இன்று சேர். ஆர்தர். சீ . கிளார்க் அவர்களின் பிறந்ததினம். டிசம்பர் 16, 1917ம் ஆண்டு தோன்றிய சேர். கிளார்க் அவர்கள் 2008ம் ஆண்டு மார்ச் 19ம் திகதி இயற்கை எய்தினார். அவர் நினைவாக... தனது 90வது பிறந்ததினம் அன்று சேர். கிளார்க் அவர்கள் கொழும்பில் தனது இல்லத்தில் இருந்து ஆற்றிய உரை.

இங்கு அறிவியல், விண்ணியல், வாழ்வியல், தனது தனிப்பட்ட அனுபவங்கள், தனது மூன்று விருப்பங்கள் பற்றி இதில் கூறுகின்றார்.

மார்ச் 19, 2008ம் ஆண்டு இயற்கை எய்வதற்கு முன்னம் இறுதியாக சேர். ஆர்தர். சீ. கிளார்க் அவர்கள் பொதுநிகழ்விற்காக ஆற்றிய உரை:

[காணொளி விபரத்தில் இருந்து - This was the final public message recorded by the late Sir Arthur C Clarke, which closed the global launch of the International Year of Planet Earth, at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on 13 February 2008. In his unique style, Sir Arthur connects the local with global, and traces the influence of space exploration on the global environmental movement. He ends calling for humanity to listen to the planet's distress call, and respond with knowledge, understanding and imagination.]

உலகப்புகழ்பெற்ற விஞ்ஞானப் புனைகதை ஆசிரியர், விஞ்ஞானி சேர்.ஆர்தர். சீ. கிளார்க்கின் உடல் இன்று கொழும்பு கனத்தை மயானத்தில் அடக்கம் செய்யப்பட்டது. சேர். கிளார்க்கிற்கு மரியாதை செலுத்தும்முகமாக சிறீ லங்கா அரசாங்கம் சனிமாலை 3.30 தொடக்கம் 3.31 வரை ஒரு நிமிடம் மெளன அஞ்சலி செலுத்தும்படி மக்களிடம் அறிவிப்பு செய்து இருந்தது.

தனது 90வது வயதில் கடந்த புதன்கிழமை மார்ச் 19 அன்று மரணமான சேர்.கிளார்க் அவர்கள் தனது உடல் இறந்தபின் எவ்வாறு அடக்கம் செய்யப்படவேண்டும் என்று எழுத்து மூலமான அறிவுரை கொடுத்து இருந்தார். தனது மரணச்சடங்கில் எதுவிதமான சமயம் சம்மந்தமான சடங்குகளும் இடம்பெறக்கூடாது என்று மிகவும் கண்டிப்பாக கூறி இருந்தார்.

வாழ்க்கையில் மிகவும் ஒரு சாதாரண குடும்பத்தில் தோன்றிய சேர்.கிளார்க் அவர்கள் தனது விடாமுயற்சியினாலும், கடுமையான உழைப்பினாலும் இந்த உலகம் அறியப்படும்வகையில் வளர்ச்சி அடைந்தார்.

1917 மார்கழி மாதம் 16 ம் திகதி பிறந்த சேர்.கிளார்க் அவர்கள் இரண்டாம் உலக மகாயுத்தத்தின்போது பிரித்தானியாவின் றோயல் எயார் போர்சில் (British Royal Air Force) ரடார் நிபுணராக கடமையாற்றியபின் லண்டன் கிங்ஸ் கல்லூரியில் பெளதீகம், கணிதம் ஆகிய துறையில் கல்விகற்று முதல்தரத்தில் சித்தி (First Class Hons) அடைந்தார்.

1945ம் ஆண்டு முதன்முதலாக சட்டலைட் மூலம் முழு உலகத்தையும் இணைத்து தொடர்புகொள்ளமுடியும் என்ற தனது எண்ணக்கருவை வெளியிட்டார். இவரது கற்பனை 1968ம் ஆண்டு பூமியில் இருந்து முதலாவது செயற்கைகோள் - சட்டலைட் விண்ணில் ஏவப்பட்டபோது நிஜமானது.

