We Get It Neil Tyson: You Hated "Gravity" (Update)
Mysteries of #Gravity: Why Bullock, a medical Doctor, is servicing the Hubble Space Telescope.
— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) October 6, 2013
Keith’s note: Clearly Dr. Tyson is unaware of the cross training and multiple skills possessed by NASA astronauts. Astronaut Scott Parazynski did a solar array repair on STS-120. He’s an MD. John Grunsfeld did a number of arduous Hubble EVAs involving hardware repairs – no astronomy. He’s an astronomer. Sally Ride (a physicist) was a robotic arm expert as was elementary school teacher Barbara Morgan. Rick Linnehan is a veterinarian and did a Hubble repair EVA (with Grunsfled the astronomer). With one exception, every human who has walked on the Moon doing geology was not a geologist. And so on. There are endless examples of people in the astronaut office trained in one area becoming experts in others. That’s why they were selected in the first place. But Tyson did not bother to do even superficial research before Tweeting. So much for accuracy.
If you read Tyson’s tweets you’ll see that he clearly did not like “Gravity” – a movie that is breaking box office records (a movie that actual astronauts seem to really like). This is rather odd for someone (Tyson) who complains about the way that space exploration is portrayed to the public. The public is speaking with their wallets. He’s not listening.
Alas, it will be interesting to see what nitpicking is done when the reboot of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” comes out – with Tyson as the host. I am certain he’ll have music and sound effects during scenes depicting events that occur in space – i.e. sound in a vacuum – even though its totally inaccurate from a technical perspective.
Keith’s note: Around 1:00 am EDT Tyson tweeted: “My Tweets hardly ever convey opinion. Mostly perspectives on the world. But if you must know, I enjoyed #Gravity very much.” Contrary to his claim, his tweets regularly contain opinion. Usually, that is why his tweets are interesting – unless he’s wrong, that is.
‘Gravity’: Panel of astro-experts on the science behind the film, Entertainment Weekly
“Would she, a medical doctor, have been needed for a spacewalk in the first place?
Leroy Chiao: It’s certainly plausible. It’s not at all uncommon for medical doctors of different backgrounds to be trained for a spacewalk, because if you show an aptitude for that, then it doesn’t matter what your background is, whether you’re an engineer like me or a medical doctor like some of my colleagues. You would be trained to do spacewalks.”
Umm…Keith, not to nit-pick, but wasn’t Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt a Geologist by degree (Ph.D)?
Yes, he was and I was about to say the same thing.
Oops, never mind…I missed your preface “With one exception…”. Sorry, mate.
No one will ever forget Jack!
Schmitt should be known as the first geologist on the Moon. Unfortunately forty years later his twenty-two hours of vital field work is still the only exploration of the Moon that has been done by a geologist.
Wow A laughable comment from a really smart guy.
Obviously NDT doesn’t seem to know very much about our very own American astronauts as many have medical degrees such as Story Musgrave who flew on STS-61 and performed a major part of the first Hubble Space Telescope repair IN space.
I did not mention Story Musgrave because he has done things no normal human – or astronaut – could do 😉
Agreed!
Now I am not saying Story Musgrave is SuperMan, but it is a fact that Story and SuperMan have never been seen in the same room together.
“Best in the business.”
NdT then may have been inspired by Sagan as a kid. But this makes me think that NdT now would be like those in the scientific community who shunned and mocked Sagan for trying to popularise science.
Neil has been providing commentary on “Astrophysics” for years on TV news shows with the by-line, “Astrophysicist,” underneath his name. He has made lots of money profiting from that title. Does anybody care to examine his publication record on NASA/ADS?
He’s more of a science populazier than a research scientist, that is true. But nevertheless he has a number publications to his record. Now whether he is a prolific scientist that is another argument. [http://www.haydenplanetariu…]
Sometimes you just need to leave your engineer hat at the entrance to the theater. I feel bad for those who can’t suspend disbelief for a little while and just enjoy a well-told (and well-acted) story.
Couldn’t figure a better way to say Gravity Makes the Risk in Space Flight seem insurmountable and stupid in public eyes.
Recently reality themed space movies have one common theme, don’t go to space, if you do you’ll probably die there, and they might or might not call you a hero posthumously.
