Discovery One
USSC Discovery One | |
---|---|
2001: A Space Odyssey | |
Last appearance | 2010: The Year We Make Contact |
Information | |
Affiliation | United States |
Auxiliary vehicles | EVA Pods |
General characteristics | |
Registry | XD-1 |
Propulsion | Cavradyne Plasma Propulsion Engines |
Power | Nuclear reactor |
Mass | 6,000 short tons (5,440 t) |
Length | 460 feet (140.1 m) |
Width | 55 feet (16.7 m) |
Height | 56 feet (17 m) |
The United States Spacecraft Discovery One is a
Clarke and Kubrick developed the first novel and film in parallel, but there were some differences to suit the different media. Kubrick dropped the
. Kubrick changed this to the simpler route from Earth to Jupiter.For the film, Kubrick built an exceptionally large model of the ship so that focus changes did not give away the true small size to the audience. He also built a large, expensive, rotating carousel for the artificial gravity scenes.
Development
The spaceship first appears in the novel
Early in the development of the movie, Clarke and Kubrick considered having Discovery powered by an Orion type nuclear pulse propulsion system. Kubrick quickly decided against it, both because showing the ship accelerate by a 'putt-putt' method might be "too comic" for film, and because it might be seen as him having embraced nuclear weapons after his previous film, Dr. Strangelove.[1]
Carousel
Kubrick spent $750,000, a large portion of his $6 million budget,[2] on the set for the artificial gravity scenes in the carousel. The set was a vertically-mounted 30-short-ton (27 t) circular set 38 feet (12 m) in diameter and 10 feet (3.0 m) wide.[3] The entire set could rotate around its axis at up to 3 miles per hour (4.8 km/h).[4] The rim of the carousel would move slowly enough to allow the actors to walk around with it as if they were in a hamster wheel. This created the impression that the actors were walking up the walls of the set, while in fact, the actors remained at the bottom. The same technique was used for the Aries Moon shuttle scenes. This was not an entirely new idea; in the 1951 Royal Wedding a similar arrangement allowed Fred Astaire to apparently dance up the walls and along the ceiling of his hotel room.[5]
Clarke believed that the ability to transfer between
Studio model
Two models for filming were made, one 15-foot (4.6 m) long and one 54-foot (16 m) long. The scale of the models, compared to many other productions, was unusually large. This was due to the need to keep the whole ship in focus for the shots, something which could not be done on smaller or tabletop models. With a smaller model, the camera needs to be brought in closer, and the change in focus across the model would betray the true size of the object.[8]
Following the completion of the film, Kubrick ordered both the models and the plans for constructing them destroyed, so that they could not be used on future productions. This presented a problem during preproduction for its 1984 sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact. The filmmakers were forced to refer to frame blowups of the Discovery from different angles taken from a 70mm print of 2001 in order to construct a new model.[citation needed]
In addition, a model of the ship's head and a few body segments were used for close-up shots of Discovery docked with the Leonov.
A 12-foot model was used for the primary motion control shots, while a smaller one was used to depict the Discovery tumbling end over end over Io.
Fictional history
Because of the lack of
Ship features
In the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Discovery One is described as being "almost 400 feet long with a sphere 40 feet dia." (122 meters and 12.2 meters respectively; the 2010 film mentions 800 feet (240 m)) and powered by a nuclear plasma drive, separated by 275 feet (84 m) of tankage and structure, from the spherical part of the spaceship where the crew quarters, the computer, flight controls, small auxiliary craft, and instrumentation are located.
The ship's carousel is a spinning band of deck, mounted inside the crew compartment, using centrifugal force to simulate the effects of gravity and is the primary living and work area. The three hibernating astronauts are also located here. The carousel provides Moon-level gravity rotating at just over 5 rpm.[9] The carousel can be stopped and the rotation stored in a flywheel.[10] There is an automated kitchen (developed with the assistance of General Mills); a ship-to-Earth communications center; and a complete medical section where the astronauts undergo regular automated checkups.
Areas outside the carousel, are
Communications
Discovery is described as a very large ship that could be handled by only two astronauts (
The fate of Discovery
After the malfunction of HAL, Bowman deactivated the computer, thus effectively isolating himself on Discovery. In the movie, when the spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, it encounters TMA-1's considerably larger 'Big Brother', 'TMA-2', at the Jupiter/Io L1 point. The novel is basically the same with Discovery in orbit around Saturn's moon Iapetus instead. In both versions, Bowman leaves Discovery to examine the monolith and is taken inside it. The novel and movie 2010: Odyssey Two follows the 2001: A Space Odyssey movie ending rather than the novel.
After finding out that Discovery's orbit is failing, a joint Soviet-US mission (including
Later on, an apparition of Dave Bowman appears, warning Floyd that Leonov must leave Jupiter within two days. Floyd asks what will happen at that time, and Bowman replies, 'Something wonderful'. Floyd has difficulty convincing the rest of the crew, at first, but a dark spot on Jupiter begins to form and starts growing. HAL's telescope reveals that the "Great Black Spot" is, in fact, a vast population of monoliths increasing at a geometric rate. (The film accelerates the pace from the novel, both shortening Bowman's deadline from fifteen days, and making the spot grow faster.)
Initially, it was planned to inject Discovery on an Earth-bound trajectory (though it would not arrive for some years); however, when faced with Bowman's warning, the Leonov crew devises a plan to use Discovery as a '
After detaching itself from Discovery, Leonov makes a hasty exit from the Jupiter system, just in time to witness the Monoliths engulf Jupiter. Through a mechanism that the novel only partially explains, these monoliths increase Jupiter's density until the planet achieves nuclear fusion, becoming a small star. As Leonov leaves Jupiter, Bowman instructs HAL to repeatedly broadcast a message warning travellers not to land on Europa. The new star, which Earth eventually dubs "Lucifer", destroys Discovery. HAL is transformed into the same kind of entity as David Bowman and becomes Bowman's companion.
Notes
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke, The Lost Worlds of 2001, pp. 124-25.
- ^ Schwarm, p. 4
- History.com.
- ISBN 978-1-4766-2867-7.
- ^ Clément et al., p. 65
- ^ Clément et al., p. 65
- ^ Clément et al., p. 79
- ISBN 978-1-84344-747-4.
- ^ Clément et al., p. 63
- ^ Clément et al., p. 64
- ^ "Light distance (or radio distance) to Jupiter".
References
- Arthur C. Clarke The Lost Worlds of 2001, Signet, 1972
- Clément, Gilles; Bukley, Angie; Paloski, William, "History of artificial gravity", ch. 3 in, Clément, Gilles; Bukley, Angie (eds), Artificial Gravity, Springer Science & Business Media, 2007 ISBN 038770714X.
- Schwarm, Stephanie, The Making of 2001: a Space Odyssey, Modern Library, 2000 ISBN 0375755284.