எதிர்காலத்தில் பூமியில் நடக்கப்போகும் சம்பவங்களை முன்கூட்டியே கற்பனைக் கதைகள் மூலம் சொல்வதில் திறமைசாலியான சேர்.கிளார்க் அவர்கள் ஏராளமான நாவல்களையும், விஞ்ஞானக் கட்டுரைகளையும் எழுதி உள்ளார்.

பின்னர் சேர்.கிளார்க் தனது 39வது வயதில் 1956ம் ஆண்டு சிறீ லங்காவிற்கு குடிபெயர்ந்தார். சிறீ லங்காவில் வாழ்ந்தவாறு உலகில் உள்ள விஞ்ஞானிகள், ஆய்வாளர்களுடன் தொடர்பை ஏற்படுத்தியவாறு தனது ஆய்வுகளை, தேடல்களை தொடர்ந்தார்.

கொழும்பு மொரட்டுவ பல்கலைக்கழகத்திலும், சர்வதேச அண்டவெளி பல்கலைக்கழகத்திலும் (International Space University) Chancellor - சான்சலராக இருந்த சேர்.கிளார்க் அவர்கள் உலகெங்கும் இருந்து ஏராளமான விருதுகளையும், பட்டங்களையும் பெற்றுக்கொண்டார்.

1984ம் ஆண்டு போலியோ நோயின் தாக்கத்திற்கு உள்ளாகியபின் அவர் தனது வாழ்கையை தள்ளுவண்டியில் (Wheel Chair)கழிக்கவேண்டி ஏற்பட்டது.

குழந்தை போன்ற உள்ளத்தையும், இளகிய மனதையும் கொண்ட சேர்.கிளார்க் அவர்கள் எத்தனையோ பேரிற்கு எத்தனையோ விதமாக பல உதவிகள் செய்து அவர்கள் வாழ்விற்கு ஒளியேற்றி வைத்துள்ளார். குறிப்பாக சிறீ லங்கா நாட்டின் முன்னேற்றத்திற்கு இவர் மிகுந்த சேவைகள் செய்துள்ளார்.

ARTHUR C. CLARKE (Sir Arthur Clarke) - Curriculum Vita

CBE (Queen's Honours List, 1989)

KBE (Queen's Honours List, 1998)

Chancellor, International Space University (1989-present)

Honorary Chancellor, University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka (1979-present)

Born:

1917 Dec 16, Minehead, UK: Married Marilyn Mayfield 1953; divorced 1964.

Residence: Colombo, Sri Lanka (since 1956)

First non-citizen in Sri Lanka to be granted "Resident Guest" status, 1975.

Author of over 70 books, 500 articles and short stories.

Education:

Huish's Grammar School, Taunton, 1927-36.

King's College, London, 1946-48 (B.Sc., 1st Class, Physics & Maths.)

Occupation:

Auditor, H.M. Exchequer & Audit Dept., 1936-41

Royal Air Force, 1941-46.

Instructor, No 9 Radio School (Yatesbury), then Flt/Lt

with MIT Radiation Lab's GCA (Ground Controlled Approach) Radar.

Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, 1950.

Asst. Ed., Physics Abstracts, Inst. of Elect. Engineers, 1949-50.

Diving on Great Barrier Reef & Indian Ocean 1954-

Vikram Sarabhai Professor, PRL, Ahmedabad, India, 1980

Writing “2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY” with Stanley Kubrick, 1964-68.

Lecturing in US, and covering Apollo Missions for CBS TV, 1957-70.

Playing Leonard Woolf in The Village in the Jungle 1979.

