2061: Odyssey Three
Encyclopedia
2061: Odyssey Three is a science fiction
novel
by Arthur C. Clarke
that was published in 1987. It is the third book in Clarke's Space Odyssey
series. It returns to one of the lead characters of the previous novels, Heywood Floyd, and depicts Floyd's adventures, which take him from the 2061 returning of Halley's Comet to Jupiter
's moon Europa
.
and its moons, Clarke had originally intended to delay writing a third book until the Galileo
mission to the planet had returned its findings. However, the probe's launch was delayed in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
so that it would not arrive at Jupiter until 1995. Deciding not to wait, Clarke instead took his inspiration from the approach of Comet Halley
in 1986 and focused his sequel on the comet's future return, in 2061.
, Jupiter was converted into a mini-sun
which was dubbed "Lucifer
" following the Soviet ship Leonov’s mission to Jupiter to find out what happened to the Discovery. A message was sent to Earth by Dave Bowman, through HAL
: "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE." This is due to Lucifer melting the frozen ocean beneath the surface of Europa
, causing an atmosphere to form and leading to the discovery of alien life in Europa's ocean.
When the Leonov returned to Earth, Heywood Floyd
(whose marriage had broken up while he was on the Leonov) suffered an accident. His recovery on an orbital space hospital took longer than expected and he became a permanent resident there after finding that his body could no longer handle Earth-level gravity. His grandson Chris works aboard the spacecraft Galaxy and has not seen his grandfather in years.
The black population of South Africa
has rebelled in the 2030s and formed the United States of Southern Africa (USSA). The white population fled to Europe, taking most of the country's wealth with them and leaving the black population to rebuild the economy, which they did in a matter of weeks by use of diamonds. (2061 was published in 1987, at which time apartheid was still in force in South Africa). Large-scale interplanetary travel
is now commercially viable with muon-catalyzed fusion
-powered spacecraft. On Europa, an enormous mountain has sprung up out of nowhere. No one is sure of the origin of "Mount Zeus"; being asymmetrical, it cannot be a volcano.
are terraforming
the moon. Scientist Rolf van der Berg, a second-generation Afrikaner
refugee, studies pictures of Mount Zeus and determines that it is in fact one enormous diamond. He communicates his discovery to his uncle Paul Kreuger; the expedition panners invite van der Berg to join the crew of Galaxy for its flyby of Europa.
As Galaxy nears Europa, a stewardess attempts to single-handedly hijack Galaxy, forcing it to crash into Europa's ocean. Her plan having failed (her motivation and loyalties are not explained, but she is assumed to be a militant anti-Afrikaner), she commits suicide. The crew are now stranded, but their sister ship Universe is tasked to rescue her.
Van der Berg and Chris Floyd take the shuttle William Tsung (nicknamed Bill Tee) to study Mount Zeus; also the wreck of the Chinese spacecraft Tsien, and the enormous monolith lying on its side at the border between the dayside and nightside, dubbed the 'Great Wall'. Near Mount Zeus, van der Berg relays the message "LUCY IS HERE" to his uncle Paul, verifying that Mount Zeus is indeed one large diamond. The code word "Lucy" was chosen both in reference to the mini-sun Lucifer and to an article in the journal Nature
in 1981 hypothesizing that the cores of Uranus and Neptune were in fact diamonds the size of Earth (caused by the compression of carbon), with the hypothesis making a logical extension to Jupiter. The article was subtitled "Diamonds in the Sky?" in reference to the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
". Mount Zeus is a fragment of Jupiter's core which survived the creation of Lucifer and later struck Europa.
On the Universe, the celebrity guests discuss the mystery surrounding Bowman and the monoliths, and whether they would be allowed to land on Europa to rescue Galaxy’s crew. Floyd follows a suggestion that he simply try to call Bowman on the radio, and that night has a strange dream in which he sees the monolith floating at the foot of his bed.
The Bill Tee flies by Tsien, which has been completely stripped of its metals (rare and thus valuable to the Europans), and on to the Great Wall. An image of his grandfather appears to Chris in the same way that Bowman appeared to Floyd in 2010, telling him that the Universe was coming.
