Jupiter Five

Infobox short story |
name = Jupiter Five
author = Arthur C. Clarke
country = United Kingdom
language = English
genre = Science fiction
published_in = If
publication_type =
publisher =
media_type =
pub_date = May, 1953

"Jupiter Five" is a short story by Arthur C. Clarke first published in 1953. The story deals with the detection and exploration by humans of an alien spaceship in our solar system. There are a lot of similarities between this story and the novel "Rendezvous with Rama", a novel Clarke wrote two decades later.

Plot summary

A distinguished scientist supects that one of the Jovian moons, Jupiter V, is not quite what it seems. His expedition arrives at the moon and discovers it is actually a huge spacecraft. The craft is explored and it is discovered the original inhabitants were reptilian aliens that came to the solar system and coexisted with the insect-like Martians, both races having died out several million years ago. In the spacecraft there are countless artifacts including a statue of one of the reptilian aliens. The celebration of the expedition is interrupted by the arrival of a famous journalist. The journalist has secretly planned to remove some of the artifacts and bring them back to earth in his own spacecraft. The leader of the expedition, though, points out that he has already laid a salvage claim on the alien ship, so nothing can be removed from it. Frustrated, the journalist plans to take some artifacts anyway. Fortunately the members of the expedition drain the fuel from the antagonist's spacecraft and force him to return the artifacts. Eventually the expedition returns home to become highly celebrated.