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Tag Archives: Star Trek

Passing of a Legend: Sir Arthur C. Clarke

Yesterday marked the passing of a legendary figure in the literary world.  Sir Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey and dozens of other works, passed away in his adopted homeland of Sri Lanka on Wednesday.

Clarke was a pioneer of science-fiction, along with others like Isaac Asimov, helping to build the genre into the strong source of insight, foresight and entertainment that we enjoy today.

“The only way to discover the limits of the possible is to go beyond them into the impossible.”

- Arthur C. Clarke

Clarke’s brilliance not only as an author but as a futurist brought him to write not only about fantastic other-worldly adventures, but also about the future of the the earth, space travel and humanity’s role in it.  Another prominent member of the science-fiction community who was inspired by Clarke was Gene Roddenberry.  Clarke’s vision and writings helped to fuel his passion to pursue Star Trek which has grown into one of the most popular and prolific science fiction series of all time.

You can see Dave’s short video comment on the GGP blog, and a video dedication by Rod Roddenberry.

Sir Arthur C. Clarke, dead at 90.

Hawking: Warp Drive the Key to Survival

Speaking after being awarded the Copley medal in England last week Prof. Steven Hawking spoke out about the need for mankind to extend its footprint outside the Sol system. His proposed method for making this happen: matter/antimatter annihilation to propel a craft to near-light speeds.  This is the method popularized in the television (and movie) series’ Star Trek.

The key difference between Hawking’s proposal and the Warp Drive technology used in the Star Trek universe is the degree of speed.  Star Trek uses matter/antimatter annihilation to move a craft at many times the speed of light, something which Hawking and most other theoretical physicists consider to be impossible based on the physical universe as we understand it.  In Hawking’s proposal this technology would be used to reach sublight speeds which are very close to the speed of light.

His estimate is that with the ability to travel just below the speed of light, a craft could reach the next nearest star in about 6 years. A vast improvement from the 50,000 years it would have taken the Apollo rocket series (assuming it could ever carry enough fuel).  As far as organizations like NASA are concerned, faster-than-light travel is speculative at best.

Maybe this is yet another one of Gene Roddenberry‘s visions coming one step closer to reality.