Arthur C. Clarke and the Mysteries of Oumuamua #SciFiSunday
In Arthur C. Clarke’s classic novel of first contact, Rendezvous With Rama, a cylindrical alien space ship enters our solar system. What unfolds over the course of the novel is exactly what many hoped would happen when the interstellar object that has come to be known as Oumuamua seemed to decelerate when it, like Clarke’s ship, entered our solar system. If it was alien, how would we know? What are we looking for? Where is Rama? Here’s more from Centaur Dreams:
When we’ve discussed interstellar ‘interlopers’ like ‘Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, the science fiction-minded among us have now and then noted Arthur Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama (Gollancz, 1973). Although we’ve yet to figure out definitively what ‘Oumuamua is (2/I Borisov is definitely a comet), the Clarke reference is an imaginative nod to the possibility that one day an alien craft might enter our Solar System during a gravitational assist maneuver and be flung outward on whatever its mission was (in Rama’s case, out in the direction of the Large Magellanic Cloud).
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Meanwhile, I’m reminded of another Clarke novel that rarely gets the attention in this regard that Rendezvous with Rama does. This is 1979’s The Fountains of Paradise (BCA/Gollancz). Although known primarily for its exploration of space elevators (and its reality-distorting geography), the novel includes as a separate theme another entry into the Solar System, this time by a craft that, unlike Rama, is willing to take notice of us. Starglider is its name, and it represents a civilization that is cataloging planetary systems through probes scattered across a host of nearby stars.
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