Remembering Sir Arthur C Clarke

First death anniversary today:

Dr. Chandana Jayaratne
 

Today we are commemorating the 1st death anniversary of one of the greatest sons of the world and a promoter of Sri Lanka who brought the whole world to a one tiny global village ? Sir Arthur C Clarke. He is best known as the inventor of the communications satellite.

Sir Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died a year ago, at 1:30 a.m. on March 19, 2008 after suffering breathing problems. He was 90 at the time of his death and he lived in Sri Lanka for over 52 years.

stargazing

Arthur Charles Clarke was born on December 16, 1917 in the English coastal town of Minehead, in Somerset. The eldest of four children, he enjoyed stargazing as a child and had a great enthusiasm for science fiction pulp magazines. When Clarke was 14 his father, Charles Wright Clarke, a farmer, died and the family’s savings were said to be declined.

His mother Mary Nora Willis had offered riding lessons to offset their money troubles, but she was unable to provide enough money for her son to attend university. As such, Clarke was forced to look for work. He worked as a clerk in Her Majesty’s Exchequer and Audit Department in London, where he joined the British Interplanetary Society and wrote his first short stories and scientific articles on space travel.

His apartment eventually had became the headquarters to the British Interplanetary Society, with Clarke becoming its Chairman in 1949.

radar specialist

Sir Arthur C Clarke in his library

Even as he served as a radar specialist in the Royal Air Force during World War II, he was simultaneously writing and submitting science fiction stories and technical papers. But it was a Royal Air Force memo he wrote in 1945 about the future of communications that led him to fame. It was about the possibility of using satellites to revolutionize communications. Clarke later sent it to a publication called Wireless World magazine, which almost rejected the idea as too far-fetched.

However, in 1945 the technical paper was accepted and published in the same magazine under the topic “Extra-terrestrial Relays” laying down the principles of the satellite communication with satellites in geostationary orbits - a speculation realized only 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.

Exploration

He obtained first class honors BSc degree in Physics and Mathematics at the King’s College, London, in 1948. In the 1950s, Clarke’s interest in underwater exploration brought him to Sri Lanka, where he has lived since 1956. He is technical advisor to the diving company Underwater Safaris Ltd., and for half a century, he has written and broadcast extensively promoting Sri Lanka as a tourist destination.

Sir Clarke was a person with a kind heart and always ready to help the Sri Lankans.

Molesworth telescope

He supported the Mathematical and Astronomical Society of the University of Colombo in various ways and in particular to protect the more than 100 years old 32 cm Molesworth telescope housed in the observatory dome in the university play ground.

Sir Arthur C Clarke was an author of over 100 books and more than 1,000 essays or short stories. His writing also inspired the initiation of World Wide Web and the Apollo project that landed men on the Moon. He has made many appearances on radio and television, and his TV series, Mysterious World, World of Strange Powers, and Mysterious Universe, have been seen worldwide.

Sir Clarke has received many awards, fellowships and honours from around the world, including several doctorates. He shared with Stanley Kubrick an Oscar nomination in 1969 for his screenplay of 2001: A Space Odyssey, and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to literature. Among his many distinctions, and in addition to the Clarke Orbit, Sir Arthur could also boast both an asteroid (4923 Clarke) as well as a species of Ceratopsian dinosaur, Serendipaceratops arthurcclarkei, named in his honor. In 1986 the Arthur C. Clarke Award was established in UK to encourage excellence in British science fiction.

He became the first ‘Resident Guest’ of the Sri Lanka in 1975. Sri Lanka too has bestowed on him the highest honours that she could give. In 1979 Sir Clarke was appointed the Chancellor of the University of Moratuwa, a position Clarke held until 2002.

Institute

In 1984, the government named a newly established Institute for Modern Technologies in Katubedda, Moratuwa in his honour. Today Arthur C Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies, which comes under the Ministry of Science and Technology, among other technology services, houses the biggest telescope in Sri Lanka with a team of scientists in its Space Applications Division working for the development and promotion of astronomy in Sri Lanka.

Sir Arthur C Clarke was the Patron of the ACCIMT till his demise in 2008. Moreover, he was honored with Vidya Jyothi (Luminary of Science) award from the President of Sri Lanka in 1986, Sahithyaratna (Gem of Literature) lifetime achievement award from National Arts Council, Sri Lanka in 2005 and Lankabhimanya (‘Pride of Lanka’), the highest civilian honour from the President of Sri Lanka in 2005.

Satellite

Sri Lanka is to launch its first satellite soon. This will be a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) type satellite orbiting the earth at a distance of about 780 km from the earth surface. The satellite is named after Sir Arthur C. Clarke, a kind of a honour that we could give to remember him even among our future generation. A second satellite too, a geostationary type, is due to follow the Arthur C. Clarke LEO.

At the 90th birthday party given for Sir Arthur C Clarke in December 2007 under the patronage of the Government of Sri Lanka and held at the auditorium of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Sir Arthur C Clarke said he had three wishes: for Sri Lanka’s raging civil war to end, for the world to embrace cleaner sources of energy and for evidence of extraterrestrial beings to be discovered. The first wish of this visionary scientist is almost fulfilled within a year after his death!

The writer is a Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Colombo and the Consultant to the Space Applications Division of the Arthur C Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies, Katubedda, Moratuwa.