Arthur C. Clarke
London, England
Arthur C. Clarke did a lot to help invent the future. His influence started with his 1945 paper, "Extra-Terrestrial Relays: Can Rocket Stations Give Worldwide Radio Coverage?" He was the first to describe and fully detail a geostationary orbit for broadcast/relay communications satellites in orbit around Earth, known as the Clarke Orbit. According to the Federal Communications Commission, he's "credited as the inventor of satellite communications."