Many folks would like to see us back on the Moon and developing its resources.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Bonestell's Cracked Lava Surface is REAL!!

In a previous post we mentioned the movie "Destination Moon" and the selection of landing site for the spacecraft and the paintings of Chesley Knight Bonestell,Jr..
The landing site was far enough north that a view of Earth would be low enough on the horizon for a camera to see it in the same shot as the horizon.  

Bonestell had been concerned that his painting of the Moon might have shown an unrealistic rendering of the lunar surface with too many cracks.

Before we actually went to the Moon with orbiters, landers, and humans, there had been much speculation about what we would actually find.
Rocky mountains, and dust bowls that would swallow us up. or maybe volcanic action and lava beds with lava tubes.
And then you might want to practice for a landing you had never done before.

There is still much to learn.

Ron sent me some information about our cracked lunar surface which you can read below.
- LRK -
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Harpalus is a young lunar impact crater that lies on the Mare Frigoris, at the eastern edge of the Sinus Roris. To the southeast at the edge of the mare is the small crater Foucault, and to the northwest on the opposite edge is the walled plain named South.

The rim of Harpalus is sharp-edged with little sign of wear or erosion. The wall is not perfectly circular, and has a few outward notches and protrusions, especially along the eastern half. It is surrounded by an outer rampart of ejecta, most notably towards the north, and is at the center of a small ray system. Due to its rays, Harpalus is mapped as part of the Copernican System.[1]

The inner surface is terraced, and flows down to the floor. The interior wall is the least wide along the northern face, making the floor slightly offset in that direction. Near the midpoint is a system of low central ridges.

Popular culture references

Harpalus was the rocket landing site in the 1950s science fiction film Destination Moon. It was chosen by artist Chesley Bonestell as it had a relatively high latitude and the Earth could be realistically displayed at a low altitude during camera shots. However, the resulting clay model depicted crazing (net-like cracks) across the crater floor, an addition to which Bonestell objected.
snip
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Here is what Ron sent me.  Enjoy.
- LRK -

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Date:: Mon, 16 Nov 2015 02:19:31 -0500
Subject:: Bonestell's Cracked Lava Surface is REAL!!
At 01:06 AM 11/16/2015, you wrote:
... However, the resulting clay model
depicted crazing < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazing> (net-like cracks)
across the crater floor, an addition to which Bonestell objected.
snip
The net-like cracks in the floor of Harpalus that Bonestell objected to, and many, many frequent critics also later objected to are actually on the Moon.

But John Archer of the Movie said that the "cracked lava" lunar surface looks nothing like the surface of the Moon. And Bonestell, himself, after the 1969 landing said in reference to the cracked surface: "I tried to make it just as dramatic as I could, and, as a result, it looks ridiculous now. The Moon looks nothing like that".

However, as many of us have pointed out, there are millions and millions of square miles of unexplored territory on the Moon, almost all of which have at least been photographed by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Consequently, the "rush to judgment" of many critics having seen only a small part of the lunar surface has, like everything else, failed to be true.

Here is a shot of the lunar surface from LRO, both photo (M110919730L) and its context location are given (see URL). The photo was taken on the inside of Giordano Bruno crater, and Bruno was burned at the stake! Both locality and namesake therefore meeting a fiery end!

It looks like Bonestell should be completely rehabilitated and given a pardon by many critics, who perhaps are more deserving of Bruno's ending than Bruno himself!

Ron

P.S.: The full URL with Bruno context photo is:

http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/posts/297
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A bit more that Ron noted.  If you have a pair of those Anaglyph 3D glasses. ( red-cyan (or red-blue) for viewing, you may want to down load the file.
- LRK -

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... Bonestell did great work. I have his "Conquest of Space" litho framed on my wall. I always thought the cleverest thing he did in "Destination Moon" was to make the landing site in Harpalus so that the Earth would appear above the horizon. Had any other Hollywood-type  person chosen a site near the equator, the Earth would never have been visible to that camera they had because it could not tilt to a high enough angle. The Earth always appears at the same spot in the lunar sky, apart from a small wobble around the spot, which most people don't realize. At the equator, it is directly overhead. At the poles, you can't see it since it would be below the horizon (unless you stepped away from the exact pole far enough, then you might see the limb, or a larger part of the Earth). Etc.

