CLARKE'S SATELLITE

   For pulp SF writers of the early 20th century, global communication was just a dream. Then in 1945, Arthur C. Clarke, a 28-year-old radar instructor with the RAF, published a paper suggesting that satellites orbiting the Earth could be used to relay radio signals around the globe.He noted that a satellite orbiting 22,250 miles above the equator would take exactly 24 hours to go around the Earth and would therefore appear to hang motionless in the sky. A satellite in such an orbit could create a communication link between continents and across oceans. Clarke's paper proposed using manned satellites and radios powered by vacuum tubes, although actual communications satellites today are unmanned and use transistors - which were unknown when Clarke wrote his paper.Clarke's imaginative powers were later directed to science fiction, and he went on to become one of the best-known and best-loved writers in SF history. Today he lives on the island of Sri Lanka, connected to the global village through a communications satellite located in what is now called "Clarke Orbit."