Prometheus project 20 years in the making?

tgbyhn

From the Weyland Industries site:

PROJECT PROMETHEUS UNDERWAY

Based on recent classified findings by Weyland researchers, the company determines the exact coordinates of a new destination for long-time pet project: Project Prometheus. New round of investment is immediately opened and mission planning enters full-swing.

JANUARY 1, 2073

The film's setting is in 2093. Are the viral marketing guys off on their timeline? I was left with the impression that the catalyst for launching the Prometheus mission was Shaw's discovery of the star map, and them being able to pinpoint it to a star system. I.E., the mission is ad hoc.

drxs0

The Prometheus Project was actually first established by NASA. It was set up to develop nuclear powered systems for long flights in space. However the project was scraped in 2006 due to funding. So it really isn't that far fetched that it would take 20+ years to make the voyage to LV-223, since it would have been costly. Having exact coordinates of a destination does not necessarily mean that they were going to where Prometheus actually ends up.

But I do see your point. It could be a gaff.

ARC

The Prometheus itself would probably take a wee while to build.

tgbyhn

Hmm... well, expected launch date is listed as 2081 on the WI site. Several sources it's a 2.5 year journey from Earth to LV-223. Several sources state the film begins in 2089, then cuts to them arriving at LV-223 in 2093. Several sources quote the movie as taking place in 2085.

Project Prometheus begins in 2073 with its classified destination pinpointed... but Shaw seems to discover the connection between the star maps in 2089 on the Isle of Skye.

And why does the WI site end at 2073?

As far as ships go...

If they have several dozen colonized planets during the time the film takes place (apparently 63 by 2073), I'd imagine they're churning out interstellar spacecraft on the timeframe and rate of naval vessels/cargo ships today.

FTL ships have existed since 2034 in the Weyland timeline.

The title "Prometheus Project" seems to refer to two separate but same-named projects - the nuclear ion engine technologies acquired by Weyland in the 2010s, and the classified mission to LV-223 in 2081, or 2085, or 2089.

bunnypf

tgbyhn said:

As far as ships go...

If they have several dozen colonized planets during the time the film takes place (apparently 63 by 2073), I'd imagine they're churning out interstellar spacecraft on the timeframe and rate of naval vessels/cargo ships today.

FTL ships have existed since 2034 in the Weyland timeline.

.

Exactly, it's not as though the Prometheus is something special. There could be any other number of ships that are similar or even exactly the same.

NickIsSmart

It's an important mission. I'd be willing to bet that there's something about the ship that's special, even if it's not marked in the design plans.

ummester

NickIsSmart said:
It's an important mission. I'd be willing to bet that there's something about the ship that's special, even if it's not marked in the design plans.

yea, it's got Weyland on it:) Or, if not, he is close by and it is his 'pet project' It will be the finest ship in his fleet, no expense spared.

bunnypf

*

Terraformer

wonder if the M-class starfreighter was created at this time? :D it would be cool if the time line had details about sending out large outer space rigs towed by M-class Starfreighters to collect minerals and ore from distant moons and planets

tgbyhn

Let me be a little more accurate...

2073: Based on recent classified findings by Weyland researchers, the company determines the exact coordinates of a new destination (LV-223) for long-time pet project: Project Prometheus

2089: Elizabeth Shaw makes a link between several ancient reliefs and a cave painting, and the exact coordinates of LV-223 are discovered and the Prometheus mission is launched.

So, 2073 or 2089? Or does Shaw stumble across something Weyland Industries has known about and preparing for for 16 years, and they co-opt her to prevent her from blabbing her mouth to the entire world?

Maybe Weyland was planning to raid the planet for alien tech, and they falsely dress up an existing mission/project to Shaw, "oh yeah, we'll totally fund your alien planet archaeological expedition, here's a bright shiny spaceship and all the bells and whistles... just keep it a secret 'til we get back". When in reality she's just tacked on to keep her shut up about it.

I just don't understand the inconsistency, and can't think of any other way of explaining it. It's either the above, or a contradiction.

I'm thinking it's a contradiction, myself.

roguedesigner

20 years from initial planning to a flight article is believable to me. The Joint Strike Fighter has been kicking around for that long and still doesn't work.

ummester

I noticed that myself and it's why I started generating theories on Weyland setting them up.

Weykand knows it's there and is waiting for someone to resolve it, have faith in it, as such, so that he can send them to activate it and see what happens - without having to endanger himself directly.

tgbyhn

20 years from initial planning to a flight article is believable to me. The Joint Strike Fighter has been kicking around for that long and still doesn't work.

I wasn't really talking about the ship. The timeline says the location of where the Prometheus ends up arriving in 2093 was pinpointed in 2073. Yet the trailers make it apparent the location was pinpointed based on Shaw's discoveries in 2089. So which is it? 2073 or 2089?

