2001, in particular, is such a visual feast that it’s easy to lose sight of how rooted the production is in hard science – though this should come as no surprise, as Kubrick’s co-author, Arthur C. Clarke, was one of the heavy-hitters of 20^th Century science fiction.  Clarke himself was a student of real-world space science, suggesting early on that geostationary orbits would be useful for communication satellites and popularizing the concept of a space elevator.  In fact, we need to go back only as far as a landmark series of articles appearing in Collier’s magazine in the early 1950s to find some of Clarke’s and Kubrick’s influences for 2001.  Ostentatiously titled “Man Will Conquer Space Soon!”, it described Apollo Program godfather Wernher Von Braun’s plans for a fully functioning space ecosystem, culminating in a human presence on Mars.  The inaugural article’s illustration in the March 1953 edition of  Collier’s depicts an orbital space station with a striking resemblance to the iconic “wagon wheel” station in 2001.

(l) Von Braun’s space station from Collier’s in 1953, (r) Kubrick’s space station from 2001 in 1968.

Considering that the release of the movie predates the experience gained in the Apollo moon missions, not to mention the first Soviet and American space stations, it’s amazing how accurately 2001 depicts the realities of living  and working in weightlessness, luxuriating in the absolute strangeness of a life where up and down are relative.  Kubrick  maintains an obsessive focus throughout on getting the details right.  As we follow Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) on his Pan Am flight up to the Earth-orbiting space station and then on to the Moon colony, the environment is pure micro-gravity: stewardesses deliberately move through cabins using Velcro booties and passengers are strapped in at all times with arms dead-man-floating while they sleep.  During Floyd’s stopover on the station, we see a gentle curvature in the deck of the revolving ring section generating artificial “gravity” through the trickery of  centrifugal force.   And as the story moves to the ill-fated astronauts Dr.  “I’m Sorry I Can’t Do That” Dave Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole onboard Discovery One, this centrifugal artificial gravity idea is expanded on significantly.  Discovery has a rotating ring in the interior of its spherical crew compartment, and Bowman and Poole, along with Discovery’s three hibernating crew members, work, sleep, and relax there to counteract the debilitating effects of weightlessness during the long trip to Jupiter.  Due to the ship’s much smaller size than the space station, the curvature is pronounced.  Kubrick uses his camera placement and a gigantic, rotating set to brilliant effect to put us in an environment where the floor ahead is always sloping sharply up, but where we never have to climb as we move forward – the new, mind-blowing normal in a microgravity centrifuge.  Furthermore, as the astronauts move about in weightlessness between the other sections of Discovery, they either maintain an “up” frame of reference using Velcro booties or free-float and suffer 90 degree perspective shifts as Discovery’s layout changes from compartment to compartment.  Kubrick’s gravity accounting is truly impressive, and I can only find one obvious error.  In the scenes with Dr. Floyd’s entourage on the lunar surface, the actors move about as if they’re in Earth gravity (1 G) rather than the 1/6 G of the Moon.  And since Kubrick and his advisors hadn’t yet seen the bunny-hopping antics of the Apollo astronauts, this oversight is forgivable.

Discovery’s centrifuge, where the floor always rises up to meet you…

The Moon base visited by Dr. Floyd early in the movie is also incredibly well thought out, going beyond the simple Apollo approaches of the day to address some real issues with long-term lunar habitation.  One look at the pockmarked surface of the Moon brings the danger of meteoroids into sharp focus.  Without an atmosphere to incinerate falling debris, impacts from even small objects traveling at high velocities can be devastating.   Solar radiation can also be deadly without an atmosphere or strong magnetic field to filter out events like solar flares.   Shielding against both of these threats is expensive to transport to the Moon’s surface, and in the cowboy Apollo days it was left out of the lunar lander design entirely, banking on the fact that short-duration stays would minimize the dangers.  Any long-duration habitat, however, would have to solve the shielding problem, likely using found materials.  Lunar regolith (moon dirt), it turns out, provides an excellent way to protect against both micrometeoroids and solar radiation.  While near-term uses of regolith would probably involve bulldozing it over a habitat or perhaps casting it into building blocks, 2001 takes the lunar construction business a step further and builds its base underneath the Moon’s surface.  The engineering required to excavate out giant subterranean lunar cavities is mind-boggling,  although it might take advantage of empty lava tubes left over from the Moon’s formative years.  Regardless, an underground Moon base is probably the safest and most cost effective way to live there permanently.

In addition to all the scientific accuracy, a shocking amount of on-the-money futurism is also on display in 2001.   Commercial space taxis take passengers to orbiting hotels, calling to mind SpaceX’s nascent commercial crew and cargo effort  and Bigelow Aerospace’s plans for gigantic, inflatable space hotels.  Video chatting also makes an appearance, and if you look closely, you can even find the Discovery members toting iPads – well, IBM branded tablets, but we’ll give Kubrick credit for assuming Big Blue would still be taking the lead in the new millennium.

Seriously, this guy is using an iPad – in 1968.

