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| - On October 16, 1997, the Robinson family launches into deep space to colonize a planet around the star Alpha Centauri. The Robinsons have been selected because of their mixture of intelligence, stability and pioneer resourcefulness. The Robinsons are: Professor John Robinson, Doctor Maureen Robinson, and their children Judy, Penny and Will. Also with them is the pilot, Major Donald West. They are equipped with the latest in cybernetic designs, a model B-9 Environmental Control robot.
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| abstract
| - On October 16, 1997, the Robinson family launches into deep space to colonize a planet around the star Alpha Centauri. The Robinsons have been selected because of their mixture of intelligence, stability and pioneer resourcefulness. The Robinsons are: Professor John Robinson, Doctor Maureen Robinson, and their children Judy, Penny and Will. Also with them is the pilot, Major Donald West. They are equipped with the latest in cybernetic designs, a model B-9 Environmental Control robot. Unknown to the Robinsons or Alpha Control, one of the team members, Colonel (Dr.) Zachary Smith, is in reality an operative for a terroristic entity called Aeolus 14 Umbra. He has been planted there to sabotage the Jupiter 2. Several hours before the launch, Smith sneaks aboard and programs the robot to activate at launch plus eight hours and destroy several key systems of the spacecraft including life support, propulsion and guidance. Smith is caught on board by a guard, but catches him unawares with a sharp blow to the neck; the guard is dead, and Smith shoves him through a temporarily-open disposal hatch, where his body lands in a dumpster. Smith leaves the ship. Minutes before launch, Smith boards with the Robinson family, and proceeds below to check on the Robot, seeing a technician working on it again, and then turning it off and stowing the power pack. After the tech advises him to hurry and climbs to the upper deck, Smith quickly sets to work (while the crew is entering their freezing tubes for their long sleep) to make sure the sabotage program is in effect. He attaches the power pack and then is about to climb up when he remembers to activate the robot ("Robot Power On"), and thus is too late as the hatches close in front of him. Smith straps in below and the ship launches. Once well out of the Earth's atmosphere, he flips the Robot Power switch to in between off and on and then climbs to the upper deck; the robot leaves the pedestal to flip the switch to "on" - to avoid the damage an "incompleted circuit" would cause. Smith does not know the robot is back on. Smith tries the radio and shorts out the panel, then the ship veers into a meteor field - Smith hears the incoming radio discussing an extra 200 pounds of weight aboard. He fires a laser at Don's freezing tube and it opens. Don tumbles out, Smith revives him, and Don steers the ship out of the meteor field, then awakens the family over Smith's objection. Maureen reacts badly to reanimation, and Smith attends to her. As they discuss what to do (return to Earth or proceed - Don warns they are way off course), and Don notes it is nearly eight hours from lift-off, Smith notices the robot power is on, and goes to the lower deck and tries prying the power pack off. He trips over a corner, and just then, Don turns off the artificial gravity to repair a piece of equipment. As the gravity comes back on, Smith lands unceremoniously on the deck, and hurries to finally remove the power pack, just as it turns to precisely eight hours, but Will has come down and sees Smith doing the act. Smith contrives a story that Will has acquired a virus and quarantines him, then goes updeck to tell John and Maureen that they must return to Earth to deal with Will's illness. Curious, Will reattaches the power pack, and the robot begins the rampage of destruction. Although Smith is hollering "abort" at the robot, nobody seems to pick up on that later, and only through the combined efforts of John, Don and Smith is the robot stopped. However, the damage to guidance causes the ship to go into hyperdrive, and it flies off into the unknown, rapidly leaving the tracking range of controllers on the Moon. The flight director notifies the president of the situation. The Jupiter 2 wanders through space as Don tries to ascertain their location. He and John are sure the inertial guidance antenna, which is located on the hull over the upper deck, is damaged. Don feels he should do the EVA (NASA parlance for space walk) as he is qualified, but John says Don's place is with the ship; John goes out to fix it, but his relative inexperience with zero G has him stumbling and running into the ship, and then his line breaks. Maureen goes out to shoot a lifeline to John, but it misses him.
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