{"id":19606,"date":"2015-09-24T17:13:37","date_gmt":"2015-09-24T09:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/reality-check-on-the-martian-movie-from-a-real-astronaut-nerds-rock\/"},"modified":"2015-09-24T17:13:37","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T09:13:37","slug":"reality-check-on-the-martian-movie-from-a-real-astronaut-nerds-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/reality-check-on-the-martian-movie-from-a-real-astronaut-nerds-rock\/","title":{"rendered":"Reality check on \u2018The Martian\u2019 movie from a real astronaut: \u2018Nerds rock\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_201354\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-201354\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-201354 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-martian-620x384.jpg\" alt=\"Matt Damon in &quot;The Martian&quot;\" width=\"620\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-martian-620x384.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-martian.jpg 1055w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-201354\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Matt Damon stars as a stranded astronaut in \u201cThe Martian.\u201d (Credit: Twentieth Century Fox)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe Martian\u201d isn\u2019t due to hit theaters until Oct. 2, but the highly anticipated man-vs.-Mars movie is already sparking some scientific nitpicking. So here\u2019s some advice from NASA astronaut Michael Barratt: Don\u2019t get hung up on what the filmmakers got wrong.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI would just ask everybody to get past that, because there are so many things they got right,\u201d Barratt, a flight surgeon and two-time spaceflier who has been compared to Star Trek\u2019s Dr. McCoy, said during a panel at Seattle\u2019s Museum of Flight.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Thursday\u2019s event was part of the museum\u2019s Mars Week program, which continues through Saturday. The panel discussion, titled \u201cJourney to Mars: Fact or Fiction,\u201d featured NASA program managers who are working on technologies aimed at sending astronauts to Mars and its moons in the 2030s. It also&nbsp;provided an opportunity to gather&nbsp;expert opinions on \u201cThe Martian,\u201d a Ridley Scott movie starring&nbsp;Matt Damon as a stranded astronaut who has to make do on the Red Planet.<\/p>\n<p>The verdict at the museum, based on preview screenings, was definitely thumbs up.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s one of the most science-factual movies I\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d said Doug King, the museum\u2019s president and CEO.<\/p>\n<p>Sharon Cobb, program integration manager for NASA\u2019s Space Launch System, said she loved how Damon\u2019s character MacGyvered his way through adversity. \u201cHe stood up to every challenge,\u201d she said. \u201cHe thought out of the box. He used what he had.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"The Martian | Official Trailer [HD] | 20th Century FOX\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ej3ioOneTy8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sure, you&nbsp;can&nbsp;quibble about the movie\u2019s Martian meteorology:&nbsp;The author of the book on which the movie was based, Andy Weir, acknowledges that he whipped up a fictional windstorm as a \u201cdeliberate concession for dramatic purposes.\u201d In reality, the Martian atmosphere is too thin to generate winds strong enough to knock down an astronaut.<\/p>\n<p>In a Q&amp;A on the Inverse website, Weir also says the movie astronaut\u2019s efforts to extract water were&nbsp;\u201cneedlessly complex,\u201d because it turns out there\u2019s more ice in Martian soil than had been previously thought.<\/p>\n<p>Others have said&nbsp;the radiation threat on Mars would be more serious than depicted, even though data&nbsp;from NASA\u2019s Mars Science Laboratory mission (a.k.a. Curiosity rover) suggests the radiation environment is survivable.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_201355\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-201355\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-201355 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-barratt-620x439.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Barratt on ISS\" width=\"620\" height=\"439\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-barratt-620x439.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/150924-barratt-1240x878.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-201355\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Barratt, a NASA astronaut who was born in Vancouver, Wash., works on a cardiology experiment at the International Space Station during his 2009 tour of duty. (Credit: NASA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Barratt noted that the movie makes no attempt to simulate Martian gravity, which is 38 percent of Earth\u2019s. But to him, that\u2019s preferable to the fake-looking leaps depicted in a far less believable&nbsp;Red Planet flick, \u201cJohn Carter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s most believable about \u201cThe Martian\u201d is the way astronauts, ground controllers and the other members of NASA\u2019s team interact in the movie, Barratt said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of NASA in there, which they captured quite nicely,\u201d he said during an appearance on KING-TV\u2019s \u201cNew Day Northwest\u201d program.<\/p>\n<p>At the museum, Barratt gave an even stronger endorsement \u2014 one that\u2019s sure to warm any space geek\u2019s heart: \u201cOne of the themes of the movie is, No. 1, nerds rock. And No. 2, nerds survive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Matt Damon stars as a stranded astronaut in \u201cThe Martian.\u201d (Credit: Twentieth Century Fox) \u201cThe Martian\u201d isn\u2019t due to hit theaters until Oct. 2, but the highly anticipated man-vs.-Mars movie is already sparking some scientific nitpicking. So here\u2019s some advice from NASA astronaut Michael Barratt: Don\u2019t get hung up on what the filmmakers got wrong. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[367,3962,4550,4450,3963],"class_list":["post-19606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-mars","tag-matt-damon","tag-movies","tag-museum-of-flight","tag-the-martian"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}