It is with profound sadness
that I must inform you that Sir Arthur C. Clarke died today at age 90 in his beloved Sri Lanka.
In some circles he was known as the grandfather of the modern cellphone due to his being credited for the idea of satellites with geosynchronous orbits. Better known for his 2001: A Space Odyssey, his death was announced by mistake at the same time of Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999. I wish it were a mistake now.
I learned more about our solar system (Saturn and Jupiter especially) by reading his book than i did in my college astronomy class. By all accounts, he was an awesome, witty man who would and welcome many and guests into his home. (a trip i had always wanted to take to be sure).
I will always find the notes at the end of later additions of the 2001 book a testament to his good humor and how beloved he was in the science fact/science fiction community. He updated the book, you see, to include the impact of the newest factual findings. My favorite note was about a picture Carl Sagan sent him - hot off the press and recently received from one of the Voyager Deep Space Probes as it flew by Saturn and it's moons. It was a moon that we had very little actual data on before the probe (I wish i could remember which one it was). Art described it in great imaginary detail, about the huge crater looking like a humongous eye, giving his travelers the feeling of being watched. The picture revealed that he was right, Voyager showed that the moon looked exactly as he described. The only thing Sagan included with the picture was an inscription upon it. It simply read: "Thinking of you"
I am so very sad at his passing
In some circles he was known as the grandfather of the modern cellphone due to his being credited for the idea of satellites with geosynchronous orbits. Better known for his 2001: A Space Odyssey, his death was announced by mistake at the same time of Stanley Kubrick's death in 1999. I wish it were a mistake now.
I learned more about our solar system (Saturn and Jupiter especially) by reading his book than i did in my college astronomy class. By all accounts, he was an awesome, witty man who would and welcome many and guests into his home. (a trip i had always wanted to take to be sure).
I will always find the notes at the end of later additions of the 2001 book a testament to his good humor and how beloved he was in the science fact/science fiction community. He updated the book, you see, to include the impact of the newest factual findings. My favorite note was about a picture Carl Sagan sent him - hot off the press and recently received from one of the Voyager Deep Space Probes as it flew by Saturn and it's moons. It was a moon that we had very little actual data on before the probe (I wish i could remember which one it was). Art described it in great imaginary detail, about the huge crater looking like a humongous eye, giving his travelers the feeling of being watched. The picture revealed that he was right, Voyager showed that the moon looked exactly as he described. The only thing Sagan included with the picture was an inscription upon it. It simply read: "Thinking of you"
I am so very sad at his passing