Heart of Gold (spaceship)

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This article is about the fictional spaceship. For other uses, see Heart of gold.

Heart of Gold is a fictional spaceship in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.

The Heart of Gold as seen in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy TV series
The Heart of Gold from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film, showing a shape derived from a teapot, as opposed to the running shoe described in the book.
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The Heart of Gold from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy film, showing a shape derived from a teapot, as opposed to the running shoe described in the book.

S.S. Heart of Gold is the first prototype ship to successfully utilise the revolutionary Infinite Improbability Drive. It is 150 metres long and has been represented in various shapes, all of them "perfectly white and beautiful". The original radio series did not specify a shape. In the novel adapted from the first four episodes of the radio series, it was described as a sleek white running shoe, which the TV adaptation adopted as a basis for its depictions. Finally, in the recent 2005 movie, it is more spherical with a hole and red brakelights on the rear that form the shape of a heart, a shape derived from a teacup in the brownian motion producer that powers the Infinite Improbability Drive. It also features a mural around the hole which depicts the invention of the Drive. It was built as a secret government project on planet Damogran from where Zaphod Beeblebrox, the then-President of the Imperial Galactic Government, stole it at the launching ceremony.

The ship's cybernetics consist of a new generation of Sirius Cybernetics Corporation robots and computers (including Eddie the shipboard computer and Marvin) with the new Genuine People Personalities (GPP) feature.

In Life, the Universe and Everything, it is revealed that the core of the Improbability Drive is actually the Golden Bail of Prosperity, one of five items that forms the Wikkit Gate. The drive is subsequently stolen by the robots of Krikkit, but is later recovered by Zaphod Beeblebrox and reinstalled.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
By Douglas Adams
Books: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | The Restaurant at the End of the Universe | Life, the Universe and Everything | So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish | Mostly Harmless | Young Zaphod Plays it Safe | The Original Radio Scripts
Media: Radio series (Phases 1 & 2, Phases 3, 4 & 5) | TV series | Movie | Computer game | Differences between versions
Characters: Arthur Dent | Ford Prefect | Zaphod Beeblebrox | Marvin | Trillian |Slartibartfast | Minor characters
Places: List of places | Total Perspective Vortex | Heart of Gold | Wikkit Gate | Starship Titanic | Galactic Empire | Whole Sort of General Mish Mash
Miscellanea: Races and species | The Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything | Babel fish | Bistromathic drive | Cultural references | Infinidim Enterprises | Infinite Improbability Drive | International Phenomenon | Notable phrases | Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster | Point-of-view gun | Somebody Else's Problem field | Sirius Cybernetics Corporation | Vogon poetry | Other miscellanea
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