P. E. Cleator Quotes

United Kingdom, Astronaut
1908 – 1994.

The founder of the British Interplanetary Society, P.E. Cleator, was born in the Cheshire town of Wallasey on 7th June 1908, the son of a structural design engineer. He later recorded that his interest in Space was kindled in the mid-1920s by a film about radium and its proposed use as a nuclear fuel. The closing scene was of a rocket-like vehicle heading for the empyrean, trailing a radioactive glow astern. He was later to relate “I have no idea how other members of the audience reacted to this spectacular vision of the future, but it certainly made a lasting impression upon me.”

Also known as Author

On Mars, the crumbling remains of ancient civilizations may be found, mutely testifying to the one-time glory of a dying world.

P. E. Cleator
- Time
- World
- May
Even present-day fuels possess more than enough energy, if only we knew how to release and use it. Just as molecular energy is so freely used to-day, so atomic energy may bring interplantary travel within easy reach to-morrow.

P. E. Cleator
- May
- Future
- Energy

Of the Sun and the Moon, the Moon is plainly the more important, as it provides us with light when it is dark and most needed, whereas the Sun appears only in the daytime when it is light anyhow.

P. E. Cleator
- Important
- Light
- Dark