But in the book, Floyd still hitches a ride to Jupiter with the Russians. They left out the Chinese surface mission though. That would have been great to see.
I still reckon that Oblivion is the best sequel to 2001 which has been made. It is certainly closer to Kubrick’s vision than Clarke’s.
That explains why the prop-making community has such a difficult time recreating some of the props. (although with a fair amount of work, the iconic panel for HAL9000 can be recreated using a mish-mash of parts without having to destroy what is now a vintage camera lens.)
(Although I’m thinking of setting up a mirror system to add throw distance to the next projector I get, kind of what [RedactedCo] did with some of the Christie X5 projectors to make what was essentially a 10 foot wide rear projection TV out of it.)