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Can A Hit Movie Translate Into Support for NASA?

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
November 1, 2013
Filed under ,

Can Gravity’s Thrills Inspire Viewers To Reinvest In NASA?, Forbes
“Despite the popularity of films like “Gravity,” public interest in NASA and space travel appears to be in hibernation. Although movie crews are inventing new technology to explore space on the big screen, Americans’ real-life space program continues to languish. With an estimated budget of $100 million, a multi-year production schedule (it took four and a half years to complete), and minimal interference from Warner Bros., the making of “Gravity” serves as something of a microcosm for what it takes to explore space in the real world: vision, commitment, and a lot of financial backing.”
Keith’s note: It certainly would be nice if there was a boost from the public after seeing “Gravity” for NASA funding. But is giving NASA more money the only option? Private sector initiatives are becoming more bold and commercial options are increasingly capable.
Gravity Review: In Space, Everyone Can Hear You Dream, earlier post
We Get It Neil Tyson: You Hated “Gravity” (Update), earlier post
Two Takes on the Orbital Mechanics in “Gravity”, earlier post

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

25 responses to “Can A Hit Movie Translate Into Support for NASA?”

  1. dogstar29 says:
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    I remember coming to work one day and being thrilled at all the great new equipment we had. Then I realized it was just the crew filming “Armageddon”.

  2. TheBrett says:
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    I doubt Gravity is going to get investors to put more money into space projects. There might be some additional interest in small-scale non-governmental space exploration projects, but I’m not sold on that either, and in any case space exploration needs consistent support more than sporadic one-off support that quickly fades away as the issue drops out of the public eye.

  3. rb1957 says:
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    personally, i hope not. i’d like to think that someone’s motivation came from more than watching a hollywood movie. i wonder if anyone’s taken Imax cameras to the ISS ? that would be an interesting movie.

    • Jim Spellman says:
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      Yep. IMAX has been to ISS. Numerous times. Made into a film called “Space Station 3D” released to museums and sciences center with IMAX screens narrated by Tom Cruise back around 2002 timeframe (and now on DVD/BluRay).
      http://www.amazon.com/IMAX-

      • Brian_M2525 says:
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        Yes, unfortunately that film was created mainly before many astronauts had lived on ISS and before most of the construction. It mainly chronicled the first ISS crew.

    • Brian_M2525 says:
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      There was a plan and a formal agreement to launch IMAX on every Shuttle assembly flight to document the complete construction of ISS but the integration process was so tedious and expensive, and then Columbia, and so IMAX pulled out. Commercial entities do not have the kinds of resources to waste that NASA seems to expect.

  4. Brian_M2525 says:
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    One of the comments I heard after the movie in the theater was “I wonder why it was about Space Shuttle and Space Station. I thought those programs were stopped a couple years ago.” That was in a theater not far from the space center.

    I wonder if the public knows what NASA is even about anymore?

    Of course I am not too certain that within NASA they know what its about.

    Too bad NASA did not have a heads up on this film and work out a campaign to publicize what its been doing for the public lately. I’m sure that theaters near the centers and probably across the US would be willing to play public service announcements between showings, especially if they’d had a movie tie in. I get the impression that the NASA media types are asleep.

    • LPHartswick says:
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      How many people do you think believe we could just whip up a spacecraft to intercept and divert an asteroid like was depicted in the two apocalyptic asteroid movies? Why we have such a robust heavy lift & deep spacecraft capability that we might just be able to manage putting our head between our knees and… well, you know what before impact. I guess that would get the public’s attention, maybe, depending on what Miley Cyrus was doing that week. Oops, I’m getting grumpy again. Sorry.

  5. Dewey Vanderhoff says:
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    Small side issue, but I need some clarity here about the difference between NASA and the private sector in enabling manned spaceflight excitement . Can any of the private commercial manned spacecraft being developed support EVA spacewalks ? Dragon, Dreamchaser, CST-100 , even Excalibur ( Almaz-TKS ) , or …. ??? I think Orion can do it.

    Say what you will about its age, Soyuz has an airlock.

    • Rocky J says:
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      As a publicly funded agency, NASA has the obligation to make public its discoveries and release invention to the private sector. Education and Public Outreach (EPO) also serves to self-promote. NASA doesn’t have to compete for airwaves but the private sector is showing potential to excite the public about human space travel. Mining asteroids robotically sounds exciting but it is meant to (eventually) turn a (big) profit. Discovery and cutting edge exploration of space needs to remain in the hands of a public agency such as NASA. We pay for it but I do not want space discoveries to fall into the hands of the likes of a Larry Ellison (Oracle Corp)- for profit! Private individuals and corporations should not come to own discovery and such knowledge as NASA programs are giving humankind. EVAs – probably Dragon and CST-100. Maybe not D-C. ISS certainly does. The Russians are taking up the Olympic torch to ISS and taking it on a spacewalk in a few days; very cool.

    • DTARS says:
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      Dragon extended trunk airlock needs to be added to NASA’s Spacex Dragon Trunk Program.

    • Paul451 says:
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      ??? I think Orion can do it.

