October 1995 marked the fiftieth anniversary of Arthur C. Clarke’s famous article in Wireless World proposing the use of satellites placed in geosynchronous orbit for worldwide communications. The article proved prophetic, for it heralded the modem era of telecommunications. Beginning in the early 1960s a series of satellites went into Earth orbit; collectively they transformed the latter twentieth century, creating a global village of instantaneous communications.This book describes the first attempts to go beyond the ionosphere, including both the earliest uses of the Moon as a passive, natural relay satellite and Project Echo, the massive inflated satellite off which Earth stations bounced radio signals, as well as contemporary communications via active-repeater artificial moons in orbit about the Earth. It collects papers, with some additions, originally presented during an international symposium held in Washington, D.C., in 1995. Contributions from historians and other scholars from throughout the world present a stimulating analysis of one of the most important global technologies at work today, and how it originated and evolved.
