Arthur C Clarke's DNA to join space mission

[Waspie_Dwarf]

Arthur C Clarke's DNA to join mission into deep space

A "few strands" of the late Arthur C Clarke's hair are due to travel on Nasa's "first ever solar sail mission into deep space".

The craft will be named the Sunjammer, after the story written by Clarke in 1964 about a race in space using solar sails. "The enormous disc of sail strained at its rigging, already filled with the wind that blew between the worlds," wrote the novelist almost 50 years ago. "The immense sail was taut, its mirror surface sparkling and glittering gloriously in the Sun … Something so huge, yet so frail, was hard for the mind to grasp. And it was harder still to realise that this fragile mirror could tow him free of Earth merely by the power of the sunlight it would trap."

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Edited June 28, 2013 by Waspie_Dwarf

[shrooma]

i don't understand the comparison between the legendary Mr C's ashes being sent into space, and a journalist's ashes being put into a firework?!

(unless it's the HST thing??)

;-)

surely a better comparison would've been Gene Shoemaker?

or James Doohan?

[JesseCuster]

i don't understand the comparison between the legendary Mr C's ashes being sent into space, and a journalist's ashes being put into a firework?!

(unless it's the HST thing??)

;-)

surely a better comparison would've been Gene Shoemaker?

or James Doohan?

And as a fellow sci-fi writer and creator, Gene Roddenberry would be an even better comparison.

The idea of a space burial or having your DNA sent into deep space is pretty awesome though.

Edited July 9, 2013 by JesseCuster

[ancient astronaut]

Fitting end.