September 24, 2002

The following message was received today from Dr. Robert Hoyt, a long- time close collaborator of Dr. Robert Forward.

Friends,

It is my sad duty to inform you that Dr. Robert L. Forward has left this mortal Earth.

Bob passed away early in the morning on September 21, 2002. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday, September 28th, at 1 p.m. at the Westwood Hills Congregational Church in Westwood, CA (Los Angeles area).

Bob Forward leaves behind a truly astounding legacy. In addition to his pioneering work on solar sails, space tethers, antimatter propulsion, and other advanced space propulsion technologies, Bob also performed seminal work in several other areas, including smart structures and gravitational astronomy.

In addition to his technical work, Bob also strove -- through his popular science writings, science fiction books, and countless lectures -- to educate and inspire the next generations of scientists. The many letters and emails that people sent to him over the past several months are testament to the fact that his work had a strong influence on the careers of many of us. Those letters meant a great deal to him.

Bob prepared several obituaries for the various professional organizations to which he belonged. One of them is here.

Hopefully, Bob's spirit, now unburdened by that nuisance called inertia, has reached lightspeed, and I hope you all will join me in wishing him:

"AD ASTRA, BOB!" -Rob Hoyt

Robert Lull Forward

1932 – 2002

The intelligent pattern of protoplasm that had been Robert L. Forward ceased coherent operation on September 21, 2002.

Robert Lull Forward died at home of brain cancer at the age of 70. Forward was born 15 August 1932 in Geneva, New York. After graduation from the niversity of Maryland in 1954 with a BS degree in Physics and a Second ieutenant commission in the Air Force, he married Martha Neil Dodson and erved two years stateside during the closing years of the Korean War. Upon eaving the service Forward was awarded a Hughes Aircraft Company Graduate Research Fellowship, which he used to obtain a MS in Applied Physics from UCLA in 1958 and a PhD in Physics from the University of Maryland in 1965.

Forward was one of the early pioneers in the field of experimental gravitational radiation astronomy. For his PhD thesis he built and operated the first bar antenna for the detection of gravitational radiation under the direction of Profs. Weber and Zipoy. The antenna is now in the Smithsonian Museum.

Forward worked for 31 years at the Hughes Aircraft Company Corporate Research Laboratories in Malibu, CA in positions of increasing responsibility until he took early retirement in 1987 to spend more time on writing novels and his aerospace consulting company business - Forward Unlimited . During his tenure at Hughes, he received 18 patents, and published numerous papers on experimental gravity instruments and measurements, including the first paper on using the normal modes of the Earth to set an upper limit on interstellar millicycle gravitational radiation; a paper on the details of the wideband "chirp" signal to be expected from the gravitational collapse of a binary neutron star pair; and a method for "flattening" spacetime over a hatbox-sized region in an orbiting microgravity space lab to the picogravity level.

Forward also published the first paper showing that it was possible to build and operate a laser interferometer gravitational radiation antenna that was photon noise limited over the band from 1-20 kHz, and that further improvements in gravitational strain sensitivity needed only more laser power and longer lengths in the interferometer arms. The broadband gravitational strain sensitivity his laser interferometer antenna reached in 1972 was not bettered for over a decade. Forward also invented the multidirectional spherical bar antenna for gravitational radiation, and the rotating cruciform gravity gradiometer Mass Detector for Lunar Mascon measurements (which Misner, Wheeler & Thorne pointed out can detect the curvature of spacetime produced by a fist).

From the time of his retirement from Hughes in 1987 onward, Forward was a consultant for the Air Force and NASA on advanced space propulsion concepts, with an emphasis on propulsion methods (lightsail, antimatter, electrodynamic tether, etc.), that use physical principles other than chemical or nuclear rockets. In 1992 he formed the company, Tethers Unlimited, with Dr. Robert P. Hoyt. When he reached 70 he "retired" to parttime consulting and writing.