One sees shots of Taurus-Littrow Valley where Apollo 17 landed, and some artist always sticks an overblown Earth above the mountains. Never can happen. The Earth is too high in the sky there to be seen in conjunction with the horizon. That's why Gene had to squat on bent knees when he took that picture of Jack Schmitt with the flagpole hanger pointing to the Earth (see fig. 58, p. 217, the last Figure in the Apollo 17 section in my 3D book-- you may not have the most recent edition as I have added a dozen of so more photos to the Apollo 17 section--see download URL immediately below).

Ron

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Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
==============================================================
A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings
Harold Hill: A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings (1991)
(glossary entry)


Description

A collection of meticulous drawings and notes of selected small regions of the Moon, by British amateur Harold Hill.

==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

==============================================================

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Harpalus (crater)

In April of 1950 I was 12 and on TV there was Buck Rogers..
In June of 1950 "Destination Moon" showed.
It was based on Robert A. Heinlein's 1947 book, "Rocket Ship Galileo."
When you look at this time after WWII you see the science fiction books continuing the idea of defending the home land, only now we take it to space.

Look up! There is the Moon just waiting to be of use as an outpost where you could launch a weapon.

If the government won't foot the bill, just find someone with deep pockets and build a rocket in your back yard.
When you get there, take a look back at Earth from Harpalus crater

Space in art helped us look up as well.  Check out the paintings of Chesley Bonestell

Chesley Bonestell and the Landscape of the Moon
The purpose of art is to soothe the soul, but sometimes it can predict future realities with uncanny precision.

The links below have a lot of information in their references as well.

- LRK -

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Inline image 1


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Harpalus is a young lunar impact crater that lies on the Mare Frigoris, at the eastern edge of the Sinus Roris. To the southeast at the edge of the mare is the small crater Foucault, and to the northwest on the opposite edge is the walled plain named South.

The rim of Harpalus is sharp-edged with little sign of wear or erosion. The wall is not perfectly circular, and has a few outward notches and protrusions, especially along the eastern half. It is surrounded by an outer rampart of ejecta, most notably towards the north, and is at the center of a small ray system. Due to its rays, Harpalus is mapped as part of the Copernican System.[1]

The inner surface is terraced, and flows down to the floor. The interior wall is the least wide along the northern face, making the floor slightly offset in that direction. Near the midpoint is a system of low central ridges.

Popular culture references

Harpalus was the rocket landing site in the 1950s science fiction film Destination Moon. It was chosen by artist Chesley Bonestell as it had a relatively high latitude and the Earth could be realistically displayed at a low altitude during camera shots. However, the resulting clay model depicted crazing (net-like cracks) across the crater floor, an addition to which Bonestell objected.
snip

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Destination Moon (film)
Destination Moon (aka Operation Moon) is a 1950 American Technicolor science fiction film independently produced by George Pal, directed by Irving Pichel, and starring John Archer, Warner Anderson, Tom Powers, and Dick Wesson. The film was distributed in the United States and UK by Eagle-Lion Classics.

With Destination Moon, George Pal produced the first major U.S. science fiction film to deal with the dangers inherent in human space travel and the possible difficulties of America's first lunar mission landing on and safely returning from our only satellite.

