AMSAT Notes Passing of Arthur C. Clarke

This week marked the passing of Arthur C. Clarke, author of more than 100 published books in which he foresaw the future of technology, promoted the possibilities of human innovation and exploration and combined these with the ability to explain these to non-scientific readers.

The most famous example is from 1945, when he first proposed the idea of communications satellites that could be based in geostationary orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground.

Tom Clark, K3IO recalled, “You might be interested in knowing that Arthur was an AMSAT Life Member. His member number, quite fittingly, was LM-2001.”

Tom continued, “In the 1970’s and 80’s, Arthur was a frequent visitor to NASA. He was listed in the Goddard phone director as a consultant in the LANDSAT group, and he also served as a consultant at NASA HQ. In the early 1980’s (when I was AMSAT President), on a trip to Washington, Dick Daniels(W4PUJ), Jan King (W3GEY) and I made the presentation of honorary AMSAT LM-2001 to Arthur. He was most appreciative and spent a couple of hours talking with us about our being the “Wright Brothers” of the satellite world, building satellites in our basements and garages.”

Arthur communicated with us several times in the years following that visit. He asked that his LM-2001 Journal subscription be sent in his name to a library in Sri Lanka.

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