In addition to over 200 papers and articles, Forward published 11 "hard" science fiction novels, where the science is as accurate as possible-consistent with telling a good story. Forward "taught" science through his novels. His first book, DRAGON'S EGG, expanded upon Frank Drake's idea of tiny fast-living creatures living on the surface of a neutron star. Forward called it, "A textbook on neutron star physics disguised as a novel." The book is often assigned as "extra credit reading" in beginning astronomy courses. The science in his books has often been novel enough that many of his fiction books have been referenced in journal publications as "prior art publications".

Robert Lull Forward

If ever there was a fellow born into the right time, it was Robert Forward. Squinting now, I picture him as a blur of motion, as brilliantly colorful and colorfully brilliant as the vests he often wore, streaking from interest to interest - from project to project - with all the polymath alacrity of a Ben Franklin and the engaging momentum of a Thomas Edison.

Always outrageously entertaining, Bob projected a powerful sense of belonging in this adventurous era and using his talents to make it even more exciting. The kings, priests and wizards who dominated every other time would have smothered or burned such a provocative, questioning guy, as they did Giordano Bruno. As they did all brash heretics. As they would have quashed science fiction.

But this era relished Robert Forward. Gave him opportunities to speak, write, research, talk and barge about, brandishing ideas that dazzled. More than that, he poked and rattled and shook up many things we thought comfortably familiar. Influenced by people like Bob, we came to like the rollercoaster discomfort and gave it a new name -- "fun."

That means there has to be something right about us, despite everything in the news. We - all of us - deserve part of the credit for there having been a Robert Forward. We appreciated his candle. Helped it blaze.

I only wish it lasted longer.

David Brin

Science Fiction Author, Futurist Robert L. Forward Dies at 70

By Louie Estrada
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 9, 2002; Page B06

Robert Lull Forward, 70, a scientist, consultant and futurist who wrote "Dragon's Egg" and other science fiction novels and short stories, died of brain cancer Sept. 21 at his home in Clinton, Wash.

Dr. Forward's fictional works over the past 20 years included "Starquake" and the "Rocheworld" series that included four sequels, "Return to Rocheworld," "Ocean Under the Ice," "Marooned on Eden" and "Rescued from Paradise."

He began writing fiction in the 1970s, while a senior scientist at the research laboratories of Hughes Aircraft Co. in Malibu, Calif., where he held 18 patents for inventions involving experimental gravity instruments and measurements.

His first book, "Dragon's Egg," about tiny creatures living on a neutron star, was published by Ballantine Books in 1980. The book won the Locus Poll Award for science fiction.

Until then, he had written science speculation articles and fielded so many requests to advise other science fiction writers on the technical details of spaceflight and other futuristic esoterica that he decided to give the genre a try.

Drawing on his background as a pioneer in the field of experimental gravitational radiation astronomy and as an authority on space propulsion concepts, Dr. Forward loaded his books with scientific facts. His works gained a wide following among readers of science fiction.

He also published the nonfiction books on futurism "Future Magic" and "Indistinguishable From Magic" and lectured frequently on the science fiction convention circuit. He was an easily distinguishable speaker with his trademark brightly colored vests and white bow ties. His head was topped by a thick shock of white hair, which he acquired before turning 30.

Dr. Forward, who was born in Geneva, N.Y., came to the Washington area when he was about 12 years old. He grew up in Silver Spring and graduated from Montgomery Blair High School and the University of Maryland.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force and served three years, until 1957. He was then awarded a Hughes Aircraft graduate research fellowship, which he used to obtain a master's degree in physics from the University of California at Los Angeles and a doctorate in physics from the University of Maryland.

For his doctoral thesis, he built one of the world's first antennas that could detect gravitational radiation. A prototype of the invention remains in the archives of the Smithsonian Institution.

Following the successful debut of his first novel, Dr. Forward retired from Hughes in 1987 after a 31-year career. In 1994, he founded, with fellow scientist Robert Hoyt, a research and development consulting company in Lynnwood, Wash., called Tethers Unlimited, which designs space tethers for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Air Force.

Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Martha Forward of Silver Spring; four children, Robert Forward of Chatsworth, Calif., Mary Lois Mattlin of Los Angeles, Julie Fuller of Ramona, Calif., and Eve Forward-Rollins of Mill Creek, Wash.; a brother, David Forward of Potomac; and seven grandchildren.