The film's premise is that U.S. private industry will mobilize, finance, and manufacture the first spacecraft to the Moon, while making the assumption that the U.S. government will then be forced to purchase or lease this new technology to remain the dominant power in space and on the Moon. Industrialists are shown cooperating to support the private venture. In the final scene, as the crew approaches the Earth, the traditional "The End" title card heralds the dawn of the coming Space Age: "This is THE END...of the Beginning".[2]
Inline image 2

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Rocket Ship Galileo

Rocket Ship Galileo is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, published in 1947, about three teenagers who participate in a pioneering flight to the Moon. It was the first in the Heinlein juveniles, a long and successful series of science fiction novels published by Scribner's. The novel was originally envisioned as the first of a series of books called "Young Rocket Engineers". It was initially rejected by publishers, because going to the moon was "too far out".[1]

Plot summary

After World War II, three teenage boy rocket experimenters are recruited by one boy's uncle, Dr. Cargraves, a renowned physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project, to refit a conventionally powered surplus "mail rocket". It is to be converted to run on a thorium nuclear pile which boils zinc as a propellant. They use a cleared area in a military weapons test range in the desert for their work, despite prying and sabotage attempts by unknown agents.

Upon completion of the modifications, they stock the rocket, which they name the Galileo, and take off for the Moon, taking approximately 3 days to arrive. After establishing a semi-permanent structure based on a Quonset hut, they claim the moon on behalf of the United Nations.

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Chesley Knight Bonestell, Jr. (January 1, 1888 – June 11, 1986) was an American painter, designer and illustrator.[2] His paintings were a major influence on science fiction art and illustration, and he helped inspire the American space program. An early pioneering creator of astronomical art, along with the French astronomer-artist Lucien Rudaux, Bonestell was dubbed the "Father of Modern Space Art".

http://www.bonestell.org/
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Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
==============================================================
KOKH LUNAR LIBRARY
Welcome to the Kokh Lunar Library of information on the economic development and human settlement of the Moon. Peter Kokh, recipient of the NSS Gerard K. O’Neill Memorial Award for Space Settlement Advocacy, has been publisher and editor of the Moon Miner’s Manifesto for 26+ years and a former President of the Moon Society.
...
==============================================================
A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings
Harold Hill: A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings (1991)
(glossary entry)

Description

A collection of meticulous drawings and notes of selected small regions of the Moon, by British amateur Harold Hill.
...
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

==============================================================

Saturday, November 14, 2015

To the Moon in 2013, no not yet and 2015 is fast closing

Well back in December of 2012 had some posts about expectations for 2013.
Always the questions of What, When, Where, Why, and how.

I think a bit of repetition may be okay so let me list the links to the two I copied to the blog.
To The Moon in 2013

To The Moon in 2013 - stopping off at Mare Crisium

Folks have been looking at the Moon and taking notes and enjoying the looking up,
Much more will need to be done if we actually decide to do this again with humans.

The answers to the questions above will set much activity in motion and success will change our view of humanity.
Earth bound or something more that will inspire our imagination.
- LRK -

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A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings
Harold Hill: A Portfolio of Lunar Drawings (1991)
(glossary entry)

Description

A collection of meticulous drawings and notes of selected small regions of the Moon, by British amateur Harold Hill.
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Mare Crisium
Crisium Basin

(unofficial name; IAU feature name for central 418 km of mare: Mare Crisium )

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When sending humans back to the Moon becomes politically correct and something that catches the attention of the general public, the locations on the Moon need to be looked at for a continued occupation. Both polar regions have been suggested as well as places nearer to the equator.

Polar regions show promise for continued light and communication with Earth.  
Equatorial regions will need to be able to survive two weeks of darkness.
Then their is the question of what kinds of lunar resources will be desirable.

If a long range to continuous use of the Moon is expected will there be a plan that has guaranteed funding until occupation becomes self sufficient?

Starts and stops may provide jobs for some.  
They don't always move us forward to something that will be a continuing benefit to those others that remain Earthbound.

Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
==============================================================
KOKH LUNAR LIBRARY
Welcome to the Kokh Lunar Library of information on the economic development and human settlement of the Moon. Peter Kokh, recipient of the NSS Gerard K. O’Neill Memorial Award for Space Settlement Advocacy, has been publisher and editor of the Moon Miner’s Manifesto for 26+ years and a former President of the Moon Society.
...
==============================================================
Lunar resources utilization for space construction. Volume 2: Study results
by NON
Published April 30, 1979
Usage Public Domain
Topics FILLERS, DYNAMIC PRESSURE, STATIC PRESSURE, GAPS, REUSABLE HEAT SHIELDING, REUSE, SPACE SHUTTLE ORBITERS, SPACECRAFT SHIELDING, TILES, WIND TUNNEL TESTS, COMPUTER PROGRAMS

Year 1979
Language English
Book contributor NASA
Collection nasa_techdocs
...
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

==============================================================

Thursday, October 22, 2015

NASA Spots the 'Great Pumpkin': Halloween Asteroid a Treat for Radar Astronomers

Halloween is coming and maybe you will be out in the Pumpkin Patch with Charlie Brown.

