2010: Odyssey Two (1982), a Science Fiction by Arthur C. Clarke: Summary

Arthur C. Clarke was born in England in 1917 and he registered King’s College, London where he got First Class Honors in Physics’ and Mathematics. Not only as an author of fifty books, but his invention of communications satellite, has brought him numerous honors. The book is 332 pages long and it was published by Ballatine Books, USA in 1989. The first edition was printed in 1982. The book is not stated as sequel but as successor to 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

This science-fiction book is not easy to comprehend, but I really enjoy this book, since the Outer Space is always mystery on my mind. A high qualified book which written by brilliant author. The science-fiction book like 2010: Odyessy Two may reflect human’s view about life and universe. If you’ve seen Gravity and Interstellar, the two films will help you to enjoy this book and bring you to the high level of imagination. 

The story of the outer space mission spacecraft Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov heads to planet Jupiter. The USSR (Uni-Soviet/Russia) joint mission with U.S National Council was led by Captain Tatiana Orlova and US provides three experts including Dr. Heywood Floyd.

2010: Odyssey Two (1982), a Science Fiction by Arthur C. Clarke: Summary

Heywood Floyd was former Chairman of National Council on Astronautics, but now he worked for University of Hawaii. Now he had a new job, new home, and new wife. With despite the twenty-year age difference between them, Caroline understood his moods and could wean him out of his occasional depressions. She had been a good stepmother to his daughters, and had given him young son Christopher. Floyd had found the contentment that was important as happiness, and longer lasting. 

He was on the list on the expedition to Jupiter abroad spacecraft Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov. American spacecraft Discovery might be crash on Jupiter Mission. Four men had died, and one disappeared, out there among the moons of Jupiter. Dr Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana, never thought about the dead astronauts, but he grieved only for his lost child, HAL 9000 (Hal). After all these years, and his endless reviews of data radioed back from Discovery, he was not sure what had gone wrong. The facts he needed were frozen in Hal’s circuit, out there between Jupiter and Io. Nor could Hal’s twin, SAL 9000, back on Earth, when the information was transmitted to Earth. 

The U.S spacecraft Discovery’s astronaut, David Bowman, launched himself in a space pod-leaving Hal in full control the ship. Hal had switch off the life-support systems of the three hibernating astronauts. Bowman was alone, as no man had ever been before in the whole world of human history. Discovery finally arrived at Jupiter, Bowman had gone out in a space pod to investigate, and had disappeared leaving final message: “My God it’s full of stars.” Dr. Chandra refused to call Hall’s behavior as a malfunction but, it’s an anomaly. 

Discovery had left Earth with three little space pods. One had been lost in accident that had killed Frank Poole. Another carried by David Bowman to his final goal Big Brother. A third was still in the ship garage, the Pod Bay (later Brailovsky named it as Nina). Finally they found Discovery, Curnow felt at home now. He had spent months working in Discovery. Brailovsky and Curnow had entered the Pod Bay-Discovery’s space garage. The mysterious accident had killed Frank Poole- missing Dave Bowman. The power system was okay, the main reactor stable, batteries in good shape. All the ammonia had remained safely liquefied, and there was enough to get the ship back to a safe orbit around Earth- at least around Moon. There was no certain caused of the Discovery’ crash. They found a purely personal message – unsent message to Bowman’s mother. Mrs. Bowman was in a nursing home in Florida, and her mental condition was poor. 

Spacecraft Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov was led by Captain Tatiana (Tanya) Orlova. The Misssion objectives are to proceed to Jovian system and rendezvous with U.S spacecraft Discovery, to reactive Discovery, to relocate alien artifact encountered by discovery, and to carry out a survey of Jupiter and its satellites. The Crews were Dr Vasili Orlov as Navigation-Astronomy, Dr. Maxim Andrei Brailovsky as Engineering-Structures (assistant engineer), Dr. Alexander Kovalev as Engineering-Communication, Dr. Nikolai Ternovsky as Engineering-Control System, Surgeon-Commander Katerina Rudenko as Medical-Life-Support, and Dr Irina Yakunina as Medical-Nutrition. Three experts form U.S. National Council: Dr. Heywood Floyd, Dr. Walter Curnow, and Dr. Chandra. Walter Curnow was the system specialist and he was a large and husky man. Dr. Chandra was tiny, delicate, and all his movements were swift and precise. 

