2001: A Space Odyssey

[Mojochi]

Why does the monolith on the Moon wait so long before sending out its signal to Jupiter?

Am I wrong? I thought it didn't start signaling until someone had touched it? Now, how they excavated it without touching it, is beyond my guess, but I suppose it's possible. The Wiki claims it only starts when sunlight 1st hits it. I'm not sure if either is right

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ That last part (about sunlight) is quite unlikely. Like I said, the monolith must have been exposed for some time. Plenty of time for sunlight to hit it before we see the astronauts approach.

 

[Mojochi]

I suppose it could be touch activated & they somehow didn't touch it until right then, if it had been found in like a pocket during excavation

 

[Ithekro]

Well, it depends. It takes nearly a month for the sun to reach the same point in the sky for the moon as it does for Earth. Meaning if they dug up the Monolith in the prior 28 or so days, it would take a while before it was Lunar Noon over the Monolith's excavation site.

 

[Mojochi]

The problem is, Kubrick doesn't pay any particular focus to sun or sunlight in the scene, per say. For a film where he shows quite a bit of celestial body shots, there isn't one there, of the sun specifically, for what that's worth. In fact, the lighting from the time it's touched, thru when they pose for a photo, up to when it signals, is all pretty consistently dark IMHO, apart from the flood lights present.

That said, Kubrick is often one to veer from the source material as it suits him & his directorial esthetic. It's possible he was altering the intent or disregarding altogether

 

[Guy Gardener]

Am I wrong? I thought it didn't start signaling until someone had touched it? Now, how they excavated it without touching it, is beyond my guess, but I suppose it's possible. The Wiki claims it only starts when sunlight 1st hits it. I'm not sure if either is right

Touched with a bare hand!?

They slapped up a dome, and pumped in some air for Floyd.

 

[Mojochi]

They all had spacesuits on when he touches it

Then they do like a photo op with it

 

[DonIago]

They all had spacesuits on when he touches it

Then they do like a photo op with it

Hey, if I was standing near a big black rectangular rock on the moon, I too would want a selfie.

 

[Tallguy]

Well, it depends. It takes nearly a month for the sun to reach the same point in the sky for the moon as it does for Earth. Meaning if they dug up the Monolith in the prior 28 or so days, it would take a while before it was Lunar Noon over the Monolith's excavation site.

Yes, this is it. It's when the sun reaches it for the first time. And lunar nights are not the same as terrestrial nights. Thanks for the reminder.

It was all very recent. Floyd got there as quickly as he could. The Russian fellow on the space station says it's been ten days since the base cut communication. It was only a couple of days since the Ruskie's (almost certainly faked) shuttle accident.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Well, it depends. It takes nearly a month for the sun to reach the same point in the sky for the moon as it does for Earth. Meaning if they dug up the Monolith in the prior 28 or so days, it would take a while before it was Lunar Noon over the Monolith's excavation site.

Tycho crater's lunar latitude is 43.37°S and the Moon's axial inclination with respect to the ecliptic is only 1.54°. Lunar libration in latitude does not exceed 6.83°. It would not be possible for either the Sun or the Earth to be directly over the monolith.

 

[Mojochi]

I am now mesmerized by this offshoot of the discussion

 

[Tallguy]

I am now mesmerized by this offshoot of the discussion

This is why not only Star Wars is not sci-fi, NOTHING is sci-fi.

 

[Kraig]

Sorry for the bump, but it just hit me:

Why does the monolith on the Moon wait so long before sending out its signal to Jupiter?

I mean, it had to have been uncovered for some time. And I'm sure there were a lot of astronauts hanging around in the area before we see Floyd and his friends go up to it. I wonder, was it waiting for somebody to actually touch it, as Floyd does?

From Wikipedia article on the Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey
The first and second encounters of humanity with the monolith have visual elements in common; both apes, and later astronauts, touch the monolith gingerly with their hands, and both sequences conclude with near-identical images of the Sun appearing directly over the monolith (the first with a crescent moon adjacent to it in the sky, the second with a near-identical crescent Earth in the same position), both echoing the Sun–Earth–Moon alignment seen at the very beginning of the film.[35] The second encounter also suggests the triggering of the monolith's radio signal to Jupiter by the presence of humans,[36] echoing the premise of Clarke's source story "The Sentinel".