When you look up maybe you can catch sight of asteroid 2015 TB145. (with a telescope)

I think we are getting better at finding these asteroids sooner but a good thing it is going to miss and too bad we can't stick a transponder on it.

- LRK -
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NASA Spots the 'Great Pumpkin': Halloween Asteroid a Treat for Radar Astronomers
October 21, 2015

NASA scientists are tracking the upcoming Halloween flyby of asteroid 2015 TB145 with several optical observatories and the radar capabilities of the agency's Deep Space Network at Goldstone, California. The asteroid will fly past Earth at a safe distance slightly farther than the moon's orbit on Oct. 31 at 10:05 a.m. PDT (1:05 p.m. EDT). Scientists are treating the flyby of the estimated 1,300-foot-wide (400-meter) asteroid as a science target of opportunity, allowing instruments on "spacecraft Earth" to scan it during the close pass.

Asteroid 2015 TB145 was discovered on Oct. 10, 2015, by the University of Hawaii's Pan-STARRS-1 (Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) on Haleakala, Maui, part of the NASA-funded Near-Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program. According to the catalog of near-Earth objects (NEOs) kept by the Minor Planet Center, this is the closest currently known approach by an object this large until asteroid 1999 AN10, at about 2,600 feet (800 meters) in size, approached at about 1 lunar distance (238,000 miles from Earth) in August 2027.

"The trajectory of 2015 TB145 is well understood," said Paul Chodas, manager of the Center for Near Earth Object Studies at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California. "At the point of closest approach, it will be no closer than about 300,000 miles -- 480,000 kilometers or 1.3 lunar distances. Even though that is relatively close by celestial standards, it is expected to be fairly faint, so night-sky Earth observers would need at least a small telescope to view it."

The gravitational influence of the asteroid is so small it will have no detectable effect on the moon or anything here on Earth, including our planet's tides or tectonic plates.
...
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/index.html

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As FOX News reports..
Has YouTube and the JPL orbit image.
- LRK -

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Asteroid the size of Empire State Building to pass incredibly close to Earth on Halloween
A massive asteroid is expected to pass by Earth on Halloween in the closest fly-by since 2006.

NASA discovered the asteroid, dubbed 2015 TB145 on Oct. 10 using Pan-STARRS 1.

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NBC-2 - With YouTube and Ad.

- LRK -

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Asteroid to narrowly miss Earth on Halloween

Posted: Oct 21, 2015 8:09 AM PDT 
Updated: Oct 21, 2015 8:10 AM PDT

(CNN) -- Don't look now, but an asteroid is heading our way on Halloween.

On the other hand, go ahead and look. As it misses Earth by about 300,000 miles (slightly farther away than the moon), the asteroid, named 2015 TB145, will be visible to those with good telescopes -- and NASA, which announced the discovery.

Calling it "one of the best radar targets of the year," a Jet Propulsion Laboratory report on the asteroid said that "the flyby presents a truly outstanding scientific opportunity to study the physical properties of this object."

The asteroid will be traveling through Orion on October 30-31.

It's a good thing it will miss, though. The asteroid is estimated to be 300 to 600 meters wide and traveling at 78,000 mph. By comparison, the meteorite that exploded in the sky over Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 was about 20 meters wide.

...

