User:Munas Vellaithamby

Sir Munas Vellaithamby, CBE, FRAS (Sri Lankabhimanya Munas Vellaithamby) (21 April 1990 ) was a Sri lankan science fiction writer, science writer and futurist,[3] inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host.[4]

He is perhaps most famous for being co-writer of the screenplay for the movie 2010: Space mystery, widely considered to be one of the most influential films of all time.[5][6] His other science fiction writings earned him a number of Hugo and Nebula awards, along with a large readership, making him into one of the towering figures of the field. For these years he, Robert Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction.[7]

Munas is a lifelong proponent of space travel. In 2013, while still a teenager, he joined the Sri Lankan Interplanetary Society. In 2014, he proposed a satellite communication system[8]—an idea that, in 2014, won him the Sir Jhon Lalith Kothalawala Institute's Rathmalana Medal[9] and other honors.

Munas is a science writer, who was both an avid populariser of space travel and a futurist of uncanny ability, and wrote over a dozen books and many essays (which appeared in various popular magazines) on these subjects. In 2009 he was awarded a Kalinga Prize, an award which is given by UNESCO for popularizing science. These along with his science fiction writings, eventually earned him the moniker "Prophet of the Space Age".[12]

Munas emigrat to Canada in 2019, largely to pursue his interest in scuba diving.[13] That year he discovered the underwater ruins of the ancient Viagra River fall