The image of Jupiter with its ribbons of white cloud, its molted bands of salmon pink. Jupiter was already larger than Moon in the sky of Earth, and giant inner satellites could be seen moving around it. Both ships operational and first round test on Hal almost finished. They trusted Hal to fly Discovery when they left to make their final rendezvous with Big Brother. TMA2, it’s the best part of billion kilometers from Tycho, Floyd named it Big Brother. 

China spacecraft Tsien was more than fifty kilometers away. In a few hours, Tsien would hit Jupiter. Tsien was inaudible, and making a rendezvous with Europa. All the scanty news of Chinese mission had to be relayed from Earth. The ship had touched down. Meteorites might fall upon airless Europa, but never a flake a snow. Europa was the biggest news in solar system. Europa’s canals were not an illusion. They contained water, or at least ice. For the satellite was almost entirely covered by ocean, averaging fifty kilometers deep. Because it’s far from the sun, Europa’s surface temperature was extremely low- about a hundred and fifty degrees below freezing. But there was the case a lot of heat generated inside Europa by tidal forces- the great volcanoes on neighboring Io. The ice was continually melting, breaking up, and forming cracks. 

Tsien had landed right beside white streaks that’d been christened the Grand Canal. A signal came from Tsien and a sole survivor left the message said that there is a life in Europa. Floyd was familiar with Professor Chang’s voice. Floyd vaguely remembered Professor Chang Lee in a session in International Astronomical Union Congress in Boston. Lee described unusual creature he saw. Things like a plant scores of the big flowers in various stage unfolding. He announced the destruction of spaceship Tsien. Ton of ice on the ship, Lee knew he would not survive. Before died, he asked two requests; if the taxonomists classified the creature, it’d named it after him. If the next ship came home – asking them to take crew’s bone back to China. 

When Floyd communicated with Hal, a real-time message was on screen. It meat it was either from Hal himself or someone abroad Leonov. Then he admitted he was David Bowman. Floyd couldn’t accept that identification without proof. Then the shape of human, only the head was fashioned with any care; the face; undoubtedly was Commander David Bowman, but Floyd recognized the voice. The rest of the body was a featureless blank, lacking all detail. There was no hint of genitals or sexual characteristic. Dave Bowman had left his human heritage. He said to Floyd that he had little time. He had been allowed to give Floyd warning that he had only fifteen days. The Crew didn’t believe in Bowman’s ghost. 

Young David Bowman appeared on screen to his old girlfriend Betty Schultz. He was eighteen again, and for a moment she wished she could see the entire body. For a decade, all his autoerotic fantasies had centered upon Betty, he had never found another woman to compare with her. His late brother Robert Bowman crushed on Betty. Betty had never told Dave if he was a better lover than Bobby. Betty Fernandez was though, intelligent, and now she was a housewife. She only remembered him as death man but David admitted he was not ghost nor human but still part of him. Jose Fernandez still maintained that his wife Betty had reported an encounter with David Bowman. He asked personal questioned to Betty- about her son, but she lied to him. In fact Carlos was Fernandez’s son. David Bowman also appeared in monitor to his mother. Jesse Bowman saw his son as a young David who now ageless had gained his control of obdurate matter. Jesse died only a few days after a thing came to Earth. 

