FastForwardFiftyYears

During the final months of his life Robert L. Forward worked on an autobiography, knowing full well that he would not have time enough to finish it before cancer killed him. Fortunately for us all, Bob Forward's family has shared the draft at http://www.robertforward.com/ (see, e.g., http://www.robertforward.com/Fast_Forward_Fifty_Years.htm ). It's good reading, even in its unavoidably incomplete and unedited state.

The main areas of research that Bob Forward worked on during his highly productive career included:

• precision gravitational instrumentation --- especially resonant-bar gravitational wave detector technology and gravity field sensors
• antimatter engineering --- detailed analyses of the steps required to produce macroscopic quantities of antihydrogen for practical applications
• space tethers --- useful things to do with long, strong fibers that connect satellites in different orbits
• smart structures --- mechanical objects with integrated sensors and active-feedback actuators to control their vibrations and other mechanical properties
• interstellar propulsion --- methods of traveling great distances, such as huge laser-driven reflective sails and matter-antimatter annihilation rockets

All still important, all at that fertile crossroads between theory and practice where valuable discoveries tend to blossom.

And there were Dr. Forward's popular science articles and his science-fiction novels, not to mention his contagious enthusiasm and creative energy. We still miss you, Bob ...

(see also FastForward (21 Feb 2002), FasterForward (26 Sep 2002), ...)

TopicProfiles - TopicScience - 2003-06-04

(correlates: FasterForward, JudyReWilderness, CornFloss, ...)