Of course you can stay on earth, and of course, die much more slowly, but you’re still dying!
Indeed, so lets have fun in space!
“a movie that is breaking box office records”
What relevance does this have? You know what other movie broke box office records? That Michael Bay masterpiece, Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
Absolutely.
Actually, as it turned out, he didn’t hate Gravity…
“My Tweets hardly ever convey opinion. Mostly perspectives on the world. But if you must know, I enjoyed #Gravity very much.”
“Perspectives on the world” – another word for an opinion
Btw, Keith, Neil deGrasse Tyson, also tweeted that he enjoyed the movie. I enjoyed the movie as well, but like Dr. Tyson I recognized many of the improbabilities of the plot. He is simply pointing them out.
He tweeted this at 1 am EDT when I was asleep. I added a comment about it at 7 am today.
The answer to NdGT’s lame question was clearly stated in the dialog between Bullock and Clooney early in the spacewalk. I have to paraphrase here, but Clooney asks Bullock why a doctor is up here installing something on Hubble. Bullock replies that she originally developed the thing as a medical sensor and it was adapted for spaceflight. That inferred it requires her present to install-integrate- calibrate the thing or something, since she invented it.
I would suggest to NdGT that if he has any spare time from his busy grandstanding schedule that he read thru the extensive biographies of NASA astronauts at the NASA website, when it comes back on line. Our cadre of Shuttle-era astronaut mission specialists have an incredibly varied academic career roster. PhD’s and MD’s abound. The shuttle pilots and shuttle commanders – the Clooneys- were mostly military fighter jet jocks who crosstrained.
Excellent points.
No space shuttle astronaut ever performed an EVA on any mission while serving in the capacity as either a pilot or a mission commander.
He made some other interesting comments about Gravity, but apparently you cherry-picked his tweets for your article.
DUH That is why I embedded his tweet so you could see his time line.
I have not seen it yet, but a friend said sandra’s tears defy gravity…?
I freely admit to having to grit my teeth and not start preaching about continuity and technology errors when I’m watching the TV or a movie. Generally I persevere because I know that no-one likes a nit-picker..
Wait, there is no sound in space? Damn you,
every Hollywood movie about space….ever.
That’s a good question. It’s a bit of a bummer to see all of manned spaceflight de-orbited by the end of the film, and there’s little in the film to suggest it’s worth rebuilding. Space is essentially reduced to a deadly opponent in the story, and there’s almost nothing offered to support a continued vision of space.
That said, the visceral nature of the film, the kinetic nature of it calls to the adventurers in us, and in an unspoken way draws us towards wanting more of what we’re given.
Perhaps that way lies the real value of the film, and it’s success suggests that the public is still hungry for experiences that lie beyond the terrestrial.
If you hate this movie, then you have never faced tragedy in your own life. You have never come face to face with death.
NdGT should meet Story Musgrave MD aka “Mr. EVA”
All these comments are weird. How can you say that “Gravity” is
believable and that NASA would send someone like the Sandra Bullock character on a space walk to work on the Hubble Space telescope? She’s a medical doctor who spends most of her time in her basement lab. And you compare her to Story Musgrave?
Musgrave was in the U.S. Marine Corps, served as an aviation electrician and instrument technician, and as an aircraft crew chief. He has flown over 17,700 hours in 160 different types of civilian and military aircraft, including 7,500 hours in jet aircraft. He has earned FAA ratings for instructor, instrument instructor, and airline transport pilot. He’s also made over 800 parachute free falls — including over 100 experimental free-fall descents involved with the study of human aerodynamics.
You really believe the Sandra Bullock character with only 6 months of NASA training — a character who has never piloted ANYTHING and gets nauseous and almost vomits in her space suit –, is similar to Musgrave? Just because a NASA astronaut happens to have a medical degree doesn’t mean the movie “Gravity,” or the character Bullock plays, is at all believable. Are you guys serious?
You owe Tyson an apology.
Also, S. Musgrave holds degrees in mathematics, statistics, computer pogramming, chemstry and even literature. Certainly not your common MD. Besides that, he was a pilot about a decade before he got his medical diploma.