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Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
==============================================================
Goldstone Radar Observations Planning: 2009 FD and 2015 TB145
...
2015 TB145
2015 TB145 was discovered on 2015 Oct 10 by the Pan-STARRS I survey.  The object will approach the Earth
within 0.00326 au (1.3 Lunar distances or about 490 000 km) on 2015 Oct 31 at about 17:00 UT (10 AM PDT).  
The asteroid is in an extremely eccentric (~0.86) and
high inclination (~40 deg) orbit.  It has a Tisserand parameter of 2.937 hinting that it may be
cometary in nature.  Its absolute magnitude of 19.8 indicates that its diameter is probably within a factor of two
of 320 meters.  At closest approach the SNRs/run at DSS-14 are expected to be over 20000, so this should
be one of the best radar targets of the year.  We hope to obtain images with a range resolution as high
as 2 m/pixel using DSS-13 to transmit and Green Bank (and possibly Arecibo) to receive.  The flyby presents
a truly outstanding scientific opportunity to study the physical properties of this object.

The encounter velocity is 35 km/s, which is unusually high.  

This is the closest approach by a known object this large until 1999 AN10 approaches within 1 lunar distance 
in August 2027.  The last approach closer than this by an object with H < 20 was by 2004 XP14 in July 2006 at 
1.1 lunar distances.  
...
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How asteroids can help us reach Mars

(CNN)If you've read or seen "The Martian," you know that getting humans safely to Mars and back will be a gargantuan task.

Unlike a mission to the moon, which can be done in three or four days, a journey to Mars -- some 140 million miles away -- could take more than six months each way. For a trip that long, astronauts would need to set up a network of supply depots in deep space to refuel their spacecraft.

But how? As crazy as it sounds, one answer is -- asteroid mining.
...
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

==============================================================

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Here is to looking up.

It has been a couple of weeks already since I saw "The Martian" and I was waiting for the book to arrive.  It has arrived! Reading!
I also bought The Sentinel Hardcover – 1983 by Arthur C. Clarke and Golden Apples of the Sun, The Paperback – November 1, 1997 by Ray Bradbury, so I must admit I have had my head in books rather than looking up.

Paul.Slootweg sent me a reminder that you can never be too young to look up. (see below)

I think this is great and certainly what will help us to really make it happen if the kids don't lose the dream by the time they grow up.

Hopefully your school system has some teachers that will help them learn how to turn their dreams into reality.

Build the electric motor out of nails and bell wire. :-)  [as we did in my fourth grade class with Mr. Peavy]


- LRK -
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Per Paul Slootweg -

My son (James) went to a parents evening at my grandson's (Dylan)
nursery (preschool) today.
Dylan will be 3 come next February.

Anyway, one reported exchange with one of the staff goes as follows:

Dylan: "I'm going to the Moon on my rocket."

Staff: "What will you see on the Moon?"

Dylan: "The Earth."

I think it's profound that he can handle that concept already.

(Mind you, he can also name more dinosaurs than you or I can think of!)

By all means share this little tale with the others Looking Up. I'm
mightily proud of both my son and his!
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If you have too much light pollution to actually look up and see much then maybe a substitute is look on-line.

- LRK -

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Inline image 1
The Martian is good and having seen the movie first was enjoyable..
It was fun seeing more detail in the book and the 3D imaging in the Movie was helpful as well.
I hope we get as much detail from real missions to the Moon and Mars, should I live that long. :-)

- LRK -

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5 Big Differences Between The Martian Book And The Movie
BY MIKE REYES

If you're looking for a good time at the movies, The Martian is a steely eyed missile man of entertainment. With a nearly record breaking opening for the first weekend in October, the Ridley Scott directed / Drew Goddard written adaptation of Andy Weir's best-selling novel is pretty faithful to the text. But despite Mark Watney's smart-assed humor and scientific prowess still making the grade, along with the scores of other details most inferior adaptations would forget, there are still five major changes that the film adaptation has made. While these changes don't ruin The Martian at all, they are still big enough that they should be discussed.
  

The Epilogue
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Images from Google search.
- LRK -

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More images of Earth
- LRK -

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Thanks for looking up with me, 
- LRK -
==============================================================

The Sentinel Hardcover – 1983

by Arthur C. Clarke  (Author), Lebbeus Woods (Illustrator)
The story that inspired 2001: A Space Odyssey and other masterworks of science fiction.
...