Universe rescues Galaxys crew; they are brought to Ganymede, where they watch as Mount Zeus, which has been steadily sinking, finally disappears beneath the Europan surface. Kreuger writes a follow-up article for Nature, stating that Mount Zeus was a mere fragment of Jupiter's core and it is almost certain that many more such large pieces of diamond are currently in orbit around Lucifer, and proposing that a program be initiated immediately to collect these enormous quantities of diamond and put them to use.
Floyd and Chris become close again, and both become friends with van der Berg. They talk about how Floyd called Bowman on the radio, and Chris asks if Bowman ever replied. Floyd almost tells his grandson about the monolith in his cabin, but does not after rationalizing that it was probably a dream. It was not a dream. The monolith duplicated Floyd's consciousness; there are now two Heywood Floyds
, one an immortal being who resides with Bowman and HAL inside the Great Wall.
s and an orbital ring
connecting them, as suggested by Kreuger. (This idea will later be a central concept in 3001: The Final Odyssey
.)
expressed great interest in producing a film adaptation, with himself cast in the role of Floyd, and Keir Dullea
and Douglas Rain
reprising their roles as David Bowman and HAL 9000
. These plans never went beyond the initial announcement.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke
Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE, FRAS was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, famous for his short stories and novels, among them 2001: A Space Odyssey, and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein,...
that was published in 1987. It is the third book in Clarke's Space Odyssey
The Space Odyssey series
The Space Odyssey series is a science fiction series of four novels and two films created from 1968 to 1997, primarily by the writer Arthur C. Clarke...
series. It returns to one of the lead characters of the previous novels, Heywood Floyd, and depicts Floyd's adventures, which take him from the 2061 returning of Halley's Comet to Jupiter
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
's moon Europa
Europa (moon)
Europa Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of silicate rock and probably has an iron core. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is composed of ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System. This surface is striated by cracks and...
.
Origins
Because the Odyssey series is closely concerned with JupiterJupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with mass one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas giant along with Saturn,...
and its moons, Clarke had originally intended to delay writing a third book until the Galileo
Galileo spacecraft
Galileo was an unmanned spacecraft sent by NASA to study the planet Jupiter and its moons. Named after the astronomer and Renaissance pioneer Galileo Galilei, it was launched on October 18, 1989 by the Space Shuttle Atlantis on the STS-34 mission...
mission to the planet had returned its findings. However, the probe's launch was delayed in the aftermath of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster
The Space Shuttle Challenger disaster occurred on January 28, 1986, when Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crew members. The spacecraft disintegrated over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of central Florida at 11:38 am EST...
so that it would not arrive at Jupiter until 1995. Deciding not to wait, Clarke instead took his inspiration from the approach of Comet Halley
Comet Halley
Halley's Comet or Comet Halley is the best-known of the short-period comets, and is visible from Earth every 75 to 76 years. Halley is the only short-period comet that is clearly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the only naked-eye comet that might appear twice in a human lifetime...
in 1986 and focused his sequel on the comet's future return, in 2061.
Background
In the previous novel, 2010: Odyssey Two2010: Odyssey Two
2010: Odyssey Two is a 1982 best-selling science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke. It is the sequel to the 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, but continues the story of Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation with the same title and not Clarke's original novel. The book is a part of Clarke's...
, Jupiter was converted into a mini-sun
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is almost perfectly spherical and consists of hot plasma interwoven with magnetic fields...
which was dubbed "Lucifer
Lucifer
Traditionally, Lucifer is a name that in English generally refers to the devil or Satan before being cast from Heaven, although this is not the original meaning of the term. In Latin, from which the English word is derived, Lucifer means "light-bearer"...
" following the Soviet ship Leonov’s mission to Jupiter to find out what happened to the Discovery. A message was sent to Earth by Dave Bowman, through HAL
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
: "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS, EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE." This is due to Lucifer melting the frozen ocean beneath the surface of Europa
Europa (moon)
Europa Slightly smaller than Earth's Moon, Europa is primarily made of silicate rock and probably has an iron core. It has a tenuous atmosphere composed primarily of oxygen. Its surface is composed of ice and is one of the smoothest in the Solar System. This surface is striated by cracks and...
