Rendezvous with Rama, science and politics.

Rendezvous with Rama takes place in a far future (actually, during the year 2130) where some parts of the solar system have been colonised, especially the Moon, Mars, Mercury, Ganymede, Titan and Triton. There representants and the Earth's one meet at United Planet Headquarters, at Luna, a colony on the Moon.

If Rendezvous with Rama would have been written today, this list would probably contain Europe, a satellite of Jupiter. Indeed, it is supposed to be the best place to harbour life in the solar system (Earth excluded). But at a first look, it seems not so viable, with its icy world-wide ocean. I assume that's why there is no colony on Europa in Clarke's book : at this time, it seemed not so hospitable.

There are also some political issues, because the Hermians, as the inhabitants of Mercury are called, want to destroy Rama. Their planet is hot and it is hard for them to leave it, then they are known to be rude. Moreover, they speak short and clearly : they mean exactly what they say. They don't lie : when their ambassador doesn't want to reveal their destruction plans, he doesn't come to the United Planets Headquarters. They are very rational too, and don't want to take any chance, whereas the heroes have more faith in the fate of Rama : finally, they are saved by a Cosmo-Christer.

In the geopolitical context of the cold war, it is easy to think that Hermians represent the Russians, or more exactly the american view of the Russians : excepted that they live in a very cold, and not warm, country, they are also supposed to be rude and very rational (communists wanted to rationaly organise society). Their power was bound to continent as the Hermians can hardly leave their planet. The United States had more maritim power, and so are they represented by the space crews, because space is easily identified with sea : we speak of spaceships, for example. And so, at the end, Rama, the wonderful alien creation, is saved from ruin by a Cosmo-Christer's faith, whereas religion is forbiden in Russia.

Rendezvous with Rama : the story

This science fiction novel has been written by Arthur C. Clarke (who worked with Stanley Kubrick for 2001: A Space Odyssey) in 1973.

One day, some unknown flying object – astronomers call it Rama - comes into the solar system. At the beginning, it seems to be a new comet, but its moves are surprising. Then it appears that this unknown object is not natural, because it is perfectly cylindrical. So solar survey vessel Endeavour, the nearest spaceship, is missionned to go to the comet and to explore it. But the commander Norton thinks that there can be no life anymore, because of the time Rama had to travel to come into sollar system : they should have exhausted all ressources they had at beginning : beeing big for a built object, Rama was still to small to harbor life for millions of years.

Then, the spaceship lands on the huge cylinder, and spacecrews begin to explore it – or more precisely, the inside of it, because it appears that it isn't full. At the beginning, they have to use light and try to explore some part of this small world, and they find nothing as a trace of life, as if Rama was not a dead world but had never been a living one. Than, when the orbit of Rama is nearer from the Sun, three lightning tubes enlight it. The crews are surprised, but it helps them to better understand Rama, because they can see it. Nevertheless, it seems also odd to them that there is no sky (they are inside a cylinder, and the rotation creates a fake gravitation). Moreover, the world seems triply replicated : each thing appears three times.

At the same time, there are some political issues happening. The solar system is partialy colonised, and the representants of inhabited planets are meeting together with scientists into an especially created committee, called Raman Committee, to understand what happens and decide what to do if they have to. When they understand it is from an alien world, they become less quiet and try to understand why it is coming into the sollar system. There is also some new version of the christianism, called the Fifth Church of Christ, which assumes that Jesus Christ was a visitor from space who came to explain that the redemption was coming from the sky. So some of them believe that Rama is some kind of Noah's arch coming to save those who deserve it.

Then, the spacecrews discover robots acting on Rama. They seem to be animals, but they are made from metal. Some looks like carbs with six feet, other like big spider with three feet. The crews doesn't understand what happens, but they see only the crabs, then only the spiders. Scientists of the Rama Committee understand that the robots were created just some time ago, and they think that Rama contains a factory building new creatures, first simple and previsible ones that take care of Rama, and then, later, to build new beeings like the creators of Rama themselves. After a while, they are unexplained electromagnetic phenomenons and Rama changes its orbit.

It makes the Hermians – the inhabitants of Mercury – fear that something happen near from their planet. So they decide to destroy Rama. They build a missile in secret, and then they let some time for the crews to leave the tiny world. But one of them is a Cosmo-Christer, so he doesn't want it to be destroyed : he goes on the missile, and desactivate it before the Hermians can even know it.

Then the crews have to leave Rama, because it is coming to close of the sun. During their return onto the inhabited moon, they see that the cylinder leaves the solar system, and they understand that it had nothing to do with human race.

Project presentation

I'm doing my project about the links between science fiction and reality. Because science fiction speaks about how science can change the world without caring about technical details, it can be inspiring for scientists. There are a lot of examples, like Jules Verne's ideas on travelling to the moon or under the sea.

But science fiction tells us a lot about the hopes and fears of the society of the author. At the end of the nineteenth century, writers began to become a lot more worried about scientific issues ; at this time appeared Dr Frankenstein and his well-known monster.

That's the kind of links I'll try to show during my project. I've began by reading Rendezvous with Rama, which is an Arthur C. Clarke book about an alien object coming into the solar system. It deals with the behavior of human beings faced with the unknown and danger, from wonder to fear and violence.