Big Brother was completely featureless. It was fact that from Earth, both Sun and Moon have the same apparent diameter. Big Brother had been chosen for its cosmic balancing act on the gravitational tight-rope between Jupiter and Io, a similar phenomenon occurred. It was exactly the same shape as TMA1- but as it was more than two kilometers, it was 718 times larger than its small siblings. There was a mathematical mystery. Men had been arguing for years over that 1:4:9 ratio – the squares of the first three integers. It could not be coincidence; now there was another number to conjure with. Statistician and Mathematical physicist were soon playing with their computer, trying to relate the ratio fundamental constants of nature- the velocity of light, the proton/electron mass ratio, the fine structure constant. Third pod later called Nina landed at the Big Brother. Dave contacted Hal. He gave Hal instructions including to send the certain message to Earth as many time as possible. The radio message beamed to Earth before blast of radiation engulfed the ship: “All THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS- EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE.” 

There was life in Europa- Bowman and his friends. Europa has a nice tropical climate when the ice was melted. Hall only sent the message to Earth not to Leonov which was in fact, it was much closer. Jupiter was mostly hydrogen. If a large percentage could be converted into much denser material such as neutron and they dropped down to the core. Nucleosynthesis – building up higher elements from pure hydrogen and no more shortage of any metal – gold as a cheap aluminum. But when the core became dense enough, Jupiter would collapse. The temperature would rise high enough to start fusion. American Astronomer Carl Sagan once told that there would be life on Jupiter. 

Heywood Floyd reported the crew preparing for return home. They were on the line between Io and Jupiter where they made the rendezvous with the huge, mysteriously vanished artifact they christened Big Brother. They planned by using the American Discovery as a booster for Russian Leonov. The two ships would be joined together, one mounted piggyback on the other. The crew was the way home and Floyd was already in hibernation. Engineer- communication Sasha switched on the long-range receiver and started to search frequency. There was no trace of a signal. Discovery and Hal were gone.

*****

Balige, Sumatera, Indonesia

Sekapur Sirih 

Karya fiksi ilmiah tergolong langka bila dibandingkan genre lainnya. Buku ini terbit setelah buku sukses sebelumnya 2001: A Space Odyssey yang juga sukses dalam bentuk film pada tahun 1968. Penulis Arthur C. Clarke adalah penulis dan penemu kelahiran Inggris bidang Fisika dan Matematika. Dalam buku ini berkisah tentang pesawat angkasa Leonov milik Uni Soviet (Rusia) melakukan sejumlah ekspedisi di Planet Jupiter sekaligus penyelamatan  pesawat luar angkasa Discovery milik Amerika yang hilang dan terjatuh di planet Jupiter. Buku berisi 332 halaman disampaikan dalam bab pendek dan sederhana. Memang adalah tidak mudah memahami karya ini, namun bila Anda telah menonton film Gravity dan Interstellar maka akan menolong imajinasi pembaca menikmati karya ini. 

Terjemahan dalam Bahasa Indonesia: 2010: Odyssey Two (1982), Karya Arthur C. Clarke: ringkasan 

Pesawat ruang angkasa Amerika bernama Discovery  jatuh di planet Jupiter. Empat Astronot dinyatakan mati dalam kecelakaan itu. Sebuah ekspedisi misi gabungan dari Uni- Soviet dan Amerika dilakukan untuk misi Jupiter sekaligus pencarian Discovery. Pesawat Leonov milik Uni-Soviet itu dipimpin oleh Kapten Tatiana (Tanya) Orlova dan sejumlah kru Rusia dan termasuk tiga ahli dari Amerika: Dr. Heywood Floyd, Dr. Walter Curnov, dan Dr. Chandra. Dalam lintasan perjalanan pesawat Tsien milik China melaporkan dirinya telah sampai di planet Europa, planet yang tidak terlalu jauh dari planet Jupiter dan satelitnya Io. 

