Comments on: Arthur C. Clarke, 1917 – 2008

By: Larry Sessions

Larry Sessions — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 17:43:39 +0000

Due to an unusual coincidence of ACC’s passing and the detection of a Gamma Ray Burst that may well be the most spectacular explosion ever witnesses from Earth, I have proposed that henceforth astronomers refer to the March 19 GRB as “The Clarke Event.” I wrote to several of the principle investigators and others, and have received many positive responses to this idea:
http://blogs.earthsky.org/larrysessions

Larry Sessions
Denver

By: isileth

isileth — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:21:49 +0000

I am very sad for such a loss.
His story, The Star, is one of the greatest ever written.
He put stars in our hearts and our eyes.
May he join the universe forever.

By: StevoR

StevoR — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 06:57:01 +0000

“At this point I cannot resist mentioning that I am the proud, though absentee landlord of about a hundred square miles of prime real estate just outside the orbit of Mars. In 1996, the International Astronomical Union gave the name ‘Clarke’ to the asteroid previously known only as 4923; I was apologetically informed that 2001 was no longer available having been assigned to a certain A. Einstein.”

- Page 140, Arthur C. Clarke, ‘Profiles of the Future’, Indigo, 1999.

I suggest as a special tribute to Sir Arthur C. Clarke that, if possible, we make this one of the first asteroids we visit – perhaps in 2063 as we seem unlikely to be sufficently advanced in 2010 .. Or if not ready even by then perhaps in 2131? (When ‘Rama’ arrives in book I of the Rama series.)

Sad to think how much closer we are tio 2010 than 2001 now -and how little we’e progressed space~wise.

But I’m fairly hopeful that Clarke was still a visionary and we will get somewhere near what he imagined (space stations, Lunar bases and more) – eventually!

——————–

PS. I’m not sure if there are also asteroids named in honour of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein but I would expect so.

By: Goodbye Mr. Clarke : NewbieReports: Home of Online Marketing Wow-Fields!

Goodbye Mr. Clarke : NewbieReports: Home of Online Marketing Wow-Fields! — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:40:31 +0000

[...] read that Arthur C. Clarke died on March 18, [...]

By: Stan/Tx

Stan/Tx — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:45:41 +0000

Thanks to a great man whoes books mean a lot to me. His writing opened doors and created an interest in science for me.
May he rest in peace.

By: Mark Welton

Mark Welton — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:27:19 +0000

Sir Arthur was simply unique. “Rendezvous With Rama” gripped me from the first sentence to the last. Passages from “2010:Odyssey Two” still have power to stir the emotions; the spectral David Bowman’s journey to the centre of Jupiter is the finest chapter sign-off I have ever read. And as for “2001″… reading the book and watching the film back in 1970 was literally a life-changing experience.
I had the privilege of listening to a lecture he gave in about 1981, about the Space Elevator. I still have his autograph from that occasion.

Sir Arthur – you were an inspiration. Thank you for all you did for the human race.

By: Buzz Parsec

Buzz Parsec — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 06:48:22 +0000

Someone mentioned Jules Verne, which got me to thinking…
Have the decided on the name yet for the next ATV? Clarke would certainly be appropriate.

By: Halcyon Dayz

Halcyon Dayz — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:10:22 +0000

So long, Sir Arthur.

And thanks for all the great ideas!

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:48:04 +0000

Too many responses to check if this video has been posted. So just in case, it’s a wonderful example of what Sir Arthur meant to the world community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qLdeEjdbWE&fmt=18&fmt=18

By: MR CLARKE

MR CLARKE — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:07:19 +0000

HELLO HAL

IT WAS GOOD TO KNOW YOU

ARTHUR

By: HAL

HAL — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:05:41 +0000

HELLO MR CLARKE

THANK YOU FOR INVENTING ME

YOUR NAME WILL LIVE ON

NOW YOU HAVE YOUR PEACE

GOODBYE MR CLARKE

HAL

By: HAL

HAL — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 13:04:16 +0000

HELLO MR CLARKE ?

