TECHNOLOGY
Clarke Orbit (Geostationary Orbit)
The orbit 35,786 km above the equator at which a satellite's orbital period matches the Earth's rotation — described by Arthur C. Clarke in a 1945 paper and realized by the world's telecommunications industry twenty years later.
The geostationary orbit, informally known as the Clarke orbit, is the ring 35,786 kilometers above the Earth's equator where a satellite's orbital period equals one sidereal day and the satellite appears stationary relative to a fixed point on the ground. Clarke described the orbit's properties in a 1945 paper in Wireless World titled "Extra-Terrestrial Relays". The paper proposed three satellites spaced 120° apart as a global communication relay. Clarke did not patent the idea. Eighteen years later, Syncom 3 became the first satellite to reach the orbit. Today, hundreds of satellites operate there, carrying most of the world's television, weather, and positioning data.
In The You On AI Field Guide
The 1945 paper is the canonical example of a successful long-range technical prediction. Clarke worked out the physics (orbital radius, period, launch-energy requirements) from first principles, proposed the three-satellite configuration, and estimated the required technologies. Almost every specific prediction was borne out within