Arthur C Clarke, author of "2001 A Space Odyssey" has died at age 90 in
Sri Lanka.

JF Mezei wrote:
Arthur C Clarke, author of "2001 A Space Odyssey" has died at age 90 in
Sri Lanka.

Telegraph obituary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/db1904.xml

Philip Morten wrote:
JF Mezei wrote:
Arthur C Clarke, author of "2001 A Space Odyssey" has died at age 90 in
Sri Lanka.

Telegraph obituary:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/19/db1904.xml

BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7304004.stm

I think it would be great if the station station crew were to honour Mr
Clarke and have NASA provide the tape to all media.

My guess is they will. The belt where the geo-stationary satelites
reside is (A.F.A.I.K.) 'discovered' by Arthur C. Clarke.

André, PE1PQX <Andre_geenviagra@pe1pqx.eu> wrote:

My guess is they will. The belt where the geo-stationary satelites
reside is (A.F.A.I.K.) 'discovered' by Arthur C. Clarke.

Clarke was important and influential in firmly planting the idea of a
practical *use* for satellites in geosynchronous/geostationary orbit.

As he wrote himself several times, he didn't "discover" that such
orbits exist. It's clear (along with areosynchronous, sun-synchronous
and others) in Tsiolkovsky 1895. And radio-relay satellites, though
not in GEO, were discussed in German space circles in the 1920s.

GEO was undoubtedly noticed as a curiosity by a lot of people playing
with celestial mechanics long before that ... but without a natural
example to point to, and without a focus on the idea of *putting*
something in such an orbit, it would have remained only a curiosity.

Monte Davis
http://montedavis.livejournal.com/