However, anyone thanked by Neil Armstrong on his return from the moon might just have a slight edge.
Clarke's paper, carrying the same scary title as this blog, was the first to discuss the concept of geostationary rocket satellites and their possible uses, like "worldwide radio coverage", a "space-station ... with living quarters" and "point to point beam transmissions".
In terms of scientific conceptual thinking, I suggest that this paper can only be rivalled by James Watson's 1955 paper outlining the workings of DNA. However, anyone thanked by Neil Armstrong on his return from the moon might just have a slight edge.
