Arthur C. Clarke

As far as I know the science fiction (?) writer and thinker Arthur C. Clarke is still alive and living in Sri Lanka.In the 1930's he was already thinking and writing about rockets carrying passengers into outer space,even before the first crude rockets were fired on London during the 2nd World War.He had even designed navigational instruments which would be used over 3o years later by American and Russian space crafts.

Clarke's collaboration with the great film director Stanley Kubrick(or was it Kubricks collaboration with Clarke ?)...in the making of the film '2001 Space Odyssey' helped to make that film a classic.Clarke also has ideas on how in the not-too-distant future space-tourism will become a possibility.Already people such as Richard Branso and our own Bill Cullen apparently have'booked'seats on future space flights....of course the cost will be in millions(£ or € ???,does it really matter),but its a start and the price is bound to come down.

Clarke's vision of future space- tourism was a sort of 'stairway to the stars' on which the tourist would travel, in incremental stages, to a space-station in a fixed orbit above the Equator.I certainly don't know whether it is scientifically possible but I would not ignore the vision of a man who as a , humble civil-servant, in the dark days of i930's London, already has his eyes firmly fixed on the stars.

So three cheers for Arthur Charles Clarke,who is 90 years of age this year(assuming he is still alive) hip-hip-hooray.......