After a black monolith was uncovered on the moon, scientists were able to trace the direction of the pulse of energy it sent into deep space to the moons of Saturn. The research ship USSC Discovery One was built and dispatched to see what was 'out there'. With a crew of five, Discovery was highly automated by an artificial intelligence designated as HAL. During the long trip to Jupiter, the three scientists were placed into cryogenic sleep to preserve resources, leaving pilots David Bowman and Frank Poole to tend to operations of Discovery. Since Discovery is over 140 meters long, the ship was equipped with three extra-vehicular activity (EVA) pods which any of the crew could 'fly' and tend to exterior repairs of the ship.