Today in History: 1945 Arthur C. Clark proposes relay satellites in geosynchronous orbit

Arthur Charles Clarke was born on 16 December 1917 in Minehead, Somerset, United Kingdom. During the Second World War he was involved in developing the new technology of radar. Later, he achieved a first class degree in physics and mathematics from King’s College, London. However, it was in 1945 that he wrote the article which foresaw the dawn of satellite communications.

In October 1945, Clarke published in the British magazine Wireless World a technical paper entitled “Extra-terrestrial Relays — Can Rocket Stations Give World-wide Radio Coverage?” It established the feasibility of satellites as relay stations for Earth-based communications. Clarke predicted that one day, worldwide communications would be possible via a network of three geostationary satellites spaced at equal intervals around the equator.

His paper began by stating that “although it is possible, by a suitable choice of frequencies and routes, to provide telephony circuits between any two points or regions of the Earth for a large part of the time, long-distance communication is greatly hampered by the peculiarities of the ionosphere, and there are even occasions when it may be impossible. A true broadcast service, giving constant field strength at all times over the whole globe would be invaluable, not to say indispensable, in a world society.”

He added, “it will be observed that one orbit with a radius of 42 000 km has a period of exactly 24 hours. A body in such an orbit, if its plane coincided with that of the Earth’s equator, would revolve with the Earth and would thus be stationary above the same spot on the planet. It would remain fixed in the sky of a whole hemisphere and unlike all other heavenly bodies, would neither rise nor set.” If, Clarke said, material were to be ferried up to such an orbit by rockets, a “space station” could be built there. It “could be provided with receiving and transmitting equipment and could act as a repeater to relay transmissions between any two points on the hemisphere beneath,” Clarke went on. “Moreover, a transmission received from any point on the hemisphere could be broadcast to the whole of the visible face of the globe,” he explained. “A single station could only provide coverage for half the globe, and for a world service three would be required, though more could be readily utilized” (see Figure 1).
           
Two decades later, in 1964, NASA’s Syncom 3 became the first geostationary satellite. It relayed pictures of the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo to the United States — the first television transmission over the Pacific Ocean. This development had been preceded by Syncom 1, which went silent very soon after being launched in February 1963, and by Syncom 2, launched in July 1963 for telephone and facsimile transmissions between Africa, Europe and the United States. Although Syncom 2 was the first geosynchronous communications satellite, its orbit was inclined rather than geostationary.

In 1954, Clarke had also proposed using satellites in meteorology. Today, we cannot imagine predicting the weather without using dedicated satellites. Nowadays, there are hundreds of satellites in the geostationary orbit, providing communications and broadcasting to millions of people around the globe. And the area of space they use is sometimes referred to as the Clarke Belt.

Looking back on these developments in his book How the World Was One — Beyond the Global Village, published in 1992, Clarke explains how the idea of placing a satellite in geostationary orbit had gradually originated in the minds of a series of thinkers, including Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Herman Potočnik (also known as Hermann Noordung) a Slovenian born in what is now Croatia, and Hermann Oberth, of Germany.

Nevertheless, Clarke can be viewed as launching the idea of a global communication network using satellites, after the groundwork of others. In the book he wrote: “Sometimes I’m afraid that you people down on Earth take the space stations for granted, forgetting the skill and science and courage that went to make them. How often do you stop to think that all your long-distance phone calls, and most of your TV programmes are routed through one or the other of the satellites?”

Clarke moved to Sri Lanka in 1956 and held dual Sri Lankan and British nationality. President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa said he was “deeply saddened” by Clarke’s death. He added that “Sir Arthur made important intellectual, cultural and scientific contributions to Sri Lankan development, while engaged in his scientific research and creative writing that earned him well-deserved praise the world over.”

Mr Rajapaksa mentioned how, “always ahead of his time,” Clarke had focused international attention on the need for a tsunami warning system, after the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. And the people of Sri Lanka were touched by “the courage with which he acted for the protection of nature and the environment, long before climate change assumed the importance it has today”.

“We owe Sir Arthur our gratitude for helping to usher in the space age and, in particular, the use of geostationary satellites for worldwide radio coverage,” said ITU Secretary-General Hamadoun I. Touré.

Valery Timofeev, Director of the ITU Radiocommunication Bureau, met Clarke in 1979 at an INTELSAT Exhibition, organized during an ITU World Administrative Radio Conference. Mr Timofeev said he remembers Clarke “as an extraordinary man of great warmth and scientific vision, who devoted all his writings and predictions to the positive development of humankind”.

To the world at large, Clarke was best known as an author of science fiction. He wrote more than 80 books and 500 articles and short stories, including the famous novel “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968). It was written concurrently with Stanley Kubrick’s film of the same name and was based on earlier works of Clarke, especially “The Sentinel” (1948).

Clarke’s writings often contained descriptions of scientific advances that could be put into practice in the real world. He predicted, for example, the development of technology to intercept or deflect asteroids that threaten Earth. And in his novel “The Fountains of Paradise” (1979) he popularized the idea of the “space elevator.” This would be a line strung between Earth and a geostationary spacecraft, which could transport materials into orbit. In 1981, Clarke expanded the technical details in a paper entitled “The Space Elevator: Thought Experiment, or Key to the Universe?” The United States space agency NASA is exploring how to make the elevator a reality.

