You might want to have a Spoiler Alert put in the thread title.



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I love sanding.

Sorry TB.

The movie has been out for over nine months now. I thought most of us guys have seen it or read it. This thread is a year old now.

Is it a too late to put up a Spoiler Alert?

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If it flies, I can crash it!

So, I accidentally gave away some spoilers. I did not mean to and will be mindful in the future!

After each viewing, I still have more questions and see more homages. They were cleverly inserted in the movie and I love it when I catch them!

I will read the book to get some of my answers.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

Ehhh...... for a book that's been out over 2 years, a thread a year old, a movie released 9 months ago, and now playing on HBO plus extended scenes DVD released.....

Anyone who hasn't read or watched it by now really can't expect not to accdentally find out who died in Star Wars Episode 7. Uh, I mean, spoilers from The Martian.

Most of what you referred to was in the first chapter of the book, which is FREE at this link:

http://www.space.com/24721-chapter-...he-martian.html

It was reading the first chapter for free that got me hooked.

A lot of other stuff you mentioned, was pre-spoiled in the many and varied commercials and promotional videos.

For those who managed to never see any of that, if they really cared about seeing it enough not for any of it to be spoiled, ought to have read/seen it long ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTMKxvSYWf8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOXVVvBAl1o

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Contest flying, Sport flying, it's all good.....
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How do you spoil something that already stinks?

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Thank's George.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

So....

May I continue with my questions about the movie or not?

I will wait three days for a response.

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If it flies, I can crash it!

Sure go ahead, I'm up for it...

I liked the movie (not sure what Macklin's problem was with it) because it was *fairly* realistic... at least they made the attempt at keeping it fairly close to reality. Agree there were some "uhh..." moments in it. The reason for leaving him behind was particularly weak IMHO...

The surface air pressure on Mars is 1/100 that of Earth-- IOW, the surface wind would have to blow 100 times faster to create the same "sensation" of wind (or force exerted upon an object at the surface) as it would on Earth's surface. IOW, a 100 mph wind on the surface of Mars would feel like a barely perceptible breeze on the surface of the Earth. The idea that it'd "blow over" the spacecraft was pretty ludicrous. BUT, they needed a "reason" for an emergency escape, and in the interests of storytelling and drama...

Another thing that caught my eye was the "fix" for the busted airlock when the modules blew apart. When we left the theater, I tossed Keira (my 11 year old that wants to be the first woman on Mars) my phone, told her to bring up the calculator, and had her figure up the force that would be exerted on that sheet of plastic drop-cloth and duct tape that he had over the blown-out port... assuming even standard lower suit pressure of 5 PSI (typically used in space suits to reduce the effort needed to overcome "inflation" of the suit and move the joints) and a hatch diameter of six feet, as the movie apparently showed, IIRC she calculated it as something like 16,000 lbs of force (or something like that, it's been awhile and I'm not figuring it myself ATM) being held back by *plastic drop cloth criss-crossed with duct tape!* Like I explained to her at the time, "that's like holding up the weight of 4 cars with that sheet of plastic and duct tape". She agreed it wouldn't work. Nevermind the fact that it had to be hermetically sealed to hold atmospheric pressure without leaks overwhelming the system....

Anyway, that was the big things that immediately jumped out at me. Otherwise I thought it was very good... if not entirely accurate. But then, it's not a documentary, it's a FILM, for entertainment, so COMPLETE technical accuracy isn't necessarily a requirement.

At least they didn't have any Atlas's tipping over and flying out of the barn sideways 3 feet above the ground, with Billy Bob Thornton strapped in the Mercury capsule on top getting tossed into a rockpile and he only got banged up...

Later! OL J R

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The X-87B Cruise Basselope-- THE Ultimate Weapon in the arsenal of Homeland Security and only $52 million per round!

Have a flight simulator called X-Plane. It uses real real physics to fly. One option purchased was the Planet Mars optional DVD. The Mars DVD was created from satelites that LIDAR mapped the surface, so you have a fairly realistic mars surface, except at the poles.

What Luke says about the 1/100th atmosphere is very interesting when trying to fly a Mars designed aircraft.

I've been able to takeoff, after about a 10-mile run. Once in the "air" things begin to happen that are to say the least, "interesting"! Airspeed will show 40-mph, when actual is 400-mph.

As you climb out of the Canyon bottoms, yes; landing strips need to be in the low areas, you start to deal with partial pressure, same as you do here on Earth. As you climb higher, to turn is a balancing act. The outer wing has better lift, while the inside-slower moving wing has less lift, in others word sharp turns can stall the aircraft and you spin in.

Another thing that happens even with shallow turns is you loose altitude. Once above one of the mountains, you need to turn very carefully or you will contact the surface. If this happens the resulting crash will take quite some time before you stop. No "air" resistance to slow you down from 600+ mph. With only 38% of Earth's gravity, the surface terrain doesn't slow you down much either. (100lbs Earth weight is 38lbs on Mars)

I have yet to land without a crash. Even if I did, it would take 15-miles to stop, unless you have some kind of forward thrusters...Brakes will overheat.

Crashes usually take over 10-miles distance to come to complete stop.

I'm good at crashing....

BTW-X-plane does have a Saturn V rocket with instructions on how to fly it, as well as a shuttle, and various X-planes you can down load (X-15, X-1, etc.).

Mike

Those are the problems associated with flying the U-2 and its variants at operational altitude. They have a tiny window of flight. A few mph faster than optimum speed and they go mach and rip the plane apart. A few mph slower and they stall. A few thousand feet higher and they stall out. A few thousand lower and they get shot down. Turns are mild, therefore large radius.

Yes, I finally had time to watch the movie on the DVR tonight. I still think a spoiler alert should go at the top of posts discussing plot lines. I don't watch movies at the theater. I don't PPV. Netflix is DVD only. That means it takes a while between the release date and any movie I watch. I finally noticed it on HBOHD the other night and set it up to record.

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I love sanding.