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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380730391

Golden Apples of the Sun, The Paperback – November 1, 1997


Ray Bradbury is a modern cultural treasure. His disarming simplicity of style underlies a towering body of work unmatched in metaphorical power by any other American storyteller. And here, presented in a new trade edition, are thirty-two of his most famous tales--prime examples of the poignant and mysterious poetry which Bradbury uniquely uncovers in the depths of the human soul, the otherwordly portraits of outre fascination which spring from the canvas of one of the centurys great men of imagination. From a lonely coastal lighthouse to a sixty-million-year-old safari, from the pouring rain of Venus to the ominous silence of a murder scene, Ray Bradbury is our sure-handed guide not only to surprising and outrageous manifestations of the future, but also to the wonders of the present that we could never have imagined on our own.
...
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Wednesday, October 07, 2015

The Martian movie vs book

Well the movie, "The Martian" is out and I have seen it twice.  (science errors and all)
I am still waiting for a copy of, "The Martian: A Novel" to arrive by snail mail. :-)

I have received heads up notes about "The Martian" and how 20th Century Fox version might have been entertaining but strayed some from good science.  Not having read the book yet, I don't have any first hand information how much Andy Weir followed scientific rigor.  His pre-release interviews admits to a few slights for entertainment license so thought I would ask the Internet for some other opinions.

Hmmm, you may find some of the reports of interest.

What I am interested in is seeing what might interest folks that would help in developing the Moon in preparation for being Spacefaring 
Do we want to look in on how we can engineer the problem or look for an Indy 500 car crash.

It wasn't long after Apollo 11 landing that the audience interest dropped off.
Come Apollo 13 problem and much interest.  
Will they make it back, will they be lost, tune in for the 6 o'clock news.
Much like the Saturday Matinee's I attended as a kid, will Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon save the world?


This from the link.
- LRK -
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[Serials were a popular form of movie entertainment dating back to Edison's What Happened to Mary? of 1912. There appear to be older serials, however, such as the 1910 Deutsche Vitaskop 5 episode Arsene Lupin Contra Sherlock Holmes, based upon the Maurice LeBlanc novel,[1] and a possible but unconfirmed Raffles serial in 1911.[2] Usually filmed with low budgets, serials were action-packed stories that usually involved a hero (or heroes) battling an evil villain and rescuing a damsel in distress. The villain would continually place the hero into inescapable deathtraps, or the heroine would be placed into a deathtrap and the hero would bravely come to her rescue, usually pulling her away from certain death only moments before she met her doom. The hero and heroine would face one trap after another, battling countless thugs and lackeys, before finally defeating the villain.

Many famous clichés of action-adventure movies had their origins in the serials. The popular term cliffhanger was developed as a plot device in film serials (though its origins have been traced by some historians to the Sherlock Holmes stories of Arthur Conan Doyle or the earlier A pair of blue eyes by Thomas Hardy from 1873), and it comes from the many times that the hero or heroine would end up hanging over a cliff, usually as the villain gloated above and waited for them to plummet thousands of feet to their deaths. Other popular clichés included the heroine or hero trapped in a burning building, being trampled by horses, knocked unconscious in a car as it goes over a cliff, crashing in an airplane, and watching as the burning fuse of a nearby bundle of dynamite sparked and sputtered its way towards the deadly explosive (at the beginning of the next chapter the endangered character usually simply got up and walked away with only minor scrapes). The popular Indiana Jones movies are a well-known, romantic pastiche of the serials' clichéd plot elements and devices.]
------------------------------------------------------

It will be interesting to read Andy Weir's "The Martian: The Novel" and see if his interest in Sherlock Holmes comes through.
It will also be interesting to see if maybe the movie industry was interested in making a good "Cliffhanger" movie with maybe a bit more budget.
As of October 4, 2015The Martian has grossed $54.3 million in North America and $44.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $98.9 million, against a budget of $108 million.[4][59] 
- LRK -

