February 2021
The Space Monuments Men
... bronze sculpture of Apollo 13’s Jack Swigert that I remembered seeing in the rotunda of the US Capitol Building while shooting a movie there some 10 years earlier. It didn’t even occur to me to see if there had been monuments to any other Apollo...
January 2023
Private space stations and NASA’s effort to re-invent itself
... the imagination of what might be. The space station depicted in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey gave a dazzling view of such a future... and tests, and other activities such as space movies and advertisement revenues. Indeed, can this market support...
March 2015
Twinkle, twinkle satellite
... his frustration and admiration of it Yet once again, the role of technology is beholden to plot not just in the movies, but also in our heads – hence our continuing, unrealistic treatment of it. Don’t expect films to be scientifically sound. Plot...
December 2014
Terraforming Mars: from CFCs to Total Recall
... generators, which Arnold coaxes back to life. In real life, however, terraforming a planet is not as easy as it made to appear in movies. Turning Mars into another Earth would be extremely challenging for several reasons. We can break these down...
July 2021
Commercial space stations - fulfilling the dream
...better way than you can on Earth. You can, of course, film movies in true microgravity and I know a lot of people are interested –... at the final edit? Well, you can, of course, film movies in true microgravity and I know a lot of people are interested...
February 2016
200 Days in Space: Living in Orbit
...things you don’t get to see in science fiction movies (because they’re usually too busy saving the universe)...- where do we sleep? Again, it’s not as fancy as it is in some movies. We have a little ‘phone booth’ that’s our own personal space, where we ...
