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"One could imagine a very ascetic sort of life ... where the body is ignored. This is something I've played with in my books, where people hate to be reminded sometimes that they have bodies, they find it very slow and tedious."
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![]() Herman Potočnik published a book proposing that it was possible to live in space in 1929. In it, he talked about inhabited space stations in geostationary orbit. Clarke expanded on this idea, proposing a trio of devices poised over the earth and able to communicate with each other in direct line of sight.
In the same document, Clarke elaborates on the capabilities of a telecommunications satellite:
The period of revolution of a satellite around the earth is fixed by its distance from the center of the earth. It just so happens that if you put a satellite in orbit 22,300 miles above the earth's surface in the same direction as the earth's rotation, it will appear to stand still above the same spot. Compare this to the International Space Station, only about 250 miles above the surface of the earth, which goes once around the earth every 90 minutes or so.
The first geosynchronous satellite was Syncom 2. Syncom was a program of three experimental, active communication satellites which was started by NASA in 1961.
See also this PDF reproduction of the October, 1945 Wireless World article entitled "Extra-terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give World-Wide Radio Coverage?" Comment/Join this discussion ( 7 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This | Additional
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Science Fiction
Timeline
Giving Snakes Their Legs Back
Then some unknown race had chanced upon the dreamers and decided to 'help them out.'
'Ring Nation' Show Predicted By William Gibson In 1999
'... you had your trademark Lucky Dragon Global Interactive Video Column outside.'
SolarXOne Solar-Powered Drone Flies (almost) Forever
'It's an Indian Air Force drone; its solar cells could power an entire farm.'
Virtual Co-Embodyment - Two People Control One Virtual Body
'... we were supposed to be forming five unit composites first."
The Wanderer: Eyebot From Fallout, Eye From Zelazny
'We send our eyes on their appointed rounds, and they can hover or soar or back up...'
Experts Decry Planet-Scale Schemes To Limit Global Heating
'Light from the sun hit those little spheres and bounced.'
NAVER Labs Haptic Device 2.0 Robot vs. IKEA
'... the two pairs of waldoes in the screen followed in exact, simultaneous parallelism.'
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