Ah, the Aries-1B. I made a 2001 mobile for art class in 9th grade back in '71. It had the Aries-1B, Moon Bus, Pan Am Space Clipper, the Discovery was the backbone of the mobile and it even had poor old Frank Poole, floating in space... Such a beautiful future, that was never to be.
I love the detail of the technicians and controllers moving in the various observations bays and control rooms while the ship is landing. Plus, the active flight display screens. Everything was thought out.
Spfx leader of Industrial Light and Magic John Dykstra assisted Douglas Trumbell in 2001. I think it inspired his Dykstraflex computerized camera system .
I just noticed. This shuttle deploys its landing gear.But It is a space station to moon shuttle. It has no reason to retract its landing gear or even have the ability. It will never feel an atmosphere. Too bad 3001 hasn't been made.
In terms of speculating about technology, this part is where the movie was at its weakest. Way too elaborate machinery, and no attempt to simulate 1/6 gravity.
The hardware designers of that movie were decades ahead of their time. E.g. look at the cockpits in Alien 1, Nostromo, it contains thousands of switches. Look at spaceship design now in 2024, hardly any switches to be found, if any.
Imagine our governments spending massive amounts of money to have extraterrestrial infrastructure like this, instead of spending it to drop bombs on people.
The view the Aries pilots has always bothered me: When landing they, the pilots are on their back, basically looking straight up at the sky, yet, when they are nearing the base, you can see the moon's surface out the window. The passengers should have that view - not the pilots.
Have watched this many times over the past 40 years, but just noticed a continuity error for the first time. In all the shots where you can see the Earth it is at a waxing gibbous phase, *except* for the one where there are three astronauts on the lunar surface outside Clavius base. In that one, the Earth is showing a *waning* gibbous phase.