The inventor of the geostationary communications satellite was certainly not the "techie" who "soldered the circuit boards together", and the sums are actually quite easy. The inventor is the guy who came up with the concept, and that was Arthur C Clarke.

Martin, Newmarket, Suffolk

What ever happened to not speaking ill of the dead? Apart from that, every advancement in science starts with an idea and its the people at the "typewriters" we should be grateful too as well as the technicians who bring the ideas to reality.

Kevin, High Wycombe, UK

Having read Clarke for many years I can remember him saying there would never be a good chess computer and explained why
the book was Profiles of the Future, when it was re-published some years later that piece and others had been edited out, also the communications satellites is mentioned in just about every book he
wrote, but I must say he was most interesting and I shall miss reading his work.

bob vaddish, petersfield, uk

I thought Jules Verne was the first to describe things being in geostationary orbit, but I expect Sir Isaac Newton had thought of it...

C Blackmore, Melksham, England

That's not entirely fair about the satellites Sally. Clarke conceived of the idea of geostationary satellites and, if he had patented the idea (which he could have done) he would have become a gazillionaire. The altitude above the equator where geostationary satellites are 'parked' is still known as the 'Clarke Ring', in his honour.
The Sentinel's central concept of the alien monolith was key to Kubrick's 2001, without which, no story. Kubrick developed the story superbly and deserves a lot of the credit for what became a milestone in cinema history.
But remember, Clarke's original imagination was the spark.

Greg Palmer, Hamburg, Germany

Godspeed and RIP in peace Arthur C Clarke.
I have enjoyed your books over many a night.

Fantastic and intellgent reading.
Thanks

rick, Uk, England

By `inventor` they mean he was probably the first to actually write about using `satellites` in orbit for communication and the like. The man, like Jules Verne, was writing about technology that now exists way before it did and many people including the likes of Carl Sagan have said it was his stories and ideas that drove them on.

Yes 2001 started as a short story and even though it's this thats `his` most famous work you should also take a look at his other works such as Rendevous with Rama (which will soon be a film).

Lloyd, Brighton, UK

London Sally may well be the only person to find Clarke's invention 'iffy'. The thing is well-documented. Clarke wrote the piece and supplied a diagram giving the altitude for a 24 hour satellite to orbit so that it would seem to stay over the same spot on the Earth's surface, This had not previously been calculated. He also showed in the diagram how, mimimally, three satellites in an equilateral triangle would cover the Earth for communications.
Unfortunately for Clarke, you cannot patent an idea.

As for the virtues of his fiction, that, I suggest, is always going to be a matter of opinion.

Sean, Liverpool,

Can't really believe this story is newsworthy considering a. it took place over 7 years ago and b. it's only a few days after Arthur Clarke's death.

He was an incredible writer and visionary and should be remembered as such. Personally, I think it's shameful to be dredging up such stories, instead of celebrating the achievements of one of the world's greatest science fiction writers...

Peter, Rome, Italy

I think Sally is confused as to the definition of 'inventor'. Clarke was the first person to suggest sticking satellites in geosynchronous orbit to build a worldwide communications network. The techie then built it. Solving problems can be hard, creating world changing concepts is quite another.

bob, London,

How nice that someone thinks Clarke's death is a 'good thing'. Given that the writer of that post appears to be a novelist of some sort, the statement does give the whole message a sour tinge. When an author of Clarke's stature dies, it's only natural that publishers should reissue his work. If they're not publishing the 'fantastic visions' of a certain 'young writer', maybe it's because his visions aren't so fantastic after all. Or maybe the writing is just plain bad, written by someone who litters his prose with Inappropriate Capital letters.
And it's Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Clarke's Three Laws are something else entirely.

Mr Chivers, London, UK

my favourite author for sure. I particularly loved Rendevouz with Rama and the other books in that Series.
I believe the movie adaptation is to be released next year. I dont envy David Fincher's job of climbing that mountain.

Phill, The Wirral, England

Arthur C. Clarke is dead. Farewell. Etc. So are we going to be hammered by publishers re-issuing all his well known titles and a few more that you should also get to know? Is it possible that a young writer, living in the ‘now’ (ACC’s ‘future’ for when he was writing) could be coming up with fantastic visions that equal ACC and isn’t it only fair for the young writer to be on the market as well? I see his death as a good thing. Get the great ACC resurgence over and done with and then SF Writers can get back to spreading great ideas into a rapidly changing world. I give credit to ACC, I even put his Three Laws of Robotics into the preface of my book Love Data, but it’s time for a new generation to get into the public eye.
We live in the future and the past, current and future technological evolutions engineered by and dumped on humanity can only be made sense of by Science Fiction Writers.