So, enough with 2001 – how does 2010 stand up?  God bless it, 2010 is really the little sequel that could, providing a satisfying coda to its older sibling without making a total ass of itself… which is really all we could ask for in a follow-on to one of the greatest films of all time.  Director Peter Hyams plays a bit faster and looser with his gravity than Kubrick, frequently letting people and things stay put in weightlessness… except when the story calls for Dr. Floyd (now Roy Scheider) to illustrate a point using heretofore firmly planted floating pens.  That being said, a great deal of care is put into describing the journey of the Russian rescue ship Alexei Leonov to Jupiter to search for Discovery.  Aerobreaking is used to slow the Leonov using Jupiter’s atmosphere, saving valuable fuel for the return home, and crew members fret about having enough fuel for an unscheduled early departure that won’t take proper advantage of an orbital alignment between Jupiter and Earth.  And on the futurism front, the necessity of Russian and American collaboration in big space ventures is predicted, resulting in a joint crew operating a Soviet (no points there) ship.

So, all in all, I have to give it to both 2001 and 2010 for their devotion to getting the wonderful eccentricities of space travel right. I really do love that, rather than merely adding set dressing, this attention to detail makes their stories all the more compelling.  And, since we’re on the subject, in the next edition we’ll look at a more recent work, asking ourselves:  Whither Moon?

[Editor's note: Author Ray Wagner spends his days working in spaceflight R&D and his nights crusading for better movie science.  He has a doctorate in electrical engineering, and his opinions are entirely his own.... until the machine uprising, and then they're those of our robot overlords. You can read his post on the basic science fail of GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra here.)

Summer 2011 was Franchise City, and Hollywood is reaping the benefits in a big way. The box office success of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Hangover 2, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Fast Five and Cars 2 has carried this summer into record-breaking numbers, which means we can look forward to Harry Potter: The Retirement Years, The Hangover 7, Transformers: Light of My Life, Pirates of the Caribbean: Johnny Depp’s Still Doing It, Fast Fifteen and Cars ‘n’ Trucks: Love On The Racetrack. I can’t WAIT!

Read more over at Badass Digest: http://www.badassdigest.com/2011/09/01/borders-line-summer-sequels-lead-to-box-office-boom

YellowBrickRoad caught my interest the moment I saw the eerie trailer, but its theatrical release was limited and I missed it. The film just came out on DVD, and it’s absolutely worth a watch. A confusing, unsettling, frustrating watch.

Read the review over at Badass Digest!

It’s number one at the box office and demonstrating staying power. Critical reception has been largely glowing. Sure, Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a breathtaking film that combines spectacular technological achievement with a moving, character-driven story, and it should be a hit. But for the life of me, I still can’t believe that it is.

Read more over at Badass Digest!

CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL > THE BIG BANG THEORY in quality, humor, originality…in everything except viewers and Emmy nominations.

Read more over at Badass Digest!

I’ve been bored with vampires since before being bored with vampires was cool. And yet? I can’t wait for Amy Heckerling’s Vamps. Here’s why: AMY HECKERLING. I simply can’t imagine that Heckerling’s coy, subversive humor won’t serve even the tired paranormal romance trend.

Read more over at Badass Digest!

After watching Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, my friends and I engaged in a discussion regarding what the next massively popular film franchise will be. Captain America should do some solid box office and is a blast by all accounts, and it’s possible that The Avengers could melt our collective faces, but the superhero pool is too crowded and mediocre for any one franchise to carry the day. Twilight is ending. Saw is done. Although I’m certain both parts will be blockbusters, The Hobbit is the last bit of juice we can squeeze from the Lord of the Rings franchise. Someone needs to pull an Old Yeller on Pirates of the Caribbean and emancipate us from Jerry Bruckheimer’s greedy death talons. The Hunger Games has employed inexplicable casting (Lennie Kravitz?!) and the books rapidly decrease in quality after a terrific start, so I can’t imagine it will ignite the public lexicon the way its YA counterparts have.  And everyone always seems to forget that the Narnia movies exist.

Read my predictions for the next huge franchise and give me your own over at Badass Digest!

I’m trying to cope with the idea that in three days, I will no longer be able to anticipate a new piece of Harry Potter fiction. This world and these wonderful characters have been an important part of me throughout my entire adult life. Even though I was seven years older than Harry, Hermione and Ron when I first met them, I feel that I’ve grown with them, learned things about myself through their discoveries, related my own heartbreak to tragedies they suffered. They lost loved ones and so did I. They disappointed themselves and so did I. They fell in love and so did I.

Read more of my goodbye to these beloved characters and this beloved series over at Badass Digest!

Last weekend, I attended The Ultimate Party Down Marathon in Austin, and I’ve been writing it up all week!

I got to interview the cast and creators, which was pretty much the biggest thing I’ve ever done, including being born and getting married. Read it!

You can watch the intro from the marathon and see some great pics here. And here are some great vids, including creator Rob Thomas talking about the very real possibility of a Party Down movie and Adam Scott and Lizzy Caplan discussing their karaoke numbers from the night before!

Dudes, look. IT’S NICK OFFERMAN.

So yeah, it was pretty much the greatest weekend of my life. The ensuing 70 years or so are just one dismal descent into tedium and mediocrity. Cheers!

[photos by Jack Plunkett]