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EGOGRAM 2007
The Golden Age of space travel is still ahead of us. Over the next 50 years, thousands of people will gain access to the orbital realm -- and then, to the Moon and beyond, says Sir Arthur, 89.
Friends, Earthlings, ETs—lend me your sensory organs!
I send you greetings and good wishes at the beginning of another
year. I’ll be celebrating (?) my 90th birthday in December—a
few weeks after the Space Age completes its first half century.
When the late and unlamented Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 on
4 October 1957, it took only about five minutes for the world to
realise what had happened. And although I had been writing and speaking
about space travel for years, the moment is still frozen in my own
memory: I was in Barcelona attending the 8th International Astronautical
Congress. We had retired to our hotel rooms after a busy day of
presentations when the news broke—I was awakened by reporters
seeking comments on the Soviet feat. Our theories and speculations
had suddenly become reality!
Notwithstanding the remarkable accomplishments during the past 50
years, I believe that the Golden Age of space travel is still ahead
of us. Before the current decade is out, fee-paying passengers will
be experiencing sub-orbital flights aboard privately funded passenger
vehicles, built by a new generation of engineer-entrepreneurs with
an unstoppable passion for space (I’m hoping I could still
make such a journey myself). And over the next 50 years, thousands
of people will gain access to the orbital realm—and then, to
the Moon and beyond.
During 2006, I followed with interest the emergence of this new
breed of ‘Citizen Astronauts’ and private space enterprise.
I am very encouraged by the wide-spread acceptance of the Space
Elevator, which can make space transport cheap and affordable to
ordinary people. This daring engineering concept, which I popularised
in The Fountains of Paradise (1978), is now taken very seriously,
with space agencies and entrepreneurs investing money and effort
in developing prototypes. A dozen of these parties competed for
the NASA-sponsored, US$ 150,000 X Prize Cup which took place in
October 2006 at the Las Cruces International Airport, New Mexico.
The Arthur Clarke Foundation continues to recognise and cheer-lead
men and women who blaze new trails to space. A few days before the
X Prize Cup competition, my old friend Walter Cronkite received
the Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award. I have known Walter
for over half a century, and my commentary with him during the heady
days of the Apollo Moon landings now belongs to another era. A space
‘pathfinder’ of the Twenty First Century, Bob Bigelow,
was presented the Arthur C. Clarke Innovator Award for his work
in the development of space habitats. With the successful launch
of Bigelow Aerospace’s Genesis 1, Bob is leading the way for
private individuals willing to advance space exploration with minimum
reliance on government programmes.
Meanwhile, planning and fund-raising work continued for the Arthur
C Clarke Centre "to investigate the reach and impact of human
imagination." to be set up in partnership with the University
of Nevada, Las Vegas. Objective: to identify young people with robust
imagination, to help their parents and teachers make the most of
that talent, and to accord imagination as much regard as high academic
grades in the classroom - anywhere in the world. The Board members
of the Clarke Foundation, led by its indefatigable Chairman Tedson
Meyers, have taken on the challenge of raising US$ 70 million for
this project. I’m hopeful that the billion dollar communications
satellite industry I founded 60 years ago with my Wireless World
paper (October 1945), for which I received the astronomical sum
of £15, will be partners in this endeavour.
I’ve only been able to make a few encouraging noises from
the sidelines for these and other worthy projects as I’m now
very limited in time and energy owing to Post Polio. But I’m
happy to report that my health remains stable, and I’m in no
discomfort or pain. Being completely wheel-chaired helps to concentrate
on my reading and writing—which I can once again engage in,
with the second cataract operation restoring my eyesight.
During the year, I wrote a number of short articles, book reviews
and commentaries for a variety of print and online outlets. I also
did a few carefully chosen media interviews, and filmed several
video greetings to important scientific or literary gatherings in
different parts of the world.
I was particularly glad to find a co-author to complete my last
novel, The Last Theorem, which remained half-written for a couple
of years. I had mapped out the entire story, but then found I didn’t
have the energy to work on the balance text. Accomplished American
writer Frederik Pohl has now taken up the challenge. Meanwhile,
co-author Stephen Baxter has completed First-born, the third novel
in our collaborative Time Odyssey series, to be published in 2007.
Members of my adopted family—Hector, Valerie, Cherene,
Tamara and Melinda Ekanayake—are keeping well. Hector has
been looking after me since 1956, and with his wife Valerie, has
made a home for me at 25, Barnes Place, Colombo. Hector continued
to rebuild the diving operation that was wiped out by the Indian
Ocean Tsunami of December 2004. Sri Lanka’s tourist sector,
still recovering from the mega-disaster, weathered a further crisis
as the long-drawn civil conflict ignited again after more than three
years of relative peace and quiet. I remain hopeful that a lasting
solution would be worked out by the various national and international
players engaged in the peace process.
I’m still missing and mourning my beloved Chihuahua Pepsi,
who left us more than a year ago. I’ve just heard that dogs
aren’t allowed in Heaven, so I’m not going there.
Brother Fred, Chris Howse, Angie Edwards and Navam Tambayah look
after my affairs in England. My agents David
Higham Associates and Scovil,
Chichak & Galen Literary Agency deal with rapacious editors
and media executives. They both follow my general directive: No
reasonable offer will even be considered.
I am well supported by my staff and take this opportunity to thank
them all:
Executive Officer: Nalaka Gunawardene
Personal Assistant: Rohan De Silva
Secretary: Dottie Weerasooriya
Valets: Titus, Saman, Chandra, Sunil
Drivers: Lalith & Anthony
Domestic Staff: Kesavan, Jayasiri & Mallika
Gardener: Jagath
Let me end with an extract from my tribute
to Star Trek on its 40th anniversary — this message is
more relevant today than when the series first aired in the heady
days of Apollo: “Appearing at such a time in human history,
Star Trek popularised much more than the vision of a space-faring
civilisation. In episode after episode, it promoted the then unpopular
ideals of tolerance for differing cultures and respect for life
in all forms—without preaching, and always with a saving sense
of humour.”
Colombo, Sri Lanka
28 January 2007
© Sir Arthur C. Clarke 2007.
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