Simon Drake, London, England

Good grief, I can only conclude that Sally has been inhabiting a different Universe. ACC wrote somewhere between 75 and 90 books - both fiction and non-fiction (the count depending on whether or not you tally up his collected editions and his late career dual authorship fiction). Apart from his SF he was a monumental science populariser with his non fiction work. "Iffy" indeed! Not even close, Sally!.
As for the innuendo in this article, Jack Malvern should be ashamed of himself. The local (Sri Lanka) government expressly mounted an inquiry in to the allegations at the time and exonerated ACC unconditionally. Both ACC and HM Govt. waited until this was concluded before the honour was eventually awarded. The prurient insinuations otherwise in this article are wholly unwarranted.

Rohan, Solihull, UK

Sally:
Of course, "inventor of the communications satellite" was an exaggeration, and was probably coined by a TV scriptwriter who didn't know what he was talking about. The fact is, however, that Clarke was the first to realise the concept of the geostationary orbit, in a paper published in 1945. That special orbit is now officially named the Clarke Orbit in his honour.
As for your comments on "2001" - the film was not "subsequently novelised"; the novel and screenplay were written in parallel, the novel by Clarke himself, and the screenplay by himself and Kubrick.
Of course, this was only one of dozens of novels written by Sir Arthur, who has been rightly described as "The Colossus of Science Fiction".
He was also an excellent science writer and populariser.

Neil, Derby, UK

The movie 2001 was not later novelized by Clarke. Clarke and Kubrick wrote the screenplay during the day, Clark wrote the novel at night. When he finished the novel off it went to the publisher, while they continued to write, change and tinker with the screenpay. That is why there are significant differenes between the final film and the novel. The book is not a "novelization" of the movie at all.

But i am sure you knew that.

bill, nyc, NY USA

Nobody's mentioned the Rama series yet - in my humble opinion Arthur C Clarke's best works

Tony Yates, Aberdeen , UK

Arthur posted the calculations necessary and worked out the altitude necessary for the geostationary orbit aswell as coming up with the idea. While he wrote quite a bit, he was first and formost an engineer. Strictly speaking, he cannot be creditied with "inventing the communications satellite" as he only worked out where such a satellite would need to be in order to form part of a global communications network. If you look at the way patents work, the person registering the idea along with technical specifications, not the person who built it is the 'inventor'. He came up with the idea and the calculations but did not supply the exact mechanics of a satellite.
As for co-authoring 2001, consider that if he had not written the book that there would not have been a film. He also helped out a lot on the mechanics of the film as it's actually quite scientifically accurate which is unusual for a film. For example, the space station is exact to scale in order to provide the g force shown.

Eric, Cork,

Sally, you probably aren't the only person, but, like all the others, you have the option of thinking the matter through before you rush into publication. Sir Arthur's contribution to the development of the comms satellite was to raise the issue of artificial geostationary objects as a serious proposition.
As for 2001, all great ideas start off as minor ones. Read 'The Making of 2001' (I may have the title slightly wrong) before you rush to judgement.
Sir Arthur is dead, and I feel a sense of loss. I don't think I am alone in that. Don't start knocking him yet, please.

Rob, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Am I the only person to find the received wisdom about Clarke a bit, well, iffy?
He hosted a TV show some years ago (Arthur C Clarke's Mysterious World?) where he was each week referred to as "inventor of the communications satellite and author of 2001".
Personally I imagine the "inventor of the communications satellite" to be the techie in a lab coat who soldered the circuit boards together and did the hard sums not a bloke a a typewriter who thought that bouncing signals off an artificial moon might be doable.
As for authoring 2001, Clarke wrote a minor short story, called, I think, "The Sentinel" was was about the monolith buried on the moon. This comprises only the middle section of Kubrick's film. The really memorable stuff; the apes, the "Star Child", HAL 9000 - these appeared in the screenplay co-written with Kubrick and only subsequently novelised by Clarke.

Sally, London, UK