The United States Spacecraft ''Discovery'' is a fictional spacecraft appearing in the ''Space Odyssey'' series by

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

and

Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 191719 March 2008) was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay for the 1968 film '' 2001: A ...

. The ship is a nuclear-powered interplanetary spaceship, crewed by two men and controlled by the on-board computer

HAL 9000 HAL 9000 (or simply HAL or Hal) is a fictional artificial intelligence character and the main antagonist in the '' Space Odyssey'' series. First appearing in the 1968 film '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'', HAL ( Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic C ...

. The ship is destroyed in the second novel and makes no further appearances. Kubrick and Clarke developed the original

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

in parallel, but there were some differences to suit the different media. Kubrick dropped the cooling fins of the ship, fearing they would be interpreted as wings. The itinerary of ''Discovery'' in the book is from Earth orbit via

gravitational slingshot A gravity assist, gravity assist maneuver, swing-by, or generally a gravitational slingshot in orbital mechanics, is a type of spaceflight flyby which makes use of the relative movement (e.g. orbit around the Sun) and gravity of a planet o ...

around

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant, with an average radius of about 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...

and parking orbit around the moon

Iapetus In Greek mythology, Iapetus (; ; ), also Japetus, is a Titan, the son of Uranus and Gaia and father of Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus, and Menoetius. He was also called the father of Buphagus and Anchiale in other sources. Iapetus was linked ...

. As producing an accurate depiction of Saturn proved too challenging, 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 film ''2001: A Space Odyssey'' by

and the novel of the same name by science fiction author

. The film and novel were developed in parallel in a collaboration between Clarke and Kubrick. Despite this, the novelized and filmed appearances of the craft differ. Clarke based the design on ideas that were, or he believed were, scientifically feasible. He gave the ship a hypothetical thermonuclear propulsion system and added huge cooling fins to radiate away the excess heat produced. In the book, Clarke says the fins "looked like the wings of some vast dragonfly" and that they gave the ship a "fleeting resemblance to an old-time sailing-ship". In the film, Kubrick removed the fins because he thought that the audience might interpret them as wings giving the spacecraft the ability to fly through an

atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

. Early in the development of the film, Clarke and Kubrick considered having ''Discovery'' powered by an Orion type

nuclear pulse propulsion Nuclear pulse propulsion or external pulsed plasma propulsion is a hypothetical method of spacecraft propulsion that uses nuclear explosions for thrust. It originated as Project ''Orion'' with support from DARPA, after a suggestion by Stanislaw ...

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 ''Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'' (known simply and more commonly as ''Dr. Strangelove'') is a 1964 political satire black comedy film co-written, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is loosely ...

''.

Carousel

Kubrick spent $750,000, a large portion of his $6 million budget, on the set for the

artificial gravity Artificial gravity is the creation of an inertial force that mimics the effects of a gravitational force, usually by rotation. Artificial gravity, or rotational gravity, is thus the appearance of a centrifugal force in a rotating frame of ...

scenes in the carousel. The set was a vertically-mounted circular set in diameter and wide. The entire set could rotate around its axis at up to . 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 A hamster wheel or running wheel is an exercise device used primarily by hamsters and other rodents, but also by other Cursorial, cursorial animals when given the opportunity. Most of these devices consist of a runged or ridged wheel held on a ...

. 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 ''Royal Wedding'' is a 1951 American musical comedy film directed by Stanley Donen, and starring Fred Astaire and Jane Powell, with music by Burton Lane and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner. Set in 1947 London at the time of the wedding of Princess ...

'' a similar arrangement allowed

Fred Astaire Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz, May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, actor, singer, musician, choreographer, and presenter, whose career in stage, film, and television spanned 76 years. He is widely regarded as the "g ...

to apparently dance up the walls and along the ceiling of his hotel room. Clarke believed that the ability to transfer between zero-g and artificial gravity areas of a spaceship would be easily learnt by astronauts, and this is how Kubrick portrayed it in the film. However, expert opinion is that this would be somewhat more difficult to achieve, particularly due to the

Coriolis force In physics, the Coriolis force is a pseudo force that acts on objects in motion within a frame of reference that rotates with respect to an inertial frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the force acts to the left of the motio ...

. Long-radius centrifuge experiments by the Naval Medical Research Laboratory starting in 1958 kept subjects in a diameter centrifuge complete with living quarters for up to three weeks. The experiments found that the subjects took three to four days to overcome motion sickness and balance issues.

Studio model

Two models for filming were made, one long and one 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. 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. 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

aerodynamic Aerodynamics () is the study of the motion of atmosphere of Earth, air, particularly when affected by a solid object, such as an airplane wing. It involves topics covered in the field of fluid dynamics and its subfield of gas dynamics, and is an ...

design and its immense size, ''Discovery'' was assembled in and launched from

orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit (also known as orbital revolution) is the curved trajectory of an object such as the trajectory of a planet around a star, or of a natural satellite around a planet, or of an artificial satellite around an ...

. As described in the novel, it was originally intended to survey the

Jovian system There are 97 moons of Jupiter with confirmed orbits . This number does not include a number of meter-sized moonlets thought to be shed from the inner moons, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized outer irregular moons that were only briefl ...

, but its mission was changed to go to Saturn and investigate the destination of the signal from the black

monolith A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains. Erosion usually exposes the geological formations, which are often made of very hard and solid igneous or metamorphic rock. Some monolit ...

found at the crater Tycho. As a result, the mission became a one-way trip to

and its moon Japetus. (In the filmed telling, the destination remains Jupiter.) After investigating alien artifacts at Saturn and Iapetus, the preliminary plan is for all five members of the crew to enter

suspended animation Suspended animation is the slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. States of suspended animation are common in micro-organisms and some plant tissue, such as seeds. Many animals, including l ...

for an indefinite period of time. Eventually, it was intended that the much larger and more powerful ''Discovery Two'' (not yet completed) would travel to Japetus and return with everyone in hibernation.

