A Novel by Arthur C. Clarke
The asteroid soon to be named RAMA, is discoverd in the year 2131 while still outside the orbit of Jupiter. The starship's speed (100 000 km/h) and the trajectory clearly show that the starship comes from interstellar space. Initial research is via an unmanned space probe launched from the Mars moon Phobos. In a rapid transit past the starship it is measured at 16 kilometers wide and 50 kilometers long and determined to be made of a highly reflective material. Once they determine that the object is rotating rapidly, astronomers realize this is not an asteroid, but is in fact a gigantic space ship.
A manned mission is sent to RAMA, diverted from a solar survey. Since the object is moving rapidly there is only a short window of opportunity for study. The Earth ship, Endeavour, "rendezvous with RAMA" one month after the first sighting of the ship. By this time RAMA is inside of the orbit of Venus. The crew of Endeavour, a crew of more than 20 people, manages to enter RAMA and they explore its vase interior. The leader of the mission, Commander Norton, guides a team in study and exploration, but they fail to identify the reason or purpose behind this vessel.
No lifeforms, other than cybernetic "biots" are found and the biots completely ignore the humans. Since the ship is moving quickly through Earth's solar system, the crew of the Endeavour have only a few weeks to explore. They are eventually forced to leave the ship as it passes so close to the sun that the climate control system cannot compensate for the increasing heat. Rama then is flung out of the solar system toward an unknown location in the Large Magellanic Cloud, using the Sun's gravitational field as a slingshot.
While the book was originally intended as a stand-alone novel, its final words (Ramans always do things in threes) leave room for at least two sequels. Arthur C. Clarke, however, denied that this sentence was meant to hint at the continuity of the story - according to his foreword in the book's sequel, it was just a good way to end the book, and was added during a final revision.
Rendezvous With RAMA, as with many other of Arthur C. Clarke's stories, has had an impact on both technological and popular culture. The geeks amongst us will recognize "Norton Commander" and wonder at the coincidence with Commander Norton. The science describing the orbit through the solar system is accurate, and the use of the name Endeavour for the space ship precedes the space shuttle by decades. In the novel, the Earth government first discovered RAMA through the use of a space protection system called Space Guard. In 1992 the US government used that same name for its early warning system for near earth objects.
Rendezvous With RAMA seems a natural fit for a trilogy of movies, as there were three other books co-written by Gentry Lee with Arthur c. Clarke. There has been a movie in the works for some time by Revelations Entertainment, but it has yet to get off the ground.