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Rama (spacecraft)
Encyclopedia
Rama is a fictional mysterious extraterrestrial vessel that is the subject and setting of the science fiction
novel
Rendezvous with Rama
by Arthur C. Clarke
, and the later sequel trilogy by Clarke and Gentry Lee
: Rama II, Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed
. It exists in a fictional future timeline of our own world. Rama is essentially a dark, featureless metallic cylinder, but is distinguished by its size: 54 km
long and 20 km in diameter. If the cylinder were unfolded, its internal area would be 50 km long and 50 km wide, giving a surface area of 2500 km2. Although it qualifies as a vessel, carrying an advanced propulsion system capable of interstellar travel, it is better described as a mobile "worldlet." The cylinder is mostly hollow; Rama's rotation around its long axis creates the illusion of gravity on the inner surface of the shell, in the style of an O'Neill cylinder, however the Coriolis effect
produces odd effects when objects are not in contact with the hull. Rama is, for all intents and purposes, an artificial world, with a usable landscape, capable of supporting life. It belongs to the science-fiction class of Big Dumb Object
s.
at a speed and heading that will take it on a 'slingshot' course around the sun and back out into deep space. It is initially mistaken for a giant asteroid when first detected by SPACEGUARD
, an automated radar net designed to warn Earth of potential impact threats. Its first designation is therefore a database code: "31/439", according to the year (2131 CE) and its order of discovery. As it travels closer to perihelion, it comes to the attention of humans due to its anomalous shape and heading. Still believing it to be an asteroid, astronomers give 31/439 a proper name due to its size. Following the tradition of naming celestial objects after mythological figures, 31/439 becomes "Rama
", after the Hindu deity; Clark explains that by this time, all the names of Greek and Roman mythological figures have been used up.
After much speculation over the following months, telescope observation and unmanned probes confirm that Rama is an artificial construct, and therefore (albeit indirectly) Earth's first contact
with extraterrestrial life. The Rama vessel is intercepted and explored by the crew of the nearest human space vessel, the Solar Survey ship Endeavour, under Commander William Norton. Endeavour intercepts Rama, Norton and his team explore the ship, and depart after a three-week mission. Rama, apparently indifferent to the life forms it has encountered, refuels using the matter and energy collected from the sun, executes several minor course corrections, and leaves the solar system.
(The distances are approximate, since they appear to vary throughout the book.)
The fore end of Rama's axis, in the direction of its acceleration, is called North. The aft end is South. These points make up the navigational system used inside Rama.
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....
Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama
Rendezvous with Rama is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1972. Set in the 22nd century, the story involves a cylindrical alien starship that enters Earth's solar system...
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,...
, and the later sequel trilogy by Clarke and Gentry Lee
Gentry Lee
Bert Gentry Lee is the chief engineer for the Planetary Flight Systems Directorate at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a science fiction writer. As an author he is best known for co-writing, with Arthur C. Clarke, the books Cradle in 1989, Rama II in 1989, The Garden of Rama in 1991 and Rama...
: Rama II, Garden of Rama, and Rama Revealed
Rama Revealed
Rama Revealed is a science fiction novel by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee. It is the last of three sequels to Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama by these authors, and as the title suggests reveals the mysteries behind the enigmatic Rama spacecraft.- Plot summary :The book picks up the story...
. It exists in a fictional future timeline of our own world. Rama is essentially a dark, featureless metallic cylinder, but is distinguished by its size: 54 km
Kilometre
The kilometre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousand metres and is therefore exactly equal to the distance travelled by light in free space in of a second...
long and 20 km in diameter. If the cylinder were unfolded, its internal area would be 50 km long and 50 km wide, giving a surface area of 2500 km2. Although it qualifies as a vessel, carrying an advanced propulsion system capable of interstellar travel, it is better described as a mobile "worldlet." The cylinder is mostly hollow; Rama's rotation around its long axis creates the illusion of gravity on the inner surface of the shell, in the style of an O'Neill cylinder, however the Coriolis effect
Coriolis effect
In physics, the Coriolis effect is a deflection of moving objects when they are viewed in a rotating reference frame. In a reference frame with clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the left of the motion of the object; in one with counter-clockwise rotation, the deflection is to the right...
produces odd effects when objects are not in contact with the hull. Rama is, for all intents and purposes, an artificial world, with a usable landscape, capable of supporting life. It belongs to the science-fiction class of Big Dumb Object
Big Dumb Object
In discussion of science fiction, a Big Dumb Object is any mysterious object in a story which generates an intense sense of wonder just by being there; to a certain extent, the term deliberately deflates this...
s.
Name and discovery
In the story, Rama is first encountered by humans in the year 2131, when it enters the solar systemSolar System
The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...
at a speed and heading that will take it on a 'slingshot' course around the sun and back out into deep space. It is initially mistaken for a giant asteroid when first detected by SPACEGUARD
Spaceguard
The term Spaceguard loosely refers to a number of efforts to discover and study near-Earth objects . Asteroids are discovered by telescopes which repeatedly survey large areas of sky. Efforts which concentrate on discovering NEOs are considered part of the "Spaceguard Survey," regardless of which...