Writing and hosting Yorkshire TV series “ARTHUR C CLARKE'S MYSTERIOUS

WORLD” (1980), WORLD OF STRANGE POWERS (1984) and MYSTERIOUS

UNIVERSE (1994)

Delivered Nehru Memorial Lecture, New Delhi, 1986

Delivered Royal Television Society's “Alistair Cooke Lecture”, 1992

Affiliations:

Chairman, British Interplanetary Society 1947-50, 1953.

Hon. Chairman, Society of Satellite Professionals International (SSPI)

President, British Science Fiction Association

Life Member: Assn. of British Science Writers

Hon. Vice President, H.G. Wells Society

Patron:

Arthur Clarke Centre for Modern Technologies, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka Assn. for the Advancement of Science

Sri Lanka Astronomical Association

Sri Lanka Animal Welfare Association

Science Fiction Foundation

British Sub Aqua-Club

National Institute for Paraplegics, Sri Lanka

Council Member:

Society of Authors

Advisory Council:

International Science Policy Foundation

Fauna International (Sri Lanka)

Earth Trust

Board Member:

National Space Society (USA)

Space Generation Foundation (USA)

IAU (SETI) Commission 51

The Planetary Society (USA)

Lindbergh Award Nominations Committee (USA)

Trustee:

Institute of Integral Education (Sri Lanka)

Society Memberships:

Fellow:

Royal Astronomical Society

Royal Society of Arts

Member:

Royal Asiatic Society

British Astronomical Association

Science Fiction Writers of America

Astronomical Society of the Pacific

Directorships:

Rocket Publishing Company (UK)

Underwater Safaris (Sri Lanka)

தகவல் மூலம்:

1. http://www.clarkefoundation.org/index.htm

2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_C._Clarke

3. http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news;_...501-s&x=wrt

பதினாறாம் நாள் மார்கழி மாதம் : இன்று இவரின் நினைவுதினத்தை நினைவுகூர வைத்தமைக்கு நன்றி.

Predictions for the 21st Century by Arthur C. Clarke

Arthur C. Clarke began writing science fiction in the 1930s. Those familiar with his work, and of notable others such as Isaac Asimov, will know that time and again ideas and elements within their stories have in fact become reality on Earth. For example Asimov coined the word “robot” and was the first to imagine a ‘pocket calculator’. In this month’s newsletter I have reprinted an article published in the UK just a few weeks ago - Sir Arthur C. Clarke’s redictions for the 21st Century.... read more

...

Even so, the chronology that follows should be given with a health warning. Some of the events listed (particularly the space missions) are already scheduled, and will occur on the actual dates given; I believe all the other events could happen, although several, I hope, will not. I have omitted many interesting and all-too-possible disasters, because optimism about the future is always desirable.

Check me for accuracy - on December 31, 2100:

2001 - Cassini spaceprobe (launched October 1997; arrived Saturn July 2000) begins exploration of the planet's moons and rings.

Galileo probe (launched October 1989) continues surveying Jupiter and its moons.

Life beneath the ice-covered oceans of Europa appears increasingly likely.

2002 - The first commercial device producing clean, safe power by low-temperature nuclear reactions goes on the market, heralding the end of the fossil-fuel age. Economic and geopolitical earthquakes follow.

2003 - The motor industry is given five years to replace all fuel-burning engines with the new energy device.

NASA's robot Mars Surveyor (carrying Lander and Rover) is launched.

2004 - First publicly admitted human clone.

2005 - First sample launched back to Earth by Mars Surveyor.

2006 - Last coal mine closed.

2007 - NASA Next Space Telescope (successor to the Hubble) launched.

2008 - To mark what would have been his 80th birthday, on July 26, film director Stanley Kubrick, who made 2001: A Space Odyssey, is posthumously awarded a special Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.

2009 - A city in a third world country is devastated by the accidental explosion of an A-bomb in its armoury. After a brief debate in the UN, all nuclear weapons are destroyed.