, causing an atmosphere to form and leading to the discovery of alien life in Europa's ocean.
When the Leonov returned to Earth, Heywood Floyd
Heywood R. Floyd
Dr. Heywood R. Floyd is a fictional character in the Space Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke. He is featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey and is the main protagonist in 2010: Odyssey Two and 2061: Odyssey Three. In the first movie he is portrayed by William Sylvester, in the second by Roy...
(whose marriage had broken up while he was on the Leonov) suffered an accident. His recovery on an orbital space hospital took longer than expected and he became a permanent resident there after finding that his body could no longer handle Earth-level gravity. His grandson Chris works aboard the spacecraft Galaxy and has not seen his grandfather in years.
The black population of South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
has rebelled in the 2030s and formed the United States of Southern Africa (USSA). The white population fled to Europe, taking most of the country's wealth with them and leaving the black population to rebuild the economy, which they did in a matter of weeks by use of diamonds. (2061 was published in 1987, at which time apartheid was still in force in South Africa). Large-scale interplanetary travel
Interplanetary travel
Interplanetary spaceflight or interplanetary travel is travel between planets within a single planetary system. In practice, spaceflights of this type are confined to travel between the planets of the Solar System....
is now commercially viable with muon-catalyzed fusion
Muon-catalyzed fusion
Muon-catalyzed fusion is a process allowing nuclear fusion to take place at temperatures significantly lower than the temperatures required for thermonuclear fusion, even at room temperature or lower...
-powered spacecraft. On Europa, an enormous mountain has sprung up out of nowhere. No one is sure of the origin of "Mount Zeus"; being asymmetrical, it cannot be a volcano.
2061
In 2061, at the age of 103, Floyd is chosen as one of several "celebrity guests" to come aboard the privately-owned spaceliner Universe for the first-ever human landing on the surface of Halley's Comet, when it makes its periodic pass through the Solar System. Meanwhile, a team of scientists on GanymedeGanymede (moon)
Ganymede is a satellite of Jupiter and the largest moon in the Solar System. It is the seventh moon and third Galilean satellite outward from Jupiter. Completing an orbit in roughly seven days, Ganymede participates in a 1:2:4 orbital resonance with the moons Europa and Io, respectively...
are terraforming
Terraforming
Terraforming of a planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology to be similar to those of Earth, in order to make it habitable by terrestrial organisms.The term is sometimes used more generally as a...
the moon. Scientist Rolf van der Berg, a second-generation Afrikaner
Afrikaner
Afrikaners are an ethnic group in Southern Africa descended from almost equal numbers of Dutch, French and German settlers whose native tongue is Afrikaans: a Germanic language which derives primarily from 17th century Dutch, and a variety of other languages.-Related ethno-linguistic groups:The...
refugee, studies pictures of Mount Zeus and determines that it is in fact one enormous diamond. He communicates his discovery to his uncle Paul Kreuger; the expedition panners invite van der Berg to join the crew of Galaxy for its flyby of Europa.
As Galaxy nears Europa, a stewardess attempts to single-handedly hijack Galaxy, forcing it to crash into Europa's ocean. Her plan having failed (her motivation and loyalties are not explained, but she is assumed to be a militant anti-Afrikaner), she commits suicide. The crew are now stranded, but their sister ship Universe is tasked to rescue her.
Van der Berg and Chris Floyd take the shuttle William Tsung (nicknamed Bill Tee) to study Mount Zeus; also the wreck of the Chinese spacecraft Tsien, and the enormous monolith lying on its side at the border between the dayside and nightside, dubbed the 'Great Wall'. Near Mount Zeus, van der Berg relays the message "LUCY IS HERE" to his uncle Paul, verifying that Mount Zeus is indeed one large diamond. The code word "Lucy" was chosen both in reference to the mini-sun Lucifer and to an article in the journal Nature
Nature (journal)
Nature, first published on 4 November 1869, is ranked the world's most cited interdisciplinary scientific journal by the Science Edition of the 2010 Journal Citation Reports...
in 1981 hypothesizing that the cores of Uranus and Neptune were in fact diamonds the size of Earth (caused by the compression of carbon), with the hypothesis making a logical extension to Jupiter. The article was subtitled "Diamonds in the Sky?" in reference to the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song written primarily by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney, for The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band...
