From the back cover: The last quarter of this century will be an age of exploration such as Man has never seen before. Astronomy and physics will be the fields of knowledge most immediately affected. Yet the first direct results of astronautics may be less important in the long run than the indirect consequences. With the expansion of the world's mental horizons may come one of the greatest outbursts of creative activity ever known. In THE CHALLENGE OF THE SPACESHIP Arthur C. Clarke speculates on the changes that will come in our own generation—the first generation to break away from the limitations of our own planet—and predicts some of the astonishing scientific developments that will inevitably come in future centuries. Among these will be manned spaceships traveling at speeds of more than 1,000,000 m.p.h., techniques for changing and controlling the climate of the entire earth, exploration of an area ten times greater than all our continents on the other planets of the Solar System, and discovery of the basic secrets of life and synthesis of living matter in the laboratory. "Clarke is at his best when applying his technical knowledge to a hypothetical situation. This book is fun, and it contains more startling ideas than a bushel of science fiction magazines." - New York Times Library of congress catalog number: 59-8248
Author
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke was one of the most important and influential figures in 20th century science fiction. He spent the first half of his life in England, where he served in World War Two as a radar operator, before emigrating to Ceylon in 1956. He is best known for the novel and movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which he co-created with the assistance of Stanley Kubrick. Clarke was a graduate of King's College, London where he obtained First Class Honours in Physics and Mathematics. He is past Chairman of the British Interplanetary Society, a member of the Academy of Astronautics, the Royal Astronomical Society, and many other scientific organizations. Author of over fifty books, his numerous awards include the 1961 Kalinga Prize, the AAAS-Westinghouse science writing 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 Science Fiction Writers of America in 1972, 1974 and 1979, the Hugo Award of the World Science Fiction Convention in 1974 and 1980, and in 1986 became Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America. He was awarded the CBE in 1989.
