2001: A Space Odyssey

Discovery has a satellite dish that is permanently pointed toward Earth to maintain communication. When he is on watch, Bowman always looks toward home. Bowman is 35 years old, has spent “nights beneath the palm trees of tropical lagoons” (85), and believes this mission will make him wealthy.

HAL 9000 is the sixth member of the crew, “the brain and nervous system of the ship” who is not sentimental about Earth because he is not human (86). His name is a loose acronym of “Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer” (86). He is a product of the “third computer breakthrough” (86). As these breakthroughs typically occur every 20 years, another is due—a source of anxiety to many. Unlike earlier computers, Hal communicates with spoken language rather than through keyboard and screen. If the test of independent intelligence is the ability to be taken for human in a prolonged conversation (as Alan Turing posited), then Hal passes that test “with ease” (87). Hal can take over the ship and the mission if the crew becomes incapacitated and Earth unreachable. He is also the only one currently awake who knows the real mission.

Although Bowman is technically captain during this phase of the mission, he and Poole share responsibilities for managing the ship. Bowman rises at 1600 “Ship’s Time” and advances the “Master Hibernation Timer” by 12 hours; if this is not done twice in a row, Hal would assume that the crew was incapacitated and take emergency measures. Bowman exercises and reads the news (more carefully on the mission than he ever did at home). At 0700, he relieves Poole on the Control Deck. At 1000, he begins a period of study. He considers himself a generalist, as does Poole—a quality that suits them to the present mission. Between them, they should be able to handle any situation likely to arise. Bowman eats lunch and tours the ship, which rotates to create artificial gravity. In his free time, Bowman sometimes reads about great explorations of the past, including those of Pytheas, Anson, Cook, and Magellan. He reads the Odyssey, “which of all books spoke to him most vividly across the gulfs of time” (94). He also plays “semi-mathematical games” with Hal, who has been programmed to allow his human partners to win 50% of the time. Bowman, like all those sent on long missions into deep space, is unmarried. Poole’s routine is the inverse of Bowman’s.

Discovery’s path to its destination is already charted and requires no interference from the crew; the only moment of unpredictability comes with the asteroid belt. Even here the risks of collision are low. On day 86, when asteroid 7794 is due to pass close by, Hal reminds Bowman; the crew intends to keep observations to analyze later. They fire an impact probe at the asteroid, sending the data to Earth for analysis. This will allow scientists to determine what an asteroid’s crust is composed of. The Discovery is three months away from the outer moons of Jupiter, which will be the next object it encounters.

Discovery is 20 million miles from Jupiter, and it is as visible to them as the Moon is from Earth. Bowman contemplates the size difference between Earth and Jupiter, illustrated by an image in Hal’s database that shows the surface of the Earth laid against that of Jupiter; it is only the relative size of India. Clouds conceal the surface of Jupiter; as Bowman looks at the planet through a telescope, he wonders what is hidden there. As they travel, they are sending data back to Earth. They fly past Jupiter’s moons and graze its atmosphere. They pass into the night side of the planet and lose sight of the sun for the first time in their voyage, revealing the planet’s phosphorescence, as “awe-inspiring” sight. They lose contact with Earth, which they had expected but which nonetheless creates “a sudden overwhelming loneliness” (105). As they emerge from Jupiter’s shadow, Hal announces that he has regained contact with Earth and that they are 167 days, 5 hours, and 11 minutes from Saturn.

One of the probes sent to Jupiter survives entry to the planet’s atmosphere and broadcasts images and information back. Poole and Bowman watch eagerly from the Control Deck. The images are initially too foggy to be useful but become clearer as the probe descends, revealing a “mottled gold” expanse that constitutes another layer of the atmosphere. What appears to be a volcanic mountain emerges. These glimpses are all they see before the intense pressure of Jupiter’s atmosphere destroys the probe. They continue toward Saturn.