Perhaps the most interesting and timely application of Kepler's work in this century is due to science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. Clarke's prophetic thinking makes him the father of satellite communication. In a paper published in 1945, he proposed placement of geo-synchronous satellites for worldwide radio coverage, an idea that is currently the basis of such technologies as cellular telephones and satellite television. A body in such an orbit, if its plane coincided with that of the earth's equator, would revolve with the earth and would thus be stationary above the same spot on the planet. Clarke's work is contemporary evidence of the power of Kepler's theoretical simplicity and elegance.
Ellipses are simple enough geometric constructs to capture powerful cosmology.
Any attempt at scientific moralizing of Kepler's theoretical journey leads us to conclude that scientific knowledge is hardly absolute or inert. Scientific knowledge therefore is a living, breathing, perhaps even social process which requires the tandem poles of creativity and discovery in order to perpetuate and auto-correct. Both creativity and discovery must continually spark and prod the imagination, but only if the scientific ego makes itself continually vulnerable to needed attack of its theoretical geography. Johannes Kepler demonstrated both creativity and discovery, kept in balance and corrected by precision and contradiction, giving us some reassurance that scientific knowledge is dynamic and controversial, to its own credit.