Concerning the art of prediction, Clarke formulated the following three laws:

• When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
• The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
• Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

It may be said that the legacy of Sir Arthur C. Clarke is to point the way for scientists and engineers towards that “magic” future.

Read more of the story here

Also on this day:
1521 Edict of Worms outlaws Martin Luther and his followers
1571 Pope Pius V forms The Holy League to fight the Ottomans with other Catholic maritime states including Spain, Venice, Naples and Sicily
1720 The Ship "Le Grand St Antoine" reaches Marseille, bringing Europe's last major plague outbreak. Kills around 100,000
1816 Collection of poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge published by John Murray in London, including "Kubla Khan" and "Christabel"
1844 1st telegraphed news dispatch is published in Baltimore Patriot
1868 Australian Aboriginal Cricket tour of England begins v Surrey Gentlemen
1878 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera "H.M.S. Pinafore" premieres in London
1915 Second Battle of Ypres on the Western Front ends with 105,000 casualties
1927 Henry Ford announces that he is ending production of the Model T Ford
1932 Goofy, aka Dippy Dawg, 1st appears in 'Mickey's Revue' by Walt Disney
1935 Legendary American athlete Jesse Owens equals or breaks 4 world records in 45 minutes at a Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan; remembered as "the greatest 45 minutes ever in sport"
1953 1st atomic cannon electronically fired at Frenchman Flat, Nevada
1961 JFK announces US goal of putting a man on the Moon before the end of decade
1961 NASA civilian pilot Joseph A. Walker takes X-15 to 32,770 m
1965 Muhammad Ali KOs Sonny Liston at 2:12 of round 1 at Central Maine Civic Center, Lewiston to retain his WBC/WBA heavyweight boxing title
1977 Original "Star Wars" movie (Episode IV – A New Hope), directed by George Lucas and starring Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford, first released
1979 Horror film "Alien", directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver is released
1983 "Return of the Jedi" (Star Wars Episode VI), produced by George Lucas first released
2012 A SpaceX Dragon becomes the first commercial spacecraft to dock at the International Space Station


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1979 Jonny Wilkinson CBE - English international and Newcastle Falcons rugby player, World Cup winner 2003
1944 Frank Oz - American muppeteer (Yoda, Fozzie Bear, Miss Piggy)
1939 Sir Ian McKellen - English film and theatre actor (Lord of the Rings; X-Men)
1927 Robert Ludlum - American spy novelist (Jason Bourne)
1889 Igor Sikorsky - Russian-American pioneer of aviation in both helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft

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2006 Desmond Dekker - Jamaican reggae pioneer (Aces - "Israelites")
2002 Patricia "Pat" Coombs - British comedienne and actress (Carry On Again Doctor, Cranford)
1948 Witold Pilecki - Polish WWII resistance fighter (volunteered to go to Auschwitz, Witold's Report)
1934 Gustav Holst - English composer (The Planets; Ode to Death)
1919 Madam C. J. Walker [Sarah Breedlove] - African American entrepreneur (First American self-made female millionaire, Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company)

Holidays on this day
African Liberation Day
Geek Pride Day
National Brown-Bag-It Day
National Missing Children's Day
National Senior Health & Fitness Day - (Last Wednesday in May)
National Tap Dance Day
National Wine Day
Towel Day
World Orienteering Day - (Fourth Wednesday in May)
World Otter Day – (Last Wednesday in May)

The Funnies:

On the Menu Today – Huevos rancheros

I haven’t actually tried this, but it looks delicious! I do like to try different foods from all over the place, I get a bit bored of the same thing over and over. So something like this seems really straightforward, but great. Definitely one to add to my “must try to make this” list.

This recipe is from LoveFood

Ingredients

• 2 x 400g (14oz) tins of black beans
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 250 g cherry tomatoes
• 2 avocados
• 2 limes
• 4 UK medium (US large) eggs
• 4 soft corn tortillas
• 200 g block of feta
• 1 amount hot sauce
• 1 amount olive oil
• 1 pinch each of salt and black pepper

1. Get a saucepan over a high heat and drizzle in some olive oil.
2. Open and drain the tins of black beans into a sieve, then tip the beans straight into the pan. Refill one of the tins a quarter full with water and add to the pan. Add the cumin, smoked paprika and a good amount of salt and black pepper. Chuck in the tomatoes and give everything a good stir. Leave to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the tomatoes have burst and the beans have broken down slightly.
3. Halve and pit the avocados, scoop out the flesh and slice it. Cut one lime in half and the other into four wedges. Squeeze one lime half over the avo slices and the other into the black beans.
4. Put a large frying pan over a high heat. Drizzle in some oil and, once hot, crack in the eggs. Fry to your liking.
5. Warm the tortillas in the microwave following the packet instructions. Place one tortilla on each serving plate. Spoon over the tomatoey beans, then top each one with half a sliced avocado and a fried egg. Crumble over the feta and serve with the remaining lime wedges for squeezing over and some hot sauce.

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