, an automated radar net designed to warn Earth of potential impact threats. Its first designation is therefore a database code: "31/439", according to the year (2131 CE) and its order of discovery. As it travels closer to perihelion, it comes to the attention of humans due to its anomalous shape and heading. Still believing it to be an asteroid, astronomers give 31/439 a proper name due to its size. Following the tradition of naming celestial objects after mythological figures, 31/439 becomes "Rama
Rama
Rama or full name Ramachandra is considered to be the seventh avatar of Vishnu in Hinduism, and a king of Ayodhya in ancient Indian...
", after the Hindu deity; Clark explains that by this time, all the names of Greek and Roman mythological figures have been used up.
First contact (science fiction)
First contact is a common science fiction theme about the first meeting between humans and extraterrestrial life, or of any sentient race's first encounter with another one....
with extraterrestrial life. The Rama vessel is intercepted and explored by the crew of the nearest human space vessel, the Solar Survey ship Endeavour, under Commander William Norton. Endeavour intercepts Rama, Norton and his team explore the ship, and depart after a three-week mission. Rama, apparently indifferent to the life forms it has encountered, refuels using the matter and energy collected from the sun, executes several minor course corrections, and leaves the solar system.
Statistics
| Exterior/Overall | Interior | |
| Length | ~54 km | ~50 km |
| Diameter | ~20 km | ~16 km |
| Surface Area | ~4000 km2 | ~2500 km2 |
| Volume | ~17000 km3 | ~10000 km3 |
| Mass | ~1016 kg | |
(The distances are approximate, since they appear to vary throughout the book.)
- Propulsion. Rama's maximum acceleration is 0.02 g, or 0.1962 m/s² when the Cylindrical Sea is liquid, and when it is frozen, in excess of 10g, or 100 m/s², such as to attain relativistic speedRelativistic speedA Relativistic speed is a speed which is a significant proportion of the speed of light. Therefore scientific analysis must take the consequences of special relativity into account...
s quickly, using an unknown form of reactionless driveReactionless driveA reactionless drive is a fictional or theorized method of propulsion where thrust is generated without any need for any outside force or net momentum exchange to produce linear motion...
, which seems to operate by generating a field around Rama that negates the inertia of the mass that it captures. Nearby vessels are deflected when it operates. Whatever the nature of its engineering, Rama could freely control its velocity, rotation and heading. - Power. Rama can refuel by absorbing energy and material en masse directly from a star. When traveling between stars without voyagers, virtually all of its systems and mechanics are shut down, and it effectively becomes a dead relic; its temperature reaches nearly absolute zeroAbsolute zeroAbsolute zero is the theoretical temperature at which entropy reaches its minimum value. The laws of thermodynamics state that absolute zero cannot be reached using only thermodynamic means....
. If it has voyagers aboard, it keeps Rama's interior above the melting pointMelting pointThe melting point of a solid is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depends on pressure and is usually specified at standard atmospheric pressure...
of the Cylindrical Sea. Whether it can merely store energy or generate it, most likely via nuclear fusionNuclear fusionNuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
like the suns it siphons, is unknown. The most likely source of both Rama's power and propulsion seems to be the Horns. - Defense. Passive. Rama's hull, except around the Cylindrical Sea and the North Pole (see below), is at least 2 km thick, and composed of an unidentified alloyAlloyAn alloy is a mixture or metallic solid solution composed of two or more elements. Complete solid solution alloys give single solid phase microstructure, while partial solutions give two or more phases that may or may not be homogeneous in distribution, depending on thermal history...
that could withstand direct radiationRadiationIn physics, radiation is a process in which energetic particles or energetic waves travel through a medium or space. There are two distinct types of radiation; ionizing and non-ionizing...
from SolSunThe 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...
up to a radius of 5 million km. Rama I's hull is completely solid according to seismic tests; Rama II's hull is crisscrossed with a mazeMazeA maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
of tunnelTunnelA tunnel is an underground passageway, completely enclosed except for openings for egress, commonly at each end.A tunnel may be for foot or vehicular road traffic, for rail traffic, or for a canal. Some tunnels are aqueducts to supply water for consumption or for hydroelectric stations or are sewers...
s, rooms, and hallHallIn architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...
s. Rama could also create a bubble of perfectly reflective material around itself, in which it passed through the sun's chromosphereChromosphereThe chromosphere is a thin layer of the Sun's atmosphere just above the photosphere, roughly 2,000 kilometers deep....
unharmed. Also, a mesh-like type of "cocoon", when deployed around Rama, is able to negate the effect of nuclear weaponNuclear weaponA nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
s which were fired at it in Rama II - Offense. Rama has displayed no hostile capability of any kind, although its size makes it a defensive threat.
Design
Most of the following names and terms were chosen arbitrarily by the crew of the Endeavour.The fore end of Rama's axis, in the direction of its acceleration, is called North. The aft end is South. These points make up the navigational system used inside Rama.
- North Pole: The bow of Rama is designed around three airlocks.
- South Pole: The stern of Rama is where the engines are located.
- The Cylindrical Sea: An artificial body of water that divides Rama's internal space between northern and southern hemicylinders.
- New York: A mysterious clustering of tall buildings on an island in the middle of the Cylindrical Sea.
- The Horns: A regular grouping of spires at the South Pole, within Rama. Exactly at the Pole is a single large spire dubbed the "Big Horn", and arranged in a hexagonal pattern around this are six other spires (aka "Little Horns"), each shorter and with a smaller diameter. The Horns seem to be used in Rama's enigmatic system of propulsion.