Yet another “The Martian” related video: Adam Savage, Astronaut Chris Hadfield, and Andy Weir Talk ‘The Martian’
Category Archives: Mars
Video: Andy Weir – “The Martian: How Science Drove the Plot”
In a good sign that there are likely to be more space movies with realistic-style plots in the coming years, The Martian continues to rack up solid box office numbers – currently at $392,038,124 worldwide. Author Andy Weir has given lots of talks and interviews, many linked from here, but there is always room for another, especially for someone like Weir who gives such entertaining presentations. This video is from a talk this past summer at NASA Ames and was titled, “The Martian: How Science Drove the Plot“
“The Martian” – reviews, politics, music, RR Martin, and more
The film ‘The Martin” is doing great at the box office. My wife and I really enjoyed it (we both liked the book as well). Marvelous story-telling and a beautiful rendering of a wondrous new world.
I agree, though, with this op-ed: The Martian: Please Don’t Bring Him Home – Greg Autry/Huffington Post. It’s extremely unlikely that humans will go to Mars on Apollo style NASA missions of short duration and stupendous cost. The only way to make Mars trips affordable is with heavy involvement of commercial companies. And people will go to the Red Planet to settle it, not just for quick science excursions.
Here are links to a variety of other items about the movie:
* More on the space policy and politics of the movie: Our view: The politics of “The Martian” – Roanoke Times: Editorials
* The Game of Thrones author George RR Martin writes about growing up on Mars (vicariously): George RR Martin: our long obsession with Mars – The Guardian.
* The music of the film: Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’ Makes Disco the New Soundtrack of Space – The Atlantic
* Views of the region on Mars where the action takes place:
- Andy Weir’s ‘The Martian’ Map
- NASA Orbiter Views Sites of Fiction Film’s Mars Landings – NASA JPL
- HiRISE and ‘The Martian’
- MarsTrek at NASA (Mars mapping app)
* Some items about the science and engineering in the film:
- Here’s the real science behind ‘The Martian’ – MarketWatch
- Just how scientifically accurate is The Martian, anyway? Let’s find out · Great Job, Internet! · The A.V. Club
- What happened when a roomful of engineers watched ‘The Martian’ – Public Radio International
* Some reviews you might have missed:
- My Review of the Movie “The Martian” – Dennis Wingo
- The Martian Stands Alone – The Georgetown Voice
- At Last, the Great Martian Movie: More than a century after the first Mars movie, we finally have a really good one – IEEE Spectrum – Sept.30.15
* The trailer is still fun to watch:
Video: Gwynne Shotwell of SpaceX + Dirk Ahlborn of Hyperloop Transportation Tech
Gwynne Shotwell, president of SpaceX, gave a keynote talk at last week’s South Summit entrepreneurial business event in Madrid, Spain. She then participated in a panel discussion titled, Future of connectivity: What can we expect from Space Exploration 6.0.
Her talk starts at about 1hr 31min 15sec into this video. The panel begins at around 1hr 45min
Then Dirk Ahlborn of JumpStartFund and CEO of Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc talked about the Hyperloop concept (see many Hyperloop posts here) and how his “crowdstormed” organization will start building a full-scale prototype system in Central California next year. His talk starts at 2hrs 38min 17sec into the video.
He then participated in a panel discussion titled Trains, Planes, and Drone-o-mobiles-Future of Transportation, starting at around 3hr 0min 35sec.
Video: Perchlorate salts and the availability of water on Mars
In this brief video,
Doug Archer, Planetary Scientist at NASA Johnson Space Center, talks about perchlorate salts, a compound that absorbs water on Mars. Archer addresses how perchlorate can serve as a valuable resource for human exploration missions to Mars in the future.