The Sir Arthur Clarke Award is a British award given in recognition of notable contributions to space exploration, particularly British achievements. It was devised by Dave Wright and Jerry Stone and is independent of and separate from awards given by the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation. Founded in 2005, the awards are an annual event. They originally took place at the UK Space Conference. Formerly the British Rocketry Oral History Programme (BROHP) until it was renamed in 2008, this event was held annually at Charterhouse School from 1998 to 2010. In 2011 it was held at the University of Warwick. Nominations for the awards are made by members of the public, with shortlists drawn up by a panel of judges, who also choose the winner. The award was established with the permission of Sir Arthur Clarke, who also chose a special award independently of the public nominations prior to his death on 18 March 2008.
The award has the same proportions (1:4:9) as the monolith featured in Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and is made of glass. It features the diagram Clarke drew in 1945 in order to demonstrate how satellites can provide global communications around the Earth from geostationary orbit, also called the Clarke Orbit. It was co-designed by Jerry Stone and Howard Berry.
Not all categories are awarded each year; 2008 was the first year in which nominations were shortlisted in the category of Best Film Presentation. An additional award was given in 2007 and 2008 that was named after and presented by George Abbey, the former director of the Johnson Space Center. It was awarded to those "whose space achievement made us laugh the most".
The award ceremony is similar to the Oscars in that multiple awards are given in various categories at the same event, which is different from other awards given in the field. As a result the awards have been referred to as the Arthurs and are known as the Space equivalent of the Oscars. The awards are held in high regard by the international Space community:
The Sir Arthur Clarke Awards are held in great esteem and it is a huge honour to have been nominated. It was a fantastic surprise when we heard the news and we are very flattered. —Dr Andy Newsam, Director of the National Schools' Observatory, Sir Arthur Clarke award for NSO, 28 March 2008. This award is very nice... I thank all of you for this grand night and this grand award. —Ray Bradbury, Sir Patrick Moore and the Sky at Night win Sir Arthur Clarke Awards, Brian May, 19 April 2007.Famous quotes containing the words sir arthur, sir, arthur, clarke and/or award:
“Circumstantial evidence is occasionally very convincing, as when you find a trout in the milk, to quote Thoreau’s example.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“Here lies the body of Sir John Guise.
Nobody laughs, and nobody cries;
Where his soul is and how it fares
Nobody knows and nobody cares.”
—Anonymous. From Frobisher’s New Select Collection of Epitaphs (c. 1791)
“Have We not made the earth as a cradle
and the mountains as pegs?
And We created you in pairs,
and We appointed your sleep for a rest;
and We appointed night for a garment,
and We appointed day for a livelihood.
And We have built above you seven strong ones,
and We appointed a blazing lamp
and have sent down out of the rain-clouds water cascading
that We may bring forth thereby grain and plants,
and gardens luxuriant.”
—Qur’an, “The Tiding” 78:6-16, ed. Arthur J. Arberry (1955)
“He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,”
—Clement Clarke Moore (1779–1863)
“The award of a pure gold medal for poetry would flatter the recipient unduly: no poem ever attains such carat purity.”
—Robert Graves (1895–1985)