FAQ

It is implied that the alien monoliths have either seeded Europa with the beginnings of life there, or that basic lifeforms (in this case, plantlife) were already present on Europa and thus the monoliths wanted to protect it so that more complex lifeforms would form there.

As Dr Floyd is the central character in this (then) big budget film, the studio most likely wanted to go with a star name rather than a character actor to headline the film. Another reason cited is that: the movie was set nine years after '2001', and Sylvester had aged by 19 years (from 43 to 62 at start of filming for '2010') in the interim.

Every kilogram of fuel (and all other stuff on a spacecraft) takes up storage space, and more importantly; impacts acceleraton. Thus: to bring more fuel, you have to bring even more fuel to get that fuel with you, and then even more fuel to get that fuel with you, and so on... That's why every space mission uses all the "free" acceleration and braking they can get their hands on! No exceptions.

The extra weight of the Discovery would have meant the Leonov wouldn't have had enough fuel to make the return journey. Discovery was being used as the first "stage" similar to real world rockets, a mass that when spent is ultimately disposable to make remaining fuel usage more efficient.

They wanted to teach the humans a lesson by forcing them to set aside their geopolitical differences and cooperate in order to get home safely. If either the Russians or the Americans refused to work together to beat the deadline, both groups would die.

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Three American scientists—Dr Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider) (the scientist held responsible for the failure of the USS Discovery One mission to Jupiter, nine years earlier), Dr Walter Curnow (John Lithgow) who designed the Discovery One, and Dr R Chandra (Bob Balaban) who designed the HAL-9000 computer installed on the Discovery One—join the crew of the Alexei Leonov, a Soviet expedition to Jupiter captained by Tanya Kirbuk (Helen Mirren), to discover what went wrong. Meanwhile on Earth, the U.S. and Soviet Union are on the brink of war.

2010 is a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) (1968) and is based on the 1982 novel "2010: Odyssey Two" by the British science fiction author Sir Arthur C. Clarke. 2010 was adapted for the screen by writer/director Peter Hyams.

Definitely you should! First: 2001 it's a masterpiece. Second: With the understand of what happened with HAL and Dave; this film will be much more enjoyable.

See 2001; and after that, come to 2010 seeking answers.

Yes. After investigation, Dr Chandra discovers that the National Security Council (NSC) ordered HAL to conceal from Discovery's crew the fact that the mission was about the monolith. This conflicted with HAL's program to report analysis "without distortion or concealment", as HAL was a sentient computer, it caused him to suffer a paranoid breakdown.