Notes
The Challenge of the Spaceship, a collection of non-fiction essays by Arthur C. Clarke discussing the cultural, artistic and philosophical ramifications of space travel.

The image opposite and the blurb below are from the 1961 Ballantine Books paperback edition, publisher's code F-528. Cover illustration by Richard Powers.

Publisher's Blurb – Lower Cover
The last quarter of this century will be an age of exploration such as Man has never seen before. Astronomy and physics will be the fields of knowledge most immediately affected. Yet the first direct results of astronautics may be less important in the long run than the indirect consequences. With the expansion of the world's mental horizons may come one of the greatest outbursts of creative activity ever known.

In THE CHALLENGE OF THE SPACESHIP Arthur C. Clarke speculates on the changes that will come in our own generation – the first generation to break away from the limitations of our own planet – and predicts some of the astonishing scientific developments that will inevitably come in future centuries. Among these will be manned spaceships traveling at speeds of more than 1,000,000 m.p.h., techniques for changing and controlling the climate of the entire earth, exploration of an area ten times greater than all our continents on the other planets of the Solar System, and discovery of the basic secrets of life and synthesis of living matter in the laboratory.

"Clarke is at his best when applying his technical knowledge to a hypothetical situation. This book is fun, and it contains more startling ideas than a bushel of science fiction magazines."
-New York Times

Publisher's Blurb – Page 1
The last hundred and fifty years have seen technological strides unmatched in any other era in the history of man – but this book is concerned with technical matters only where they are essential to the argument. It assumes that machines are less important than what men do with them – or what they do with men.

One group of pieces brings home the realities of space flight by considering what the tourists of the 21st century will meet when vacationing on the Moon, on Mars, or at a satellite hotel – possibilities much closer than jet-powered economy flights would have seemed a lifetime ago.

"Report on Planet Three" provides a lively understanding of our own world as seen through the somewhat jaundiced eye of a Martian observer, while "Where's Everybody?" deals with the curious fact that Earth has never had any visitors from space.

But Mr. Clarke's imagination is not content with soaring out to the stars. In "Of Mind and Matter" he considers the effect of recent electronic research on such problems as the identity of the individual and survival after death.

Through all of his writing runs the thread of reality, woven so strongly into the construction of his theories that no one can doubt that Mr. Clarke is much more than his modest claim of "minor prophet". Reading these articles is not only fun – it is a startling glimpse into the future of all our lives.