Rendezvous with Rama

Rendezvous with Rama

Author	Arthur C. Clarke
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Rama series
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Harcourt Brace Jovanovich
Publication date	1972
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
ISBN	978-0-553-28789-9
Followed by	Rama II

Rendezvous with Rama is a novel by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1972. Set in the 22nd century, the story involves a thirty-mile-long cylindrical alien starship that passes through Earth's solar system. The story is told from the point of view of a group of human explorers, who intercept the ship in an attempt to unlock its mysteries. This novel won both the Hugo and Nebula awards upon its release, and is widely regarded as one of the cornerstones in Clarke's bibliography. It is considered a science fiction classic, and is particularly seen as a key hard science fiction text.

Plot summary

The "Rama" of the title is the starship, which is initially mistaken for an asteroid and named after the Hindu deity Rama. (By the 22nd century, we are told, scientists have run out of Greek and Roman mythological figures to name astronomical bodies after.) Asteroid 31/439 is detected by astronomers in the year 2131 while still outside the orbit of Jupiter. Analysis of its trajectory reveals that it it is moving very quickly (100 000km/h) and in fact comes from interstellar space. Rama apparently comes from a nearby variable star which it left 200,000 years ago. Even more remarkable is its extremely rapid 4 minute rotation period and relatively large size. Rama's artificial origin is confirmed by an unmanned space probe -- "SITA" -- launched from the Mars moon Phobos which makes a rapid 200 000km/h flyby after a seven week voyage. The photographic images show a cylindrical object 16 kilometres wide and 50 kilometres long. A quick decision is made to launch the manned solar survey vessel "Endeavour" towards Rama, since it happens to be in the correct position and the necessary additional rocket propellant can be transferred from three other nearby vessels. But the plan is only barely feasible since Rama is rapidly approaching the inner solar system. Rama will leave the solar system forever after passing less than 20 million kilometres from the Sun. Endeavour nonetheless manages to rendezvous with Rama one month later, while the giant alien spacecraft already is within Venus orbit. The 20+ crew led by commander Norton manages to enter Rama and explore its vast interior, but the nature and purpose of the starship and its creators remains enigmatic throughout the book. Endeavour is finally forced to leave a few weeks later as Rama moves closer and closer to the Sun, but not before the crew has destroyed a 1000-megaton nuclear bomb launched by the space colony on Mercury which suspects that the Ramans may have hostile intentions. Such fears prove unfounded as Rama suddenly changes its trajectory again, performs a very close flyby of the Sun only 0.5 million kilometres from the surface. The "slingshot manoeuvre" increases its velocity to more that 2000 kilometres per second towards the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy some 160,000 light years from Earth... The book was meant to be a stand-alone, although the final sentence of the book hinted that there would be at least two sequels:

And on far-off Earth, Dr. Carlisle Perera had as yet told no one how he had woken from a restless sleep with the message from his subconscious still echoing in his brain: The Ramans do everything in threes.

Clarke, however, denied that this sentence was meant to hint at the continuity of the story - according to his foreword in the book's sequel, it was just a good way to end the book.

Design and geography of Rama

See main article: Rama (spacecraft)

A 3D artist's impression of the interior of Rama.

Rama contains a body of water, the Cylindrical Sea, which wraps around the cylindrical interior "surface" of Rama about halfway between the ends. In the center of the Cylindrical Sea is an island of mysterious purpose, named 'New York' by the astronauts due to its tall towers and visual similarity to Manhattan. The Sea divides Rama into Northern and Southern Hemicylinders; beyond these are the North and South Poles, which are circular walls capping the interior space. The North Pole contains Rama's airlocks; the South Pole contains its drive systems.

Interior view of an O'Neill cylinder showing alternating land and window stripes

Rama is, in design, similar to an O'Neill habitat, with a large cylindrical interior that rotates to provide approximately one g of artificial gravity. Unlike most O'Neill habitat designs, however, Rama is equipped with several space drives, giving it maneuvering capability. Other collections of "buildings" are found on the "surface", arbitrarily named Rome, Peking, Paris, Moscow, London, and Tokyo.

Project Spaceguard

The initial search program that detects Rama in the first two chapters of the book, Project Spaceguard, is a program to detect near-Earth objects on Earth-impact trajectories. It was initiated after a fictional disastrous asteroid strikes Italy on September 11, 2077, destroying Padua and Verona and sinking Venice. A real Spaceguard project, named after the project in Rendezvous, was initiated some years later. After interest in the dangers of asteroid strikes was heightened by a series of Hollywood disaster films, the United States Congress gave NASA authorization and funding to support Spaceguard.

Books in the series

Facing pressure, Clarke paired up with Gentry Lee for the remainder of the series. Lee did the actual writing, while Clarke read and made editing suggestions, which might explain why the focus and style of the last three novels are quite different from those of the original.^[1] There is an increased concern with detailed characterization, with mixed results. The later books have more clearly portrayed heroes and villains, rather than Clarke's dedicated professionals who nonetheless have unusual personal lives by the standards of twentieth-century societies (for example some are involved in polyamorous relationships). These later books have not received the same critical acclaim and awards that the original did.

• Rendezvous with Rama (1972) ISBN 978-0-553-28789-9
• Rama II (1989) ISBN 978-0-553-28658-8
• The Garden of Rama (1991) ISBN 978-0-553-29817-8
• Rama Revealed (1993) ISBN 978-0-553-56947-6

Gentry Lee also wrote two further novels set in the same Rama Universe.

• Bright Messengers (1995)
• Double Full Moon Night (1999)

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

In the early 2000s, actor Morgan Freeman expressed his desire to produce a film based on Rendezvous with Rama. After a drawn-out development process - which Freeman states has been due to difficulties in procuring funding^[2] - it now appears this will indeed be happening. IMDb, as of February 2007, upgraded the status of the project to announced in 2009. The film is to be produced by Freeman's production company, Revelations Entertainment. David Fincher stated in a December 31st, 2007 interview^[3] that he is still attached to direct. The novel is also known to have influenced the movie Alien and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. ^[4]

Other media

A text adventure style computer game based on the book was made in 1984 by Telarium (formerly known as Trillium) and exported to systems such as the Apple II and Commodore 64. Despite its primitive graphics, it had highly detailed descriptions, and it followed the book very closely along with having puzzles to solve during the game. It was adapted from the Clarke novel in 1983 by Ron Martinez, who went on to design the massively multiplayer online game 10Six, also known as Project Visitor. Sierra Entertainment created RAMA in 1996 as a point and click adventure game in the style of Myst. Along with highly detailed graphics, Arthur C. Clarke also appeared in the game as the guide for the player. This game also featured characters from the sequel book Rama II.

Awards and nominations

The novel was awarded the following soon after publication

• Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1974
• Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1973
• Jupiter Award for Best Novel in 1974

References