INTERPLANETARY FLIGHT

'Go out beneath the stars on a clear winter night, and look up at the Milky Way spanning the heavens like a bridge of glowing mist. Up there, ranged beyond the other to the end of the Universe, suns without number burn in the loneliness of space. Down to the south hang the brilliant unwinking lanterns of other worlds - the electric blue of Jupiter, the glowing ember of Mars. Across the zenith, a meteor leaves a trail of fading incandescence, and a tiny voyager of space has come to a flaming end.'

'Looking out across the immensity to the great suns and circling planets, to worlds of infinite mystery and promise, can you believe that man is to spend all his days cooped and crawling on the surface of this tiny Earth - this moist pebble with its clinging film of air? Or do you, on the other hand, believe that his destiny is indeed among the stars, and that one day our descendants will bridge the seas of space?'

- British Interplanetary Society brochure (1938)



THE WORLD OF COMMUNICATIONS

What we are building now is the nervous system of mankind....The communications network, of which the satellites will be nodal points, will enable the consciousness of our grandchildren to flciker like lightning back and forth across the face of the planet.

- The World of the Communications Satellite



ARTHUR C. CLARKE'S LAWS

Clarke's First Law : When a distinguished but elderly scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he says it is impossible, he is very proabbly wrong.

Clarke's Second Law : The only way to find the limits of the possible is by going beyond them to the impossihble.

Clarke's Third Law : Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.





REAGAN QUOTES CLARKE

'Arthus C. Clarke, distinguished author of science and fiction, says ideas often have three stages of reaction - first, "it's crazy and don't waste my time." Second, "It's possible, but it's not worth doing." And finally, "I've always said it was a good idea."'

- President Ronald Reagan, giving a speech before the National Space Club, on 29 March 1985, at the Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC, on the occasion of him being presented with the Goddard Award.


EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE



I think there's a ninety-nine per cent chance of life all over the universe and a ninety per cent chance of intelligent life being all over the place as well. The most likely scenario for contact is reception of a radio signal of some sort. Next most likely would be detection or interception of astro-engineering or physical artifacts. And they might land tomorrow on the White House lawn