Interplanetary Flight

by Arthur C. Clarke

The celebrated science writer recounts the exciting history of space exploration and flight, from Sputnik I to the present, reviews present missions and plans, and speculates on future journeys and accomplishments.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

164 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Stories, works of noted British writer, scientist, and underwater explorer Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, include 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).

This most important and influential figure in 20th century fiction spent the first half of his life in England and served in World War II as a radar operator before migrating to Ceylon in 1956. He co-created his best known novel and movie with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick.

Clarke, a graduate of King's College, London, obtained first class honours in physics and mathematics. He served as past chairman of the interplanetary society and as a member of the academy of astronautics, the royal astronomical society, and many other organizations.

He authored more than fifty books and won his numerous awards: the Kalinga prize of 1961, the American association for the advancement Westinghouse prize, the Bradford Washburn award, and the John W. Campbell award for his novel Rendezvous with Rama. Clarke also won the nebula award of the fiction of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo award of the world fiction convention in 1974 and 1980. In 1986, he stood as grand master of the fiction of America. The queen knighted him as the commander of the British Empire in 1989.

Reviews

[Lukerik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only read this a laugh, but it turns it’s still useful after seventy years. He covers the hard constraints of physics on space travel and it’s very interesting. Well, I thought it was interesting. You probably think I don’t even know I’m born. There are just a few of the simpler equations in the text. All the hard stuff is shunted into the appendix and he has a way with analogy and metaphor that helped me visualise what he was talking about.

More interesting was his mapping out of what it would take to reach the planets. This was written before it was possible to place a satellite in orbit yet he describes a spaceship for a moon landing that’s very much like Apollo 11; another that’s suspiciously like the Shuttle. He describes SpaceX’s steerable-reuseable rocket booster, and Sky TV. It’s quite obvious to me now that there’s a massive conspiracy, and that They are a clever bunch of bastards who had the entire moon landing mapped out in theory long before the practical problems had been solved.

Wonderful closing chapter where he lays out the reasons why we might want to go into space. Apparently considerations of building rockets that look like big penises do not apply. I largely agree with his argument and Elon says to tell you that he does too.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely bundle of high school physics and beautiful prose. He is more sensible in this than elsewhere - a young man, close to his technical training, not yet paid to speak nonsense. He sees various things coming twenty years early, like uncrewed probes and transposition, docking, and extraction manoeuvres.

He is said to have "invented" the geostationary satellite. Was he really the only one using basic maths and engineering to think a little way forward in 1945?

Classic prose:

The rocket has already been the instrument of evil, and may be so again. But there is no way back into the past: the choice, as Wells once said, is the Universe - or nothing. Though men and civilisations may yearn for rest, for the Elysian dream of the Lotus Eaters, that is a desire that merges imperceptibly into death. The challenge of the great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the story of our race will be drawing to its close. Humanity will have turned its back upon the still untrodden heights and will be descending again the long slope that stretches, across a thousand million years of time, down to the shores of the primeval sea.

[Ishmael Soledad · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting and informative view of interplanetary flight, solid enough content for those wanting more than a simple description, yet showing a few signs of age.