The International Academy of Astronautics team received this note from Sir Arthur C. Clarke and wanted to include it on the web site. The email note is followed by his input to the general topic of global societal impact. Hope you enjoy this special input to the Academy activity.
"Dear David [David Raitt - member of Study Team],
Thanks for your email of November 5.
I'm interested to hear about your latest book project, but as you know, I'm now very limited in time and energy, and cannot write any new material. In fact, I've written so many megawords over the last half century that it's hard to avoid repeating myself.
However, it so happens that the attached short essay was written earlier this year for a project that later didn't materialise, and it seems appropriate for your need. If you think so, please go ahead and use it. If any changes are made, I would like you to share the edited version with me before publication.
All good wishes,
Arthur
9 November 2002
---------------------------
TIME FOR THE STARS
By Arthur C Clarke
For more than half a century, I have been lucky enough to observe - and occasionally experience - the greatest revolution in the history of astronomy, perhaps the oldest of all the sciences. With the coming of Sputnik in 1957, it moved from observation to experimentation – and now exploration.
When I joined the British Astronomical Association in the 40s, any talk of space travel was regarded as hair-brained nonsense, fit only for boys’ magazines and the cheaper pulps. It is now amusing to recall some of the objections raised against the idea that we would one day be able to leave the Earth. In a famous (or infamous) editorial, The New York Times once castigated Robert Goddard for thinking that a rocket could work in a vacuum, when `there was nothing to push against.’ Though it apologized in the special Apollo issue of 1969, by then Goddard was dead.
My own introduction to space travel (apart from numerous works of fiction) was David Lasser’s The Conquest of Space (1930). This was the first serious book on the subject in the English language – and the author later lost his job because a US Congressman said that anyone who wrote about travel to the Moon was obviously insane. I don’t know if an apology was ever forthcoming in this case.
I also recall a wonderful headline in a British newspaper during the 1930s “We are prisoners of fire!” when radio echoes revealed that the temperature in the Ionosphere was some thousands of degrees. The journalist responsible for this headline obviously didn’t understand the difference between heat and temperature. One would soon freeze to death in the Ionosphere, if the only warmth came from the rare thousand degree gas molecules. (For a good example of this distinction, consider those delightful Guy Fawkes Night fireworks that you can hold against your hand, even when they are spitting out showers of incandescent sparks.)
Until quite recently - except for those deluded individuals who believe in horoscopes* - it was generally considered that celestial bodies had no influence on this planet – except of course in such obvious cases as the Sun and the Moon. Then, during the course of a little more than a decade, it was realized that impacts from space have had a profound affect upon Earth. We might not be here today if an asteroid or comet had not wiped out the competition some sixty-five million years ago.
I can still recall arguments at the BAA meetings over the origin of lunar craters, where one astronomer remarked: “The presence of central peaks completely rules out the meteoric hypothesis.” One cannot altogether blame him because there are obvious examples of volcanic activity on the Moon, e.g. the crater Wargentin, which is full of lava up to the brim. So when we know one process is at work, it seems unnecessary to look for another. And who would ever have imagined that the brief upward splash which occurs when you drop a lump of sugar into a cup of coffee can be reproduced on a million-fold greater scale – in solid rock!
There is a sad irony in the fact that Gene Shoemaker, the man largely responsible for proving that Meteor Crater, Arizona, had been correctly named, was killed in a stupid car accident in Australia, while looking for impact sites. But at least he had the enormous satisfaction of seeing Shoemaker-Levy’s encounter with Jupiter – a cosmic spectacle visible to the entire world.
Earth’s turn will come one day: it could be tomorrow, it might not be for a hundred years. Looking at the statistics, I feel that we have been quite lucky during the last century.
This is why I proposed Project Spaceguard in my novel: Rendezvous with RAMA (1973). I am happy to say the name has been widely adopted: NASA’s Report “The Spaceguard Survey” (January 25, 1992) acknowledged the source. The detection of earth-threatening objects (Space Watch) has scarcely begun and Spaceguard itself lies still further ahead - but not too far, I hope. As science fiction writer Larry Niven once remarked: “The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space programme.”
Finally, I am still rather spooked by the fact that I dated the asteroid impact in RAMA at September the 11th. Don’t ask me why I chose that sinister date, almost thirty years ago.
* * * * *
*Footnote: That’s almost everyone here in Sri Lanka. When asked for my own views I always reply “I think astrology is utter nonsense – but then I’m a Sagittarius, and we’re very skeptical.”
Sir
Arthur
C.
Clarke
Writer
Professional Category:
Arts
|
|
