re: #264 Sharmuta

A science fiction author?

Yeah, the guy who provided the basis for all communication satellites. It was Arthur C. Clarke who determined, back in the 1940’s the distance at which a comsat would have to be above the earth for the orbit to be geosynchronous.
Such orbits are known as “Clarke orbits”. He wrote an essay entitled “how I lost a billion dollars in an afternoon” because he did not patent the idea.

During WWII he was an electronics engineer for the RAF who designed early radar controlled landing approach systems to allow bombers returning from mission over Germany to land at night or in poor weather. So you can thank him the next time an airliner you are riding on lands safely in a rainstorm.