‘2001 A Space Odyssey’: I’m Sorry Dave, I Can’t Let You Read This Discovery Breakdown
One ship kicked off the greatest Discovery in human history. And then it tried to kill everyone aboard. We break down the Discovery One.
The United States Spacecraft Discovery One played a pivotal role in the dawning of a new era for Earth. In the years leading up to 2010, and the transformation of Jupiter into a new star, a single vessel helped transform all of human potential.
But aboard the graceful ship, danger lurked. And Discovery One proved to be as deadly as it was important.
Discovery One – Origins
The Discovery One was a landmark construction effort for the nascent space program on Earth in the year 2001. It had the distinction of being one of the first vessels assembled entirely in orbit.
Originally, the USS Discovery One was intended as a survey vessel. Its primary mission was to survey the 80 moons and unexplored wonders of the Jovian system. And everything about it was designed for the largest mission a spaceship from Earth had taken to that point.
The ship measured more than 400 feet long, with a width and height of 55 and 56 feet respectively. Its non-aerodynamic shape was indicative of its zero-g construction. It was never intended for atmospheric flight. Instead, the ship featured a massive thermonuclear reactor suite that provided power for the whole ship.
A pair of Cavradyne Plasma Propulsion Engines generated thrust. But the pinnacle achievement in design for the Discovery One was its carousel. This rotating band of deck generated centrifugal force to simulate the effects of Moon-level gravity in the primary living and work area. In an emergency, the carousel can be stopped, and its rotation stored in a flywheel.
The Discovery One also contained three single-pilot EVA pods, as well as suspended animation berths to keep crew members alive during long voyages.
And helping to ensure the vessel operated and kept to its course, the state-of-the-art HAL 9000 mainframe computer.
HAL 9000 Mainframe Computer
The HAL 9000 was a model of Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computers. These were sentient, artificial general intelligence computers, capable of controlling multiple components. In this case, the HAL 9000 was installed on the Discovery One.
HAL became operational in 1992 and was capable of a variety of functions, including speech, speech recognition, playing chess, automated reasoning, and infamously, lip reading.
HAL was capable of reasoning, but as decisions strained its reasoning, the logic seemed to break down leading to deadly conclusions. But none of that would have happened if not for a change in mission.
From Jupiter to Saturn
After humans made contact with an alien civilization through the discovery of a black monolith found at the crater Tycho, Discovery One’s mission was changed. The ship went from exploring Jupiter’s moons to making a one-way trip with the purpose of studying potential history-making artifacts believed to be in Jupiter’s vicinity.
Once there, the astronauts would enter into suspended animation (and HAL would oversee the crew) until the as-yet incomplete but much larger Discovery Two could be sent to retrieve the resting astronauts.
But the mission was secret. HAL was given orders specific to the mission that required him to lie to the crew of the Discovery about their true purpose. After a 1989 psychological experiment simulating a fictional alien contact revealed deep-seated xenophobia in every participant, the higher-ups in the space program ordered HAL to lie to the crew.
HAL, whose general mission was to relay information accurately, fell into an unknowing conflict within his own internal logic. As the crew noticed more “mistakes” that were, in reality, necessary deceptions, HAL turned on the crew in order to protect and continue his programmed directives.
The Discovery One‘s captain, David Bowman, was able to deactivate HAL and proceeded to take the ship to Jupiter.
The Discovery One – Beyond Infinity
With HAL deactivated, and Bowan isolated aboard the Discovery, he had no choice but to head for Jupiter. There, in the L1 point between Jupiter and Io, the Discovery encountered a much larger version of the monolith discovered on Tycho.
As the Discovery settled into orbit, Bowman left the ship to examine the monolith and was instead drawn within it.
Meanwhile, back on earth, a rescue mission was underway. After the first Discovery fell out of communication, the Alexei Leonov, a joint Soviet-US mission was sent to Jupiter. Its objectives: board the Discovery, reactivate the HAL 9000 computer, and gather any available data.
As the Leonov circled the Discovery, an apparition seeming to be David Bowman appeared, warning the Leonov that it must leave Jupiter because “something wonderful” was about to happen.
The Leonov fled, using the Discovery as a sort of booster rocket to escape. As they do, monoliths engulfed Jupiter, transforming it into a new star in the night sky. Eventually dubbed ‘Lucifer’ by the people of Earth, the Discovery was believed destroyed.
However, Bowman and HAL were both preserved and transformed into beings of energy.
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