Space Station V
Space Station V is a fictional space station seen in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is a large, international, rotating wheel space station used as a transfer point from Low Earth ORBit to the moon and other planets. It also functions as an orbital hotel, mostly operated by HILTON Hotels. Rotation of the station provides artificial gravity for people aboard the station. The station contains two docking bays for docking spacecraft and is placed on its rotational axis at the opposite sides of the construction. By the time of events depicted in the film it is still under construction; a second wheel section is being added.
The rotating wheel depicted in the movie traces its lineage back to the wheeled space stations proposed by Wernher von Braun, albeit with a crisper aesthetic sense. The studio model was reported to be eight feet wide (Bizony) or six feet wide (Agel), and stuffed with tiny lights behind the windows. Due to its large size and spidery structure, the model always seemed in danger of breaking apart.