Essay on 2001 Space Odissey

The world has experienced very many huge moments, such big moments in which sometimes you don’t think it’s really happening. October 4, 1957, was one of those days. Because that was the day the world changed forever and there was no turning back. It was the day of the Sputnik launch. Sputnik was a Soviet satellite that orbited in the earth’s rotation 500 miles above the earth and traveling at about 18,000 mph. It took approximately 98 minutes for it to rotate the earth which meant it passed the United States seven times a day. It looked like it was from a whole another world or out of a movie or a fantasy story. It consisted of a ball with four stem like structures coming out and pointing down at the ground. The ball like structure

Apollo 13 was to be the third mission sent from the Apollo Project to land on the Moon. An explosion in one of the oxygen tanks caused the spacecraft to become crippled during the flight and the crew were forced to orbit the Moon and return to the Earth without landing. The Apollo 13 mission was launched on Saturday afternoon, April 11, 1970 from launch complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The space prime crew consisted of trained experts Commander James A. Lovell Jr., Command module pilot Ken Mattingly and Lunar module pilot Fred W. Haise Jr. There was also three backup crew members named John W. Young, John L. Swigert Jr. and Charles M. Duke. This crew was ready to step in if for any reason something were to happen to any of the main

     The following paper will analyze the movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick” and “The Centinel” by Arthur C. Clarke. Although there are many themes present between the story and the film, the following are the most dominant. I will be discussing Scientific themes, Religious and Moral Themes, and Clarke’s development of the short story into a full-length film.

Seventy three seconds into its 10th flight, on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger broke apart over the Atlantic Ocean, killing the seven crew members on board [1]. The Challenger was the second space shuttle constructed by NASA and had completed nine successful missions prior to the disaster. Following the accident, the shuttle program was suspended for 32 months as President Ronald Regan appointed a Commission, chaired by William P. Rogers and known as the Rogers Commission, to investigate the cause of the accident [1].

The Space Race was a competition between the Soviet Union and the United States for supremacy in space. From 1955 until 1975, both sides battled it out to be the leader in the competition. Fueled by the Cold War and other causes of the beginning of the race, the Soviet Union and the United States fought for authority in a very public manner through the media. There were many achievements at this time and it led the way for many great things to come afterwards.

It’s cold up there. Cold and inhospitable. It is not easy, and it will take time. These are things the first humans in Africa must have thought of journeys northward. And yet, people still went. They colonized the globe in all its varied environments. When humans first bred dogs and horses, they did not do so to send them into unexplored land in our steed. We did not build crow’s nests on ships to observe and not go. Why is even a question whether humans should go to space? Space is the final frontier that the universe has to offer, and humanity would be remiss not to explore it with their own hands. It’s important to frame the debate. Succinctly, should

Before the causes and results of Kennedy’s decision to land on the moon can be adequately analyzed and discussed, it is necessary to understand the context of his time as President and the events that preceded it. Therefore, I will provide a small amount of context about the Cold War and the situation leading up to Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the moon” speech on September 12, 1962. (Citation).

During the Cold War, the United States and Russia had a severe space race between one another. Every time one country would be a step ahead of the other, and somehow one of the countries would catch up to the more advanced country at the time. During the early years of the space race, success was measured by what nation did what first: To the alarm of the United States, each of the early adventures were achieved by the Soviet Union. And all of those events triggered the United States to drive and catch up with to surpass the Soviet Union. This sort of see-saw method happen throughout the space race. Throughout this paper, there will be a discussion on the space race between the United Stated and

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal before the decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely back to earth.” –Kennedy

The Dawn of Man. Four simple words introduced what is remarked as one of the greatest films of all time. There is no spoken dialogue within the first 25 minutes and the last 23 minutes of the film. “2001: A Space Odyssey” is an ambiguous film. The broad range of audience captures various interpretations of the film. The main theme seems to be about the evolutionary process of mankind interwoven with elements of a higher or extraterrestrial entity guiding this evolution. There are some film theories that suggest this movie was all propaganda used in conjunction with the space race that occurred during World War 2. Some even go as far as to say that the same set used in “2001: A Space Odyssey” was used to fake the moon landing of 1969. However, theories with more evidence suggest that the iconic monolith doesn’t represent aliens or “God”, but instead represents the cinema screen of which we are viewing. The artistic importance of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is derived from its ability procure various conclusions.

Even in space, the encounter with the monolith opens up another part to evolution, represented by Dave as he experiences the evolution. Kubrick uses the monolith in each part as a sign of a new chapter in life. Overall, the successes of human achievement are consistent by the appearance of a façade structure known as “the monolith” which adds on to the evolution of exposing new spices and exposing the avant-garde generation.

Power plays a pertinent part in administration, as it answers the question of who decides. My definition of administrative power deduced from my understanding of longs essay is, the capability to take action/ make decisions on own authority, derived not only from the virtue of your status/ position but, by the number of support gained from within the environment you operate. Government agencies/ organizations operate in an environment where their activities/ policies are greatly influenced not only by constitution (laws and guidelines) but other government branches, interest groups, constituents and the general public at large, thus, in order for administrators to succeed they need power not just to maintain their position but to gain support

The topic that I chose to study up on today is Space Exploration. I have always had a deep love for Space. I have also had many questions and have often found myself day dreaming about what could really be beyond our plant and even beyond our galaxy.

The Goddard Space Flight Center states that there are 2,271 artificial satellites currently in space orbiting the earth. An artificial satellite is a hand-made machine that orbits the planet earth to help in many different ways in communications, documenting information, sending and receiving signals. A satellite is a moon, planet, or a machine that orbit a planet or a star. There are many types of satellites and each one is used for different reasons. Some satellites are used to send and receive television signals. Some other satellites are used in communications by making it possible to send and receive signals from phones, fax, internet and computers to people all over the world. Other satellites are used in forecasting by giving information about the earth’s weather to scientists. Also, there is another type of satellites that take accurate picture of earth to show the environmental situation such as resources, pollution and statistics of crops and water (NOAA, 2014). Satellites improved a lot in the daily life uses such as weather forecasting, documenting information, communication and positioning systems.

One of the greatest unknowns within our human existence is life outside of our known universe; decades of research, teamwork and funding have manifested phenomenal scientific triumphs in the fields of space exploration and aeronautics. The forefront of this “Space Race” arguably began with the Sputnik, a Russian artificial satellite launched in the late 1950’s. Following the launch of Sputnik 1, the genesis of American competitive space exploration built roots in the formation of NASA under the Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration was founded in 1958 under a premise of competitive space exploration and continued discovery of truths residing outside of our existence on planet Earth. NASA externally competes with other teams of space explorers, which primarily includes Russia’s Federal Space Agency, commonly called Roscosmos. However, moving away from Cold War competitiveness and the race to build the biggest and best rockets, NASA has fostered over fifty years’ worth of the most fortified and cohesive teamwork in the fields of science and aerospace engineering.