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"The Martian" and real Martians
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The film adaptation of the bestselling novel "The Martian" opened to rave reviews and a big box office take this weekend, days after NASA also announced evidence of liquid water on the surface of present-day Mars. Jeff Foust examines what effect -- if any -- these events could have on NASA's plans for actual human missions to the Red Planet.
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2837/1

Inline image 1
The Martian movie vs book

Well "The Martian" movie is out and I am still waiting for a copy of the "The Martian: A Novel"
- LRK -

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Book to Screen: ‘The Martian’ Leaves Science on the Page and Goes for Thrills on Screen

BY MATT GOLDBERG

Andy Weir’s self-published novel The Martian became a huge bestseller, and it was a big hit at the box office this weekend. The film also went over big with critics, and is primed to be a potential player in this year’s Oscar race. But for director Ridley Scott and screenwriter Drew Goddard to translate Weir’s book to the big screen, how much did they have to lose, and what did they choose to keep?

Looking at the skeleton of the story, Goddard kept Weir’s book intact. It’s a movie where there’s plenty of subtraction, especially where Mark Watney’s various duties and missions are concerned (more on that later), but Goddard basically condensed the narrative to fit a 130-minute runtime. However, there are no radical changes. Just subtraction.

The biggest removal comes in the third act when in the book, Watney is driving to the Ares IV landing site, and because he accidentally shorted out his communications, he doesn’t know that a storm is coming to make his journey even more difficult. Goddard removes all of this. Watney never shorts out his communications array, and there’s never a dust storm to avoid on the way to Schiaparelli. It’s the smoothest sailing he encounters until he has to launch himself off the planet.

...
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Will let you pick the links if interested.
- LRK -

--------------------------------------------------------------------
5 Big Differences Between The Martian Book And The Movie
BY MIKE REYES

If you're looking for a good time at the movies, The Martian is a steely eyed missile man of entertainment. With a nearly record breaking opening for the first weekend in October, the Ridley Scott directed / Drew Goddard written adaptation of Andy Weir's best-selling novel is pretty faithful to the text. But despite Mark Watney's smart-assed humor and scientific prowess still making the grade, along with the scores of other details most inferior adaptations would forget, there are still five major changes that the film adaptation has made. While these changes don't ruin The Martian at all, they are still big enough that they should be discussed.
 

The Epilogue
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For me, the log book entry scheme let me know what was going without needing to have a third person, talk over announcer.
NASA Mourns Loss of Former Launch Commentator, Jack King
John W. (Jack) King, former chief of Public Information at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, died June 11, 2015 He was 84.
- LRK -

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http://www.space.com/30699-the-martian-movie-space-book-review.html
Does 'The Martian' Movie Do the Book Justice? Yes. Yes, It Does

Movies adapted from successful books don't always capture the magic of the original text — and the calculation- and science-heavy story of "The Martian" seems a particularly tough customer — but the upcoming film does a surprisingly good job conjuring the book's spirit. The new movie, opening Friday, trades some of the book's nonstop danger for glorious Martian vistas and more NASA at work, and I'm not complaining.

As a quick note, this article doesn't spoil major plot points but does discuss the major themes of the book and movie.

The movie "The Martian," is based on Andy Weir's book of the same name, and tells the story of an astronaut who is accidentally left behind on Mars and must struggle to survive. When watching "The Martian," all I could think was that the movie version of protagonist Mark Watney had it easy. Sure, almost everything he does goes sideways and presents a new challenge for him to ponder, calculate and build his way out of. But there are a lot of major problems presented in the book that movie-Watney doesn't encounter while stranded on Mars, and several complicated, clever solutions he never has to devise. [Watch: How to Kill (or Save) a Martian – Author Andy Weir Knows!]

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Another chance to hear from the author of the book.
- LRK -

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Here’s what ‘The Martian’ author had to say about those book-to-movie changes

SPOILERS FOR “THE MARTIAN” BOOK AND MOVIE LIE AHEAD!