THANK YOU FOR INVENTING ME ?

YOUR NAME WILL LIVE ON ?

NOW YOU HAVE YOUR PEACE ?

GOODBYE MR CLARKE ?

HAL ?

By: BaldApe

BaldApe — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:03:00 +0000

alfanier said:

“I’m just glad he was able to actually see the year 2001 arrive.”

Yes. Too bad we didn’t follow the great visionaries and actually do what they showed us might be possible.

Clarke, Asimov. Heinlein. I haven’t seen much fiction worth reading since they left us.

By: Guillermo Abramson

Guillermo Abramson — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:44:54 +0000

I was also very saddened when I knew this today. He was a perpetual inspiration. Many years ago, on the first days of the Web, I managed to get his postal address, and sent him a letter of thanks. I was terribly surprised and delighted to receive a letter from him. Part of it was typed, I presume it was a pre-written response for fans, but over it he had handwritten a personal letter. It’s now one of my treasures.

Guillermo

By: MBB

MBB — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:42:35 +0000

Saddened, but happy to have learned from him.

And highly unscientific as i may sound:

I can just hear him say…

“My god, it’s full of stars”.

MBB

By: bigjohn

bigjohn — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:18:56 +0000

I got tears here. Everyone has to die. It’s just too bad that there can’t be some exceptions…

By: Lars Thorsen

Lars Thorsen — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 21:12:31 +0000

A great loss.
He would not have lived long enough if he’d outlived us all!

By: flynjack

flynjack — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:32:58 +0000

A sad day indeed! I was recently re-reading “Islands in the Sky”, and thinking what a visionary Sir Arthur C. Clarke was. As a kid I remember reading “a Fall of Moondust” and listening to Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon”, the images of that book still come to mind when I hear that album today. When I think of science fiction the first names to come to mind are Verne, Asimov and Clarke. There are many other great writers but only one ACC.

Fair Winds and Following Seas ACC

By: John Phillips, FCD

John Phillips, FCD — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:16:53 +0000

A sad day and he will be missed. He is one of the few authors whose books, fact or fiction, I never tire of reading and I still consider 2001 the best SF film ever.

By: Rosaleah

Rosaleah — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:11:54 +0000

This life is all the brigher for his having passed through.

Time to start re-reading.

–Rosie

By: Zaphodn

Zaphodn — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:00:23 +0000

I bet the Monolith Aliens let Clarke land on Europa.

By: Monte Davis

Monte Davis — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:59:06 +0000

Umm… no, not “the first person to conceive of a geostationary orbit” — as Clarke was at pains to write several times, the idea is clear in Tsiolkovsky 1895, and came up several times in German space circles of the 1920s.

(For that matter it almost certainly occurred to assorted astronomers and physicists well before Tsiolkovsky. But in the absence of any natural geosynchronous (or areosynchronous or…) moon, and without any context for *creating* a satellite, it would have seemed a mere curiosity. I’d love to hear from any historian of celestial mechanics who can find it.)

That Clarke permanently planted the idea of a *use* for GEO is plenty of reason for praise without stretching it.

By: Tekla

Tekla — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:59:59 +0000

A colleague of mine was fortunate to be the last journalist to interview Clarke before his death, you can listen to the interview at http://spectrum.ieee.org/radio?id=2518, read a summary at http://spectrum.ieee.org/mar08/6075, or read the whole transcript http://spectrum.ieee.org/mar08/6076.

By: En legend går ur tiden…. « Tankar av en arbetslös astrofysiker

En legend går ur tiden…. « Tankar av en arbetslös astrofysiker — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:58:09 +0000

[...] hos Pharyngula , Bad Astronomy, Här och här Explore posts in the same categories: science fiction, [...]

By: Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Dies | Tactek://Innovation

Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Dies | Tactek://Innovation — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:32:24 +0000

[...] C. Clarke, famed science fiction writer and inventor of the communications satellite, died earlier today near his home in Sri Lanka. The “grandfather-esque” figure of the modern communication age will [...]