2001:The Lost Science/Introduction

 

INTRODUCTION 

Adam K. Johnson

In January 1965, while staying at the Harvard Club in Manhattan. Frederick I. Ordway Ill arranged a social meeting with his 'old friend' Arthur C. Clarke. The next day, at Clarke's insistence. Ordway. and his associate Harry Lange, met with famed film director Stanley Kubrick who quickly invited Ordway to be the Senior Science advisor on his proposed new science fiction epic provisionally entitled 'Journey to the Stars'. Within two days. the project that would eventually evolve into the film '2001: A Space Odyssey' emerged from the meeting between the four men.

 In the following 2 I/2 years spent working on the film, Stanley and Frederick worked painstakingly on a daily basis to ensure scientific realism. Working at the zenith of the 'space race' their efforts drew upon the most current space travel 'hard science' available. 

Between January and August 1965, working from Stanley's New York Office "Hawk Films" (also known to the contractors as Polaris Industries). Fred contacted a multitude of companies known to be on the forefront of aerospace technology and asked for their assistance on the film. By Early 1966, over one hundred companies had submitted engineering and design proposals to aid the vision of Kubrick and Clarke. 

This book is intended as a companion to viewing the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as a resource for modern day aerospace engineers interested in how the proposed 21st century technologies might have worked if so implemented. 

Creating the designs for the film involved over 2400 detailed schematics that were drawn 4 x 6 feet or 3 x 5 feet. These drawings were saved as blue-line prints using ammonia based blue ink that replaced the original pencil or ink lines. Over time. this blue ink fades, and if exposed to light, completely vanishes. The U.S. SPACE & ROCKET CENTER archives still possess about 100 of the known existing 200 blue-line prints (in various states of condition) created for 2001.