Ship features

In the novel ''2001: A Space Odyssey'', ''Discovery'' is described as being "almost 400feet long with a sphere 40feet dia." (122meters and 12.2meters respectively, while ''2010: The Year We Make Contact'' mentions ) and powered by a nuclear plasma drive, separated by 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 Centrifugal force is a fictitious force in Newtonian mechanics (also called an "inertial" or "pseudo" force) that appears to act on all objects when viewed in a rotating frame of reference. It appears to be directed radially away from the axi ...

to simulate the effects of gravity and is the primary living and work area. The three

hibernating Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic reduction entered by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is most ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

s are also located here. The carousel provides Moon-level gravity rotating at just over 5rpm. The carousel can be stopped and the rotation stored in a

flywheel A flywheel is a mechanical device that uses the conservation of angular momentum to store rotational energy, a form of kinetic energy proportional to the product of its moment of inertia and the square of its rotational speed. In particular, a ...

. There is an automated

kitchen A kitchen is a room (architecture), room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a Kitchen stove, stove, a sink ...

(developed with the assistance of

General Mills General Mills, Inc. is an American multinational corporation, multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded ultra-processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in ...

); a ship-to-Earth communications center; and a complete medical section where the astronauts undergo regular automated checkups. Areas outside the carousel, are

micro-g environment Weightlessness is the complete or near-complete absence of the sensation of weight, i.e., zero apparent weight. It is also termed zero g-force, or zero-g (named after the g-force) or, incorrectly, zero gravity. Weight is a measurement of the fo ...

s where the crew members use

velcro Velcro IP Holdings LLC, trading as Velcro Companies and commonly referred to as Velcro (pronounced ), is a British privately held company, founded by Swiss electrical engineer George de Mestral in the 1950s. It is the original manufacturer of ho ...

shoes to attach themselves to the floor. Piloting,

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the motion, movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navig ...

, and other tasks take place in these areas. There is also a pod bay, where three one-man repair and inspection craft are kept, and the spaceship's primary HAL 9000

mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...

Communications

''Discovery'' is described as a very large ship that could be handled by only two astronauts ( David Bowman and Frank Poole), working 12 hour alternating shifts, along with the HAL 9000. In the book,

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

predicted that computer development would be advanced to such an extent that the mission could be undertaken with all the astronauts placed in

hibernation Hibernation is a state of minimal activity and metabolic reduction entered by some animal species. Hibernation is a seasonal heterothermy characterized by low body-temperature, slow breathing and heart-rate, and low metabolic rate. It is mos ...

. It was said to be desired, however, that regular communications be maintained throughout the voyage between the

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

and copilot and

mission control A mission control center (MCC, sometimes called a flight control center or operations center) is a facility that manages space flights, usually from the point of launch until landing or the end of the mission. It is part of the ground segment ...

back on Earth. During communication, an account is taken of the elapsed time for

electromagnetic In physics, electromagnetism is an interaction that occurs between particles with electric charge via electromagnetic fields. The electromagnetic force is one of the four fundamental forces of nature. It is the dominant force in the interacti ...

waves crossing space between the spaceship and the

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

. For example, Poole is depicted watching a pre-recorded birthday message from his family, rather than interacting with them in

real-time Real-time, realtime, or real time may refer to: Computing * Real-time computing, hardware and software systems subject to a specified time constraint * Real-time clock, a computer clock that keeps track of the current time * Real-time Control Syst ...

. Such a conversation is not possible because messages take anywhere from 30 to 52 minutes to transmit between

and Earth. Naturally, this time would depend on the relative positions of the bodies in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Sola ...

at any given moment.

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 Heywood Floyd) travels to Jupiter aboard the spacecraft ''

Alexei Leonov Alexei Arkhipovich Leonov. (30 May 1934 – 11 October 2019) was a Soviet and Russian cosmonaut and aviator, Soviet Air Forces, Air Force major general, writer, and artist. On 18 March 1965, he became the first person to conduct a Extravehic ...

'' to intercept and board ''Discovery'' believing that it harbours many of the answers to the mysteries surrounding the 2001 mission. ''Leonov'' docks with ''Discovery'', reactivates the on-board systems, and stabilizes its orbit. Hal's creator, Dr. Chandra, is sent to reactivate the HAL 9000 computer and gather any data he can regarding the previous mission. 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 '

booster rocket A booster is a rocket (or rocket engine) used either in the first stage of a multistage rocket, multistage launch vehicle or in parallel with longer-burning sustainer engine, sustainer rockets to augment the space vehicle's takeoff thrust and p ...

', enabling them to return to Earth ahead of schedule, but leaving ''Discovery'' in an

elliptical orbit In astrodynamics or celestial mechanics, an elliptical orbit or eccentric orbit is an orbit with an orbital eccentricity, eccentricity of less than 1; this includes the special case of a circular orbit, with eccentricity equal to 0. Some or ...

of Jupiter. The crew worries that HAL will have the same neuroses on discovering that he will be abandoned, and Chandra convinces HAL that the human crew is in danger and must leave. 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 Nuclear fusion is a nuclear reaction, reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nuclei, nuclei/neutrons, neutron by-products. The difference in mass between the reactants and products is manifested as either the rele ...

, 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 The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for the Devil in Christian theology. He appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bib ...

", destroys ''Discovery''. HAL is transformed into the same kind of entity as David Bowman and becomes Bowman's companion.