      No, Orion lacks an airlock. It was expected that Orion would depressurise (if needed), like the Apollo CM.

      Given that the depressurised BEAM will fit in the Dragon trunk, presumably a variant could go up as Dragon’s airlock. CST-100 could probably do something similar.

      • DTARS says:
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        A small inflated BEAM airlock is on the back of my suit Paul. These suits are shipped up in dragon trunks. Elon used exo Iron man tech on my arms legs and torso to help with movements when the body suit part is under full pressure.

        We have many of this suits docked to a modified cygnus which is docked to an old Dragon capsule. We use these little space boats for Spaceship construction and Satellite maintance.

        The Tick Pilot

  6. Rocky J says:
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    How does a movie about a NASA mission where everything goes wrong and they survive using Russian and Chinese technology inspire the public? And where one astronaut is flippant and unprofessional and the other quickly reveals the mental fortitude of a high school dropout? I don’t think so. Secondly, astronauts and anyone that has taken a physics course and knows something about manned space programs, recognizes the inconsistencies and incongruities in the film. Ok, that leaves out 99% of US citizens. The plot is appealing because it has two popular actors, some great NASA imagery and good simulations of people in zero gravity.

    Here is an idea. NASA provides the equivalent of World War II news reels to the theaters. Two or three mintues of the latest from Mars, Hubble, Cassini, Exoplanet searches, NEAs in the neighborhood, ISS. This would be great outreach. NASA is a public trust, the information is not political. Two minutes added to previews would, time after time, inspire people in the crowds, all year. Educate and keep them informed! NASA has plenty of room left to improve EPO – Education and Public Outreach. A good cinema Sci-Fi movie arrives only once every 5 or 10 years.

    This is not “Mission to Mars”, the movie that invoked me to blurt in the theater for all to hear – “This movie Stinks!”. And it is not “2001” so it leaves Gravity in the middle with a lot of great Sci Fi and episodes of Star Trek ahead of it.

    You are never going to rise up the masses. What we need is for the space advocacy groups to join together and make a difference.

    • LPHartswick says:
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      I couldn’t agree more.

    • bwohlgemuth says:
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      90 minutes of Sandra Bullock’s heavy breathing and whining doesn’t exactly breathe confidence in the space program.

      • Rocky J says:
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        Yeah, agree. I took out my copy of the Imax 2009 Hubble repair mission after watching Gravity. I prefer the Imax movie. I saw the Hubble Repair and the Imax Space Station (2002) movie at KSC Visitor Center. I’ve looked at the stars since age 8 and was a child that watched Apollo moon landings. Those two Imax movies are very moving and inspiring. Very emotional experience. The 3D journey through the Universe at the end of the Hubble Imax is incredible. The bon voyage moment at the step of the Soyuz launch pad was really moving.

  7. David_McEwen says:
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    I wonder how many people still think the shuttle is flying?

  8. DTARS says:
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    Wouldn’t it be neat if some Good movies that were not about space adventure/exploration/disaster/horror just took place in realistic future settlements in Space or on near by planets or moons. What I liked about 2001 was not the story so much as just SEEING that future. What if we could see how people really would settle the moon or mars or build cities in Space. I want to see the that future! A realistic one.

    Parallel Lines

    PS I took my 25 year old daughter to see gravity and she was hopeing to see some happy Spacex multi planet vision. And when we left the theater She said that was a horror movie 🙁

    Where is the vision?

  9. LPHartswick says:
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    Because of decreased funding; endless stops and starts; all the projects are taking decades to complete. Never mind the endless sniping and bickering among the faithful. You just can’t hold the public’s attention that long. Say what you will about commercial space vs. NASA, one or maybe two launches a year, going around in circles, with a bunch of volks-explorers that no one’s ever heard of, will only excite the lunatic fringe like us. That’s one thing the computer revolution has done for us; it’s given most our children the attention span of a flea. In an ideal world people would set long-term goals for their society; budget appropriately to achieve those goals; and complete them in stages where appropriate. We however don’t live on planet Ideal, we live on planet Earth. Societally when we run into a problem now we stretch it out into the out years to fit within the budget; my father’s generation grab problems by the throat and went after them. If you had a difficulty you double down on it; And pressed until you solved it. That way they completed endeavors in a human timescale; the public could both attend and track accomplishments. And there were real goals.

    Believe me I wish I had an answer for you, but no one is going to get excited watching two guys change out a nitrogen tank; as they “proceed to page 15 – 4 and apply the proper amount of torque in a clockwise rotation”. A certain number of the tasks involved in turning our society into a spacefaring nation just aren’t going to be thrilling, sexy or profitable. That’s why I believe it’s the realm of a government, at least initially, to carry it out. And if we can’t make our leaders understand this and fund it appropriately (again, somewhere north of $22 billion a year at minimum) then we’re going to become just like Portugal.

    • Paul451 says:
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      That’s one thing the computer revolution has done for us; it’s given most our children the attention span of a flea.

      By Apollo 13, before the accident, networks had stopped bothering to pick up the live crosses from the crew. By Apollo 14, they stopped bothering again. People have never really been interested in space.