Some people do truly remarkable work as amateurs. Arthur C. Clarke was a best-selling science fiction writer, author of, among other novels, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Rendezvous with Rama. He’d already begun his writing career when he became an officer in the British Royal Air Force. While there, he observed scientists in the air force’s radar division and became fascinated with their work. In 1945 he published an article in Wireless World magazine entitled “Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-Wide Radio Coverage?” In it, he posited the use of satellites in geostationary orbit to broadcast television signals around the globe. Most scientists dismissed this proposition as yet another work of science fiction. However, Clarke had a very keen interest in the subject, and he had studied it carefully. His proposal was solid technically and, as we all now know, utterly prescient. The specific geostationary orbit Clarke proposed is now known as the Clarke orbit, and hundreds of satellites use it. And while Clarke made his living in the upper stratospheres of the New York Times best-seller list, it’s the work he did as an amateur (specifically a letter to the editors of Wireless World that preceded his article) that sits in the National Air and Space Museum. From: The Element
Posted on: Mon, 08 Jul 2013 09:17:59 +0000