What is the setting of Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke?

Rendezvous with Rama presents the reader with the first encounter between the human race and an entirely alien form of life. The novel shows the possible reaction of human civilization to close encounter with a functional alien artifact. The story highlights the contrasting point of view and the political and cultural reflexes of humankind at different levels.

The initial premises of the story insure that the novel is quite easy to follow. Beside expanding into deep space and colonizing the planets around Earth, the human race seems to have evolved little since the early days of the 1970's. Rama is an alien object that appears unexpectedly in an area of space where human civilization has authority.