Profesor Chang melaporkan bahwa ada kehidupan di Europa, pesawatnya diselimuti oleh es tebal semua krunya telah meninggal. Professor Chang dan Komander Floyd sebelumnya telah pernah bertemu dalam sebuah pertemuan internasional di Boston. Flyod mengenali suara lelaki itu, Chang banyak membeberkan isi planet itu dan memberi rekaman kamera. Europa bersuhu sangat dingin, sebab memang memiliki jarak sangat jauh dari matahari. Suhu sangat dingin, namun satelit di sebelahnya memiliki gunung berapi sehingga membuat Europa terkadang mengalami masa tropis. Profesor Chang Lee sadar bahwa dirinya juga akan segera mati. Dia berpesan agar namanya diabadikan atas benda yang diduga tanaman kelak ketika ahli menemukannya. Bila suatu saat  pesawat ruang angksa mendarat di Europa, agar membawa tulang-belulang mereka ke negeri China. 

Kabar mengejutkan datang dari bumi. Komander David Bowman dikabarkan berkomunikasi dengan mantan kekasihnya Betty Schultz. Wanita cerdas yang kini menjadi ibu rumah tangga. Kecantikan dan pesona wanita itu susah hilang dari ingatan David Bowman. Wanita yang menjadi penyemangat hidupnya. Tentu saja, Betty sangat kaget melihat wajah dan mendengar suara Dave di monitor. Wajah Dave ketika berumur delapan belas tahun, masa ketika mereka bersama. Terlihat hanyalah muka Dave, walau Betty berusaha melihat seluruh tubuh pemuda itu. Dia bertanya apakah putra Betty bernama Carlos adalah putranya. Bagi Betty dan media Amerika, Bowman telah mati. Carlos adalah putra suaminya Jose Fernandez, namun wanita itu sudah membohongi hantu. Tidak hanya itu, Dave juga menampakkan dirinya dan berbicara lewat monitor pada ibunya yang sudah tua dan kini di rawat di panti jompo. Setelah melihat anaknya di layar, beberapa hari kemudian wanita itu pun meninggal. 

Kru Leonov akhirnya berhasil menemukan Discovery di planet Jupiter. Tiga kru telah meninggal dan David Bowman dinyatakan hilang dengan membawa satu pod (bagian dari pesawat ruang angkasa yang saling dikaitkan dan bisa dilepas sebagai pesawat utuh mandiri). Dr. Chandra berusaha memperbaiki komputer program ciptaannya bernama Hal. Kemampuan intelijensinya tinggi dan memiliki sifat mirip manusia. Walter Curnow dan asisten insinyur Brailovsky memeriksa dan memperbaiki Discovery. 

Tidak diduga, rupanya Dave Bowman juga menghubungi Floyd dan tidak mudah baginya percaya; perlu bukti. Sosok seperti manusia muncul di monitor, hanya wajah tanpa badan, dan tanpa jenis kelamin, tapi jelas baginya bahwa suara dan wajah itu adalah David Bowman. Para kru tidak percaya bahwa Dave masih hidup dan juga tidak percaya ada hantu. 

Setelah perbaikan Discovery dan Hal pun siap untuk pulang. Hal dipercaya membawa pulang Discovery ke bumi sementara kru tetap pada Leonov. Dalam perjalanan pulang, Dave berhasil mengontak Hal dan memberinya sejumlah instruksi termasuk mengirimkan sebuah pesan rekaman penting ke bumi. Insinyur Rusia tidak dapat mendeteksi sama sekali jejak hal dan Discovery. Mereka telah lenyap. 

Pesan pun masuk ke bumi menyatakan: “bumi dan angkasanya boleh milikmu kecuali Europa. Jangan pernah mendarat ke sana.” Kru Leonov pun terheran kenapa mereka tidak mendapat pesan itu, padahal mereka dekat, kenapa pesan itu malah langsung ke bumi. Mereka masih tetap menduga bahwa Bowman dan teman-temannya masih hidup walau tidak seutuhnya manusia. Kemungkinan ada kehidupan alien. Dari hasil ekspedisi mereka, didapati ada kehidupan di Jupiter dan Europa. Jupiter mengandung hidrogen. Kru Leonov melaporkan diri kepulangan mereka dan Floyd dan beberapa kru memasuki kapsul hibernasi (hibernation) masing-masing.

******

Balige, Sumatera