2010: A Space Odyssey (or How to Build a Spaceship)

Welcome to the new year, Dear Readers!

To commemorate the arrival of 2010, I decided to travel back in time and seek inspiration from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a classic science fiction by Stanley Kubrick. The result is a 3D model of the iconic rotating spaceship (dubbed Space Station V in Arthur C. Clarke’s book), designed in SolidWorks 2010 by yours truly.

Because I was only concerned with the aesthetics of the spacecraft and not at all with manufacturing requirements (Hey, you didn’t think I could afford to build one of those, did you?), I took some liberties in my treatment of geometry. For example, I turned off collision detection and allowed solid bodies to freely intersect one another.

For the most part, the design was straightforward. It involved extruding profiles (to build the central bridge) and mirroring components (to create identical rotating arms). The tricky part was the back wheel, made up of steel cages that were exposed in part and covered with flanges in others.  To build that part, I relied primarily on patterning methods. For a demonstration of how I tackled these challenges, watch the video below.

Three huge cups of coffee and four modeling hours later (occasionally interrupted by reruns of “CSI: Miami”), I had what I thought was a fairly decent recreation of the spaceship from the movie. (If you’d like to inspect it or improve it, please feel free to download it from 3DContentCentral here.)

The most memorable character in 2001: A Space Odyssey for me was HAL, the onboard artificial intelligence system. Calculating, murderous, and indifferent, HAL symbolized both the best and the worst of technology.

Here’s hoping technology will bring out the best in us in 2010!