2010 - The first quantum generators (tapping space energy) are developed. Available in portable and household units from a few kilowatts upwards, they can produce electricity indefinitely. Central power stations close down; the age of pylons ends as grid systems are dismantled. Electronic monitoring virtually removes professional criminals from society.

2011 - Largest living creature filmed: a 75-metre octopus in the Mariana Trench.

By a curious coincidence, later that year even larger marine creatures are discovered when the first robot probes drill through the ice of Europa and an entire new biota is revealed.

2012 - Aerospace-planes enter service.

2013 - Despite the understandable apprehensions of Buckingham Palace, Prince Harry becomes the first member of the Royal Family to fly in space.

2014 - Construction of Hilton Orbiter Hotel begins, by assembling and converting the giant shuttle tanks which had previously been allowed to fall back to Earth.

2015 - An inevitable by-product of the quantum generator is the complete control of matter at the atomic level. Thus the old dream of alchemy is realised on a commercial scale, often with surprising results. Within a few years, since they are more useful, lead and copper cost twice as much as gold.

2016 - All existing currencies are abolished. The megawatt-hour becomes the unit of exchange.

2017 - December 16. On his 100th birthday, Sir Arthur C Clarke is one of the first guests of the Hilton Orbiter

2018 - A major meteor impact occurs on the North Polar icecap. There is no loss of life, but the resulting tsunamis cause major damage along the coasts of Greenland and Canada. The long-discussed "Project Spaceguard", to identify and deflect any potentially dangerous comets or asteroids, is activated.

2020 - Artificial intelligence (AI) reaches the human level. From now outwards there are two intelligent species on Earth, one evolving far more rapidly than biology would ever permit. Interstellar probes carrying AIs are launched towards the nearer stars.

2021 - Humans land on Mars - and have some unpleasant surprises.

2023 - Dinosaur facsimiles are cloned from computer-generated DNA. Disney's "Triassic Zoo" opens in Florida. Despite some unfortunate initial accidents, mini-raptors start replacing guard dogs.

2024 - Infra-red signals are detected coming from the centre of the galaxy. They are the product of a technologically advanced civilisation but attempts to decipher them fail.

2025 - Neurological research leads to an understanding of all the senses and direct inputs become possible, by-passing eyes, ears, etc. The result is the metal "braincap" of which the 20th century's Walkman was a primitive precursor. Anyone wearing this helmet, fitting tightly over the skull, can enter a whole universe of experience, real or imaginary - and even merge in real-time with other minds.

2040 - The "Universal Replicator", based on nano-technology, is perfected: any object, however complex, can be created - given the raw material and the appropriate information matrix. Diamonds or gourmet meals can be made from dirt. As a result, agriculture and industry are phased out, ending that recent invention in human history - work! There is an explosion in arts, entertainment and education. Hunter-gathering societies are deliberately recreated; huge areas of the planet, no longer needed for food production, are allowed to revert to their original state.

2045 - The totally self-contained, recycling, mobile home (envisaged almost a century earlier by Buckminster Fuller) is perfected. Any additional carbon needed for food synthesis is obtained by extracting carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

2050 - "Escape from Utopia". Bored by life in this peaceful and unexciting era, millions decide to use cryonic suspension to emigrate into the future in search of adventure. Vast "hibernacula" are established in the Antarctic and in the regions of perpetual night at the lunar poles.

2057 - October 4. Centennial of Sputnik 1. The dawn of the space age is celebrated by humans not only on Earth, but on the Moon, Mars, Europa, Ganymede and Titan - and in orbit round Venus, Neptune and Pluto.

2061 - The return of Halley's Comet; first landing on nucleus by humans. The sensational discovery of both dormant and active life-forms vindicates Hoyle and Wickramasinghe's century-old hypothesis that life is omnipresent throughout space.

2090 - Large-scale burning of fossil fuels is resumed to replace the carbon dioxide "mined" from the air and, hopefully, to postpone the next ice age by promoting global warming.

