...in a spacepod, and doesn't get left behind in deep space by a craft that appears to be standing still, but that we know is moving at thousands of miles per hour?
In the film "2001: A Space Odyssey," how is it possible that Dave Bowman leaves Discovery...
- Posted:
- 3+ months ago by writermic...
- Topics:
- film, space, dave, 2001
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Answers (2)
Moving in relation to what? We have no way to measure absolute speed. We can only say that one body is moving in relation to another. Dave and the ship were not moving in relation to each other.
This is the same question when you jump: the Earth is moving a thousand miles an hour, but you are not left behind because the Earth is not moving in relation to you. So you come down right where you jumped up. That leads to the law of gravity: "No fair jumping up without coming back down."
During the EVA (ExtraVehicular Activity), when Dave Bowman had to replace the AE 35 antenna unit, the Discovery wasn't accelerating in any way. So, when he sat in his space pod inside the main vessel he was moving at the same velocity as Discovery. Then he maneuvered the space pod to the location where he had to perform his maintenance job and stopped there -- relative to the Discovery. And, as you say, this is all happening in outer space; there is no airflow, no force acting upon either him or the ship. He could have saved psychotic HAL a lot of trouble though, if he had decided to jump off of the ship without a good old space rope around his waist ;).
1)
Yes, It's just vector addition.
2)
On the subject of Hal's state of mind, ...
Well, I wanted to know what the story says, so I dug the book up from the depths of my shelves... I've got it right here in front of me. The passage reads:
Chapter 26. Probation
"
[...]
From: Heywood Floyd, aboard USSC Discovery
Subject: Malfunction of onboard computer HAL 9000
[...]
The problem was apparently caused by a conflict between Hal's basic instructions and the requirements of Security. By direct Presidential order, the existence of TMA-1 was kept a complete secret.[...]
As Hal was capable of operating the ship without human assistance, it was decided that he should be programed to carry out the mission autonomously in the event of the crew's being incapacitated or killed. He was therefore given full knowledge of its objectives, but was not permitted to reveal them to Bowman or Poole.
This situation conflicted with the purpose for which Hal had been designed -- the accurate processing of information without distortion or concealment. As a result, Hal developed what would be called, in human terms, a psychosis -- specifically, schizophrenia. Dr. C[handra] informs me that, in technical terminology, Hal became trapped in a Hofstadter-Moebius loop, a situation apparently not uncommon among advanced computers with autonomous goal-seeking programs.[...]
To put it crudely Hal was faced with an intolerable dilemma, and so developed paranoiac symptoms that were directed against those monitoring his performance back on Earth. He accordingly attempted to break the radio link with Mission Control, first by reporting a (nonexistent) fault in the AE 35 antenna unit.
This involved him not only in a direct lie -- which must have aggravated his psychosis still further -- but also in a confrontation with the crew. Presumably [...] he decided that the only way out of the situation was to eliminate his human colleagues -- which he very nearly succeeded in doing.[...]"
I have difficulty wrapping my head around the physics of this. For example, what happens to Dave's speed relative to Discovery on his second, unplanned EVA to save Frank Poole's body when we see him flying perhaps hundreds of yards away from the craft? Does he still continue to travel 1,000s of miles per hour in the same direction even as he continues to manuever away from it?
On the subject of Hal's state of mind, I have come to believe over the years -- and I seem to recall Arthur C. Clarke suggesting this in "2010" -- that Hal was not as much "psychotic." as he was confused by the contradictory directives he received concerning the mission. In other words, it was human error all over again, hahaha.