Reply #7: The man who helped invent satellites and wrote 2001 [View All]

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Arthur C. Clarke Biography

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Arthur C. Clarke was born in the seaside town of Minehead, Somerset, England on December 16, 1917. In 1936 he moved to London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society. There he started to experiment with astronautic material in the BIS, write the BIS Bulletin and science fiction.

During World War II, as a RAF officer, he was in charge of the first radar talk-down equipment, the Ground Controlled Approach, during its experimental trials. His only non-science-fiction novel, Glide Path, is based on this work.

After the war, he returned to London and to the BIS, which he presided in 46-47 and 50-53.

In 1945 he published the technical paper "Extra-terrestrial Relays" laying down the principles of the satellite communication with satellites in geostationary orbits - a speculation realized 25 years later. His invention has brought him numerous honors, such as the 1982 Marconi International Fellowship, a gold medal of the Franklin Institute, the Vikram Sarabhai Professorship of the Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, the Lindbergh Award and a Fellowship of King's College, London. Today, the geostationary orbit at 42,000 kilometers is named The Clarke Orbit by the International Astronomical Union.

The first story Clarke sold professionally was "Rescue Party", written in March 1945 and appearing in Astounding Science in May 1946.

He obtained first class honors in Physics and Mathematics at the King's College, London, in 1948.

He married Marilyn Mayfield, an american, on June 15, 1953. They split in December 1953. As Clarke says, "The marriage was incompatibe from the beginning. It was sufficient proof that I wasn't the marrying type, although I think everybody should marry once".

In 1954 Clarke wrote to Dr Harry Wexler, then chief of the Scientific Services Division, U.S. Weather Bureau, about satellite applications for weather forecasting. Of these communications, a new branch of meteorology was born, and Dr. Wexler became the driving force in using rockets and satellites for meteorological research and operations.

Clarke first visited Colombo, Sri Lanka (at the time called Ceylon) in December 1954.

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http://www.lsi.usp.br/~rbianchi/clarke/ACC.Biography.html