Weir's The Martian.

[smartcooky]

I remember some of my friends coming back from a dive, all exuberantly proclaiming "It was wonderful! We didn't die!"

For some reason, that sort of endorsement never made me want to take up the sport.

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Lithobraking is a stone, cold killer manoeuvre"

[bknight]

"Lithobraking is a stone, cold killer manoeuvre"

Especially if you calculate the start of the break using feet instead of meters.

[Count Zero]

"If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you."

"Its not the fall for 10,000' that kills you...its the stopping in the last inch."

If you find yourself in such a situation, do the following:
- Straighten your back and limbs.
- Cross your legs with your left leg over your right.
- Place your left hand on your right hip.
- Place your right hand on your left buttock.

This won't do YOU any good, but it will make it easier for the clean-up crew to unscrew you from the ground.

[smartcooky]

Anyone interested in NASA's future plans for Mars or "The Martian", this is a must see. Its a panel discussion at this year's Comic Con in San Diego. The panellists are....

Aditya Sood - Producer of "The Martian"
Jim Green - NASA Planetary Science Director
Todd May - NASA SLS program Manager
Victor Glover - NASA Astronaut
Andy Weir - Author of "The Martian"

Very interesting and well worth the time to watch. The hour just flew by...

[LunarOrbit]

Saw the movie today. It was fantastic! Some parts of the book were cut, but I don't feel like it hurt the story.

[bknight]

Saw the movie today. It was fantastic! Some parts of the book were cut, but I don't feel like it hurt the story.

Notes to put that in the itinerary.

[Dalhousie]

You may think you're joking, but hydrogen/oxygen mixtures (hydrox) and hydrogen/helium/oxygen (hydreliox) mixtures have been used in deep sea diving. As you descend, the O₂ concentration has to be reduced to keep the ppO₂ constant; too high, and you get oxygen toxicity.

Hydrogen has a famously wide flammability range, but it's not 0-100%; it actually tops out at around 96% in pure O₂. So as long as you're deep enough to keep the O₂ concentration well below 4%, you're safe.

Being a former scuba instructor and having no experience with either of those mixtures, it seems likely that sufficient recovery time would be necessary to allow all the H₂ and He to evolve from tissues back to the lungs and then exhaled.  I always wondered why so many people wanted to deep dive nothing much living from 60-90 foot depth.  I guess being an instructor made me more conscious of the dangers involved.

Depends whether or not the life is photosynthetic or not.  Lots of sponge and soft coral reefs below 27 m.

Lots of other things to see as well - deep wrecks, caves etc.

[JayUtah]

Just got back myself from the film.  Capsule review:

Faithful to the book?  Close enough.
Scientifically accurate?  Yes, close enough.
Matt Damon appropriately cast?  Yes.
Other cast good?  Yes.
Exciting?  Yes, even if you've read the book and know what happens.

Spoiler:  Sean Bean's character does not die.

[bknight]

Depends whether or not the life is photosynthetic or not.  Lots of sponge and soft coral reefs below 27 m.

Lots of other things to see as well - deep wrecks, caves etc.

I didn't say there was no life I said nothing much, the preponderance of life is much greater in the 60-90' range, than deeper. Yes there is life that does not depend on photosynthesis and does exist a very deep depths.

[sts60]

Just got back myself from the film.  Capsule review:

Faithful to the book?  Close enough.
Scientifically accurate?  Yes, close enough.
Matt Damon appropriately cast?  Yes.
Other cast good?  Yes.
Exciting?  Yes, even if you've read the book and know what happens.

Spoiler:  Sean Bean's character does not die.

Boromir was OK after all?  Yay!

A good chunk of our local NASA/contractor workforce is going to a special screening tomorrow.  I'll be heading in early to take care of business beforehand.  Should be fun.

[onebigmonkey]

Spoiler:  Sean Bean's character does not die.

Dammit! 

Does he not even get to go to t'foot of yon mountain?

One day someone will trap him in a wet paper bag and challenge him to act his way out of it.

[Zakalwe]

I saw it in 3D the other night, which did absolutely nothing to dissuade me from thinking that 3D has got to be one of the best ways of distracting from a movie.

Overall, it was a bit "meh". I think that the film lots most of the dark humour and genuine laugh-out-loud aspects of the book. The big attraction of the book was how he solved the various problems using science, most of which is lost in the movie. It was a very difficult proposition to transfer to the big screen with the amount of internal monologue.

It was a decent popcorn type of affair. It certainly won't be a movie that will get added to the Blu Ray collection and I doubt if I would be prepared to give it a second watching.

On a side note, I think that now, after Interstellar, The Martian and Saving Private Ryan, Hollywood has spent more than enough money rescuing Matt Damon. The next time that he gets himself in trouble I vote for letting him sort himself out. 

[Dalhousie]

Depends whether or not the life is photosynthetic or not.  Lots of sponge and soft coral reefs below 27 m.

Lots of other things to see as well - deep wrecks, caves etc.

I didn't say there was no life I said nothing much, the preponderance of life is much greater in the 60-90' range, than deeper. Yes there is life that does not depend on photosynthesis and does exist a very deep depths.

The sponge, soft coral (and bryozoan) density can be very high as well.  So lots to see as opposed to "nothing much"  IMHO.

[Dalhousie]

I thought it was a great movie.  Certainly ones one the best more or less realistic space SF movies of the past decade or more.  Also one of the very few good Mars movies (a very under populated field).  Probably the only one that attempts to convey Martian grandeur

Lots to think about and discuss with people on many levels, from life support, human factors, orbital mechanics, habitat, rover and suit design to mission architecture.

4.5/5

[twik]

Spoiler:  Sean Bean's character does not die.

Well, now I've GOT to see it!

He seems to be consciously bucking the trend - he didn't die in Jupiter Rising either, I heard. Maybe it's a new contract demand - "My character shall remain on the right side of the earth when the credits roll."