Is there a contradiction, or were there independent, coincidental discoveries made from separate efforts, with the Shaw/archaeological people co-opted as tag-alongs?

Weykand knows it's there and is waiting for someone to resolve it, have faith in it, as such, so that he can send them to activate it and see what happens - without having to endanger himself directly.

He could do that anyways. If Weyland Industries pinpointed the destination for Project Prometheus in 2073, he could have sent a ship then without endangering himself.

spacemonkey

simply could be LV 223 was discovered in 2073 and became of interest and pinpointed because it seemed habitable. Shaw makes her findings 16 years later and her star maps show the beings pointing in the vicinity of LV 223. That clinches the mission.

tifosi77

roguedesigner said:
20 years from initial planning to a flight article is believable to me. The Joint Strike Fighter has been kicking around for that long and still doesn't work.

The DoD Request for Proposals on the Advanced Tactical Fighter was issued in 1981. The USAF held a competitive flyoff between the Lockheed YF-22 and the Northrop YF-23 in about 1986 or 1987. The USAF selected the YF-22 prototype as the ATF in 1991. The first operation squadron came online in 2004 or 2005.

Yikes.

The JSF has been relatively speedy by comparison.

kjohnson26

I don't know where you got the 2093 value, please elaborate. The Weyland info seems to indicate 2083 not 2093.

tgbyhn

I don't know where you got the 2093 value, please elaborate. The Weyland info seems to indicate 2083 not 2093.

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&sclient=psy-ab&q=prometheus+2093&oq=prometheus+2093&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_nf=1&gs_l=hp.3...47068.47068.3.47440.1.1.0.0.0.0.86.86.1.1.0.frgbld.&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=87c6230bd8e448f1&biw=1366&bih=667

kjohnson26

That link doesn't do anything.

drxs0

kjohnson26 said:
That link doesn't do anything.

Think they were trying for this one. http://www.totalfilm.com/news/prometheus-footage-reveal-report

kjohnson26

drxs0 said:

kjohnson26 said:
That link doesn't do anything.

Think they were trying for this one. http://www.totalfilm.com/news/prometheus-footage-reveal-report

I think the date of 2093 in that report is likely in error. The Weyland Financial Highlights indicates expected launch for Prometheus to be 2081. I thought that an actual date of 2083 and 2.5 year travel time was mentioned in a trailer or some other document. I doubt that 2093 date. Unless the travel time was 12.5 years instead of 2.5 years, I don't think that things would be that far off from the Weyland website info.

ramp_closing

I seem to remember a few of the viewers corroborating that date.

kjohnson26

ramp_closing said:
I seem to remember a few of the viewers corroborating that date.

Do you mean the 2083 or the 2093 date? That it was corroborated at the screening and q/a?

Appended:

That referenced article also says the flight was 2.5 years.

I think the original dates I was using of Prometheus leaving 2083 and arriving at its destination in 2085 was from a news article at the end of last year or beginning of this year.

Could argue that the Prometheus launched 2081, went somewhere didn't find anything and came back. Maybe went out to another location, didn't find anything and came back. Then Holloway and Shaw found the glyph clues that gave a more accurate destination when combined with whatever info Weyland Corp already had. So the actual mission of the film leaves 2091 and gets to the destination in 2093. Or the viral site is off by 10 years or the date in the referenced article is off by 10 years.

ramp_closing

Empire:
But we start in 2089, on the Isle of Skye in Scotland

Telegraph: Fast-forward to 2093, and these two awake from hypersleep

Total Film: The next scene was set upon the good ship Prometheus in the year 2093

Bleeding Cool: and that it’s the year 2079, maybe 2089.

Prometheusmovie: The footage opens on the Isle of Skye in the year 2089

Cinemart: We are now in 2093, some years after the Isle of Sky sequence

Film Chronicles: Fast-forward to 2083,

BLARGH!

kjohnson26

This is so confused I'm not even going to worry about it.

Appended:

I think the main thing that is likely is that Weyland Corp thought that they had precise info (not from Holloway and Shaw) when they started Project Prometheus, took ten years at minimum to get ready to launch then found out sometime shortly before launch or years later that the original information was wrong or incomplete. Shaw and Holloway supply the missing info within 1-2 years before the Prometheus leaves for the actual destination in the film. I can't see Shaw and Holloway waiting around 10-20 years before leaving on the mission.

tgbyhn

That link doesn't do anything.

http://bit.ly/HPYAvK :)

ummester

He discovered the system in 2039

Weyland astronomers discover multiple moons and a ringed planet just outside the Zeta 2 Reticula System, which are possibly able to support life. Weyland expects to travel there within the century.

He knows where he wants to get to long before Shaw links up all the Starmaps. Why he wants to get there will be one of the films central mysteries, IMO.

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