2095 - "The development of a true "space drive" - a propulsion system reacting against the structure of space-time - makes the rocket obsolete and permits velocities close to that of light. The first human explorers set off to nearby star systems that robot probes have already found promising.

2100 - History begins . . .

© Arthur C. Clarke 1999

Edited December 16, 200916 yr by ஜெகுமார்

சேர். ஆர்தர். சீ. கிளார்க் அவர்களின் 92ஆவது பிறந்ததினம் அன்று சிறீ லங்காவும் தனது செய்மதிகள் தொடர்பாக அறிவித்தல் செய்து இருக்கின்றது. சிறீ லங்காவின் முதலாவது செய்மதிக்கு சேர். கிளார்க் அவர்களின் பெயர் சூட்டப்படும் என்று கூறப்படுகின்றது.

To acquire national satellite capabilities from top British company

Lanka joins ‘space race’

Sri Lanka Space Agency to be established, first satellite to be named after Sir Arthur C Clarke

By Devan Daniel

Sri Lanka will soon establish the Sri Lanka Space Agency (SLASA) and has signed an MoU with an English company to launch its first geostationary satellite to be named after an internationally renowned physicist and visionary who made Sri Lanka his home, the late Sir Arthur C Clarke.

After obtaining Cabinet approval, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to acquire National Satellite Capabilities in November with Surrey Satellite Company Limited, a commercial entity of the University of Surrey, UK.

"We are making the formal announcement of Sri Lanka’s space programme today because it is the 92nd birthday of the late Sir Arthur C Clarke. The Government has decided to name the first satellite after him," TRC director-general Priyantha Kariyapperuma told journalists yesterday.

Kariyapperuma said SLASA would be established soon with top academics appointed to its posts.

He said outstanding university graduates would be trained in satellite technology and satellite telecommunication technologies.

"The diaspora can help in this endeavour. There are around 150 Sri Lankans in the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)," he said.

According to Kariyapperuma, Surrey Satellite has already built more than 30 space satellites some of them for Malaysia, South Korea and Nigeria.

He said the cost of a geostationary satellite would range between US$100 million to US$150 million.

The establishment of SLASA was mooted two years ago, Kariyapperuma said.

"We hope to finalise the establishment of SLASA during the first half of next year," he said.

Kariyapperuma said the TRC would spearhead efforts to launch Sri Lanka’s first satellite but stressed it would be a commercial venture with the private sector invited to invest.

Other space agencies, notable from the US, Japan and India, would be approached for technical expertise and collaboration.

Last May, Kariyapperuma spoke to the Island Financial Review about this space programme. Some blog sites picked up the story and there were comments to suggest the whole thing was a joke. But the government is serious about Sri Lanka’s space programme.

"We are looking at launching two communication satellites. One is a lower earth orbit satellite used mainly for images. The other project would be to launch a geo stationary communication satellite. Both these projects will run simultaneously," Kariyapperuma said in that interview (see Island Financial Review of May 07, 2009).

The two satellites will be used not only for communication purposes but also for disaster management, agriculture planning, irrigation planning, town/urban planning and coastal conservation.

"We hope to embark on these two projects by this year. However, the focus of the government right now is to stabilise the North and East so we have not worked out a tentative schedule as yet," Kariyapperuma said, but now it seems the project proper would commence in 2010.

He said the low earth orbiting satellite could be financed with domestic funds particularly from the Telecommunication Development Fund. The private sector will also be called to contribute to the development of the two satellites.

Kariyapperuma said space is cluttered with over 6,000 satellites. According to international conventions, each country is entitled to about two blocks of 70 sq km for geostationary satellites.

"We are entering (the space race) late and there is no telling whether satellites already occupy our space, but once we produce our own satellite the space would be vacated," he said.

Promotional material of Surrey Satellite says low cost satellites can be developed and launched within a 18-month period.

மூலம்: http://www.island.lk/2009/12/17/business1.html