Description:

A.C. Clarke Signed NASA Photo of Cloudy Mars

A composite image showing three views of Mars photographed in ultraviolet and infrared colors, signed by feted British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke (1917-2008), as "Ath C Clarke" along the top edge. The NASA photograph, (JPL 400 585H 5/96), is in brilliant glossy color and has extensive printed information verso related to the Hubble Space Telescope and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera, ca. 1995. Expected minor surface wear including gentle corner wrinkles, else near fine. 11" x 8.5."

Sir Arthur C. Clarke is considered one of the greatest science fiction and futurist fantasy writers of the twentieth century, alongside Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. In Clarke's first published novel, "The Sands of Mars," released in 1951, humans have landed on Mars but are still evaluating its viability as a space colony. Early settlers plan to implode the larger of the two Martian moons, Phobos, to serve as a second warming "Sun," and scientists are growing oxygenating plants to improve the planet's atmosphere. Clarke envisioned "The Sands of Mars" ten years before Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin reached outer space, and nearly twenty years before the first moon landing.

Thus over the course of his lifetime, Clarke was able to witness the fruition--either partial or complete--of many of his most far-fetched ideas, including the exploration of Mars. Numerous collaborations between NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology have yielded a tremendous amount of data about Mars since the 1970s. The Viking 1 and Viking 2 space probes revealed Mars to be a wasteland of orange sand, volcanoes, and meteor craters. Unlike in Clarke's novel "The Sands of Mars," where vegetarian kangaroo-like creatures lived, the real Mars was devoid of living organisms thanks to its thin atmosphere, high sulfur soil content, lack of water, and extreme cold.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched into low Earth orbit in late April 1990, and quickly proved an invaluable research tool. Fitted with sensitive instruments and cameras, Hubble provided and continues to provide high-resolution deep views into space. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera was installed during a service upgrade in 1993.

Clarke co-wrote the 1968 screenplay for "2001: A Space Odyssey" with director Stanley Kubrick, using material from his 1951 pulp fiction short story "The Sentinel," along with other novelized material from the 1960s. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's seminal movie about space exploration, "2001: A Space Odyssey" was released one year prior to the Apollo XI moon-landing, and a full ten years before the "Star Wars" franchise began. The movie normalized the idea of space travel, exploration, and colonization, and also introduced disturbing dystopian tropes, like malignant artificial intelligence, into mainstream popular culture. "2001: A Space Odyssey" proved hugely influential.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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