". Mount Zeus is a fragment of Jupiter's core which survived the creation of Lucifer and later struck Europa.
On the Universe, the celebrity guests discuss the mystery surrounding Bowman and the monoliths, and whether they would be allowed to land on Europa to rescue Galaxy’s crew. Floyd follows a suggestion that he simply try to call Bowman on the radio, and that night has a strange dream in which he sees the monolith floating at the foot of his bed.
The Bill Tee flies by Tsien, which has been completely stripped of its metals (rare and thus valuable to the Europans), and on to the Great Wall. An image of his grandfather appears to Chris in the same way that Bowman appeared to Floyd in 2010, telling him that the Universe was coming.
Universe rescues Galaxys crew; they are brought to Ganymede, where they watch as Mount Zeus, which has been steadily sinking, finally disappears beneath the Europan surface. Kreuger writes a follow-up article for Nature, stating that Mount Zeus was a mere fragment of Jupiter's core and it is almost certain that many more such large pieces of diamond are currently in orbit around Lucifer, and proposing that a program be initiated immediately to collect these enormous quantities of diamond and put them to use.
Floyd and Chris become close again, and both become friends with van der Berg. They talk about how Floyd called Bowman on the radio, and Chris asks if Bowman ever replied. Floyd almost tells his grandson about the monolith in his cabin, but does not after rationalizing that it was probably a dream. It was not a dream. The monolith duplicated Floyd's consciousness; there are now two Heywood Floyds
Heywood R. Floyd
Dr. Heywood R. Floyd is a fictional character in the Space Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke. He is featured in 2001: A Space Odyssey and is the main protagonist in 2010: Odyssey Two and 2061: Odyssey Three. In the first movie he is portrayed by William Sylvester, in the second by Roy...
, one an immortal being who resides with Bowman and HAL inside the Great Wall.
Epilogue
In the epilogue, the star Lucifer stops shining in 3001, and in Manhattan "the monolith awakes" (referring to the original monolith discovered on the moon in 2001, and which was taken to Manhattan as a monument). It is also indicated that humans have found more quantities of diamond from the former Jupiter and used it to create space elevatorSpace elevator
A space elevator, also known as a geostationary orbital tether or a beanstalk, is a proposed non-rocket spacelaunch structure...
s and an orbital ring
Orbital ring
An Orbital Ring is a concept for a space elevator that consists of a ring in low earth orbit that rotates at above orbital speed, that has fixed tethers hanging down to the ground.The structure is intended to be used for space launch....
connecting them, as suggested by Kreuger. (This idea will later be a central concept in 3001: The Final Odyssey
3001: The Final Odyssey
3001: The Final Odyssey is a science fiction novel by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. It is the fourth and final book in Clarke's Space Odyssey series.-Plot summary:...
.)
Aborted plans for film version
Shortly after the novel was released, Tom HanksTom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
expressed great interest in producing a film adaptation, with himself cast in the role of Floyd, and Keir Dullea
Keir Dullea
Keir Dullea is an American actor best known for the character of astronaut David Bowman, whom he portrayed in the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and in 1984's 2010: The Year We Make Contact...
and Douglas Rain
Douglas Rain
Douglas Rain is a Canadian actor and narrator. He is primarily a stage actor, but his best known film role was as the voice of the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel 2010 ....
reprising their roles as David Bowman and HAL 9000
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the antagonist in Arthur C. Clarke's science fiction Space Odyssey saga. HAL is an artificial intelligence that interacts with the astronaut crew of the Discovery One spacecraft, usually represented as a red television-camera eye found throughout the ship...
. These plans never went beyond the initial announcement.