Voyage to the Planets and Beyond..What did you think?

[hansolo0]

Did anyone watch the program on Discovery Channel last night (may 21) it was about a futuristic fictional trip around the solar system with astronauts in a nuclear powered vessel. The ship took several years on its journey to Venus, the Sun, Mars , Jupiter and Saturn...while interesting in theory to go these places, they did not highlight much of the interesting parts and instead the crew had way too many problems it seemed to me. While I realize all of the problems they had could happen, I mean come on, at practically every destination a serious problem?!! The show would have been better if they concentrated on the triumphs instead of a show where everything goes wrong. <br />They have the technology to land on Venus and do an eva, but then right away the astronaut almost dies. Same thing on IO, then they get all the way to Saturn and send an unmanned probe to Titan and lose it. Finally, they get to a commet and get serious debris damage. I think the creators of the show tried to over-dramatize it to make it interesting, or underscore the risks involved but made it seem boring and not worth the risk. Also, a manned landing on Europa and Titan would have been really cool and they really missed the boat on that , and given the supposed technology we would've had they should have done that. They at least should have shown a unmanned rover on both moons and/or a robotic sub on Europa like I've seen on other programs. .....What do you all think??

 

[Aetius]

I'm really enjoying it right now. I recorded it a little while ago on DVR. A realistically depicted spacecraft doing a tour of the Solar System, with awesome special effects! It feels like Christmas.

 

[thalion]

In defense of its many disaster scenarios, I think that in any mission of this magnitude--a kind of "Around the World in Eighty Days" set in space--that catastrophe would never be too far away. <br /><br />What I liked:<br />--The visuals and special effects, which were quite good for a made-for-TV movie IMO<br />--The fairly realistic acting and interviews<br />--The general concept of the mission, which I think would (and perhaps will) be fascinating, if the technology were ever available<br />--The general information, which I often thought was interesting<br />--The realistic depiction of the kinds of threats deep space explorers would face, like radiation and solar storms.<br /><br />[WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD]<br /><br />What I didn't like:<br />--I have to admit that parts of the show did seem intentionally dramatized. When they reach the comet, it's practically inert, but suddenly it turns into a fragmenting, active deathstorm, and I think that's a little unrealistic (but not quite improbable), especially when they've already mentioned that it was far away from the Sun.<br />--If I know space bureaucrats, no one would have taken a chance like they did with the asteroid--even before the flyby, they knew they would pass within only a few ship-lengths of the asteroid. I know that kind of fudge factor, especially given orbital uncertainties, would be unacceptable, even for science.<br /><br />Ditto for the Io landing, which would be too hazardous a target for human explorers even if we had the technology in the movie, a fact that I'm sure the mission planners would be well aware of before launch. <br /><br />--A solar flyby like the one in the movie would be almost suicidal; I think the risk of a solar flare and general radiation would be too great to justify it even for a gravity assist.<br /><br />--The landing on Mars is implied as being the first in history. However, I think the technology required to pull off a Grand Tour like this is no less than 150-200 years in the fut

 

[Aetius]

I must agree with you. The solar flyby and the Io landing would never have happened in the real world. That nuclear-powered Battlestar Galactica they were zooming around in could have just returned to Earth, and flown to Jupiter another year with a fresh crew. No need to risk so much by such a close solar gravity assist. Landing humans on Io was also brainless. That's the kind of hostile world made for robots to explore, not us cancer-prone humans.<br /><br />All in all, though, I still loved the show.

 

[spacefire]

are they having orgies? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>