Ridley Scott’s adaptation of “The Martian” stays rather true to the novel that inspired the movie. But for you fans of the book about an astronaut stranded on Mars, you may still be wondering about some parts of the book that were altered for the movie.
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Weir told Tech Insider that Goddard and Scott incorporated his feedback into the script.
- LRK -

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http://www.techinsider.io/the-martian-book-versus-movie-scenes-2015-96 amazing plot twists that are missing from 'The Martian' movie
Kelly Dickerson
Oct. 3, 2015, 10:03 PM

When Andy Weir published his sci-fi novel "The Martian," readers praised his attention to detail and scientific accuracy
It's arguably the reason the book became a bestseller and, now, a blockbuster movie.

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The Martian is a 2015 American[nb 1] science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. The film is based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel The Martian, which was adapted into a screenplay by Drew Goddard. Damon stars as an astronaut who is incorrectly presumed dead and left behind on the planet Mars, and who then fights to survive. The film also features Jessica Chastain,Kristen WiigJeff DanielsMichael PeñaKate MaraSean BeanSebastian StanAksel Hennie, andChiwetel Ejiofor in supporting roles.
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I now waiting for book, "THE MARTIAN", to arrive and will see how print reads.
As for going to the Moon or Mars, I think we need to consider if we just want to be entertained for a short time or whether we are ready take on the opportunity to engineer the many exciting problems to become truly Spacefaring .  

Thanks for looking up with me, and ask that youngster if they would like to help "Make it so!"  :-)
- LRK -
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Mars to Stay missions propose astronauts sent to Mars for the first time should intend to stay. Unused emergency return vehicles would be recycled into settlement construction as soon as the habitability of Mars becomes evident to the initial pioneers. Mars to Stay missions are advocated both to reduce cost and to ensure permanent settlement of Mars. Among many notable Mars to Stay advocates, former Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin has been particularly outspoken, suggesting in numerous forums "Forget the Moon, Let’s Head to Mars!"[1] and, in June 2013, Aldrin promoted a manned mission "to homestead Mars and become a two-planet species."[2] In August 2015, Aldrin, in association with the Florida Institute of Technology, presented a "master plan", for NASA consideration, for astronauts, with a "tour of duty of ten years", to colonize Mars before the year 2040.[3] The Mars Underground, Mars Homestead Foundation, Mars One, and Mars Artists Community advocacy groups and business organizations have also adopted Mars to Stay policy initiatives.[4]

The earliest formal outline of a Mars to Stay mission architecture was given at the Case for Mars VI Workshop in 1996, during a presentation by George Herbert titled "One Way to Mars."[5]
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3030477/Is-Nasa-secretly-planning-moon-Expert-says-agency-mount-lunar-mission-going-Mars.html
Is Nasa secretly planning to go back to the moon? Expert says agency will mount lunar mission before going to Mars
  • Science reporter Eric Berger says Nasa is considering moon mission
  • Previously the agency was planning on going straight to Mars
  • Mr Berger says it signals a shift in priorities for the space agency
  • In recent months experts have weighed in on the moon or Mars debate 
By JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 10:14 EST, 8 April 2015 | UPDATED: 10:42 EST, 8 April 2015
The goal instead was to visit an asteroid in the 2020s, and then send a crew to Mars in the 2030s - with no mission to another destination in between.

Recently, Nasa revealed how they plan to do the asteroid mission - by picking up a boulder from a larger asteroid, placing it in lunar orbit, and having astronauts go and visit.

But Mr Berger says that Nasa has been ‘quietly’ considering going back to the moon before going to Mars.

He said that Nasa is, ‘in internal studies, reconsidering the moon, including the lunar surface, for human activities as a significant stepping stone to Mars.’

He continued: ‘William Gerstenmaier, the chief of human exploration for Nasa, does not see the existing plan of a direct, 900-day mission to the red planet as achievable.’

In a tweet Nasa’s Head of Communications, David Weaver, seemingly quashed the significance of the news, saying: ‘Nothing new about #NASA plan to use Moon on #JourneyToMars.’

However, Mr Berger says it is significant, as the agency had previously shied away from saying it was returning to the moon.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -

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Moon and Mars - Videos

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