History
This spaceship is founded on solidly conceived, yet unrealized science. One major concession was made in her appearance for the purpose of reducing confusion, and this was to eliminate the huge cooling "wings" which would be needed to radiate the heat produced by her hypothetical thermonuclear propulsion system. The producer and director Stanley Kubrick thought that the audiences might interpret the wings as meaning that the spacecraft was intended to fly through an atmosphere.
The Discovery One was named after Captain Robert Scott's sailing ship RRS Discovery, which was launched in 1901. Writer Arthur C. Clarke used to visit this ship when she was moored in London. She shares her name with a real spacecraft, the Space Shuttle Discovery (OV-103).
Read more about this topic: Discovery One
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“To summarize the contentions of this paper then. Firstly, the phrase ‘the meaning of a word’ is a spurious phrase. Secondly and consequently, a re-examination is needed of phrases like the two which I discuss, ‘being a part of the meaning of’ and ‘having the same meaning.’ On these matters, dogmatists require prodding: although history indeed suggests that it may sometimes be better to let sleeping dogmatists lie.”
—J.L. (John Langshaw)
“Universal history is the history of a few metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)