Man Conquers Space-New Teaser Options

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First off, not trying to bump new member Steve off, the man who's looking for contributions for his movie; urge all imagesmiths to check out his post here. However, I got curious about the ongoing Man Conquers Space movie project, and found this on YouTube; gave me chills. Worth a look!!!!!!

[RedSky]

Yeah, I ran across this page about a year ago. Scroll down and check out the clip at the end of the page (there are multiple formats & sizes). Fantastic views of the famous von Braun Saturn Shuttle (a la the 1950's Colliers magazine articles).

http://manconquersspace.com/MCSMovieClips.html

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Doug turned me on to it about then as well; sure hope this movie gets made!!! They seem to be making progress.

That new trailer, though...damn, it's powerful. The music is a big part of it; just perfect.

[RedSky]

Don't know if its been discussed here... but besides the "Man Conquers Space" movie theme (i.e., the future isn't what it used to be")... space enthusiast Ron Howard ("Apollo 13", and HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon") has a new Apollo Documentary coming out on Sept 28 in selected theaters. It has gotten rave early reviews. It uses many recent interviews and digitally restored archive footage. Sounds like a winner to see that footage cleaned up to be on the big screen.

http://www.intheshadowofthemoon.com/

[ugordan]

That new trailer, though...damn, it's powerful. The music is a big part of it; just perfect.

I recognized that music score as taken from Peter Kuran's Trinity And Beyond documentary.

[MouseOnMars]

I've just been reading about Colliers in my new Spaceflight magazine.

Of course I've already heard of Von Braun, but I did'nt know about Colliers and the Braun / Ryan articles. Ryan also wrote The Longest Day, and A bridge Too Far historical books that were also made into films, that are a little more in my time. I was born in 1970.

I'm only just beginning to appreciate the pure determination and vision of these people. Presumably after seeing the disaster of WW2, they could see the potential of Space Exploration to galvanise our interests into more productive directions.

In the same issue is an article about Cece Bibby. A graphic artist who painted logo's on the Mercury craft and other missions. A Logo specifically requested by John Glenn before he went into space. But a request that did'nt entirely make his superiors happy (shades of The Write Stuff). They did'nt want to let a woman ... Cece ... up onto the Gantry ! Apparently all the astronauts were pranksters playing jokes on one another. Cece almost got sacked for placing a picture of a naked lady she'd painted in the spaceship periscope for John Glenn to see just before countdown ! I get the feeling this 50 th anniversary is going to be throwing up these endlessly fascinating histories.

I was trying to get a discussion going on the Nasa Space Flight forum, but maybe I phrased it wrong, I don't know. I wonder if the world has a somewhat skewed vision of our 50 year old Space Age at the moment. Something that this "Man Conquers Space" film may address. I keep hearing this "What is the point of the ISS" from some quarters, maybe they're just uninformed. After all we are going through the biggest Paradigm Shift since we first started crawling out of caves, or trees or whatever it was. Some people should really answer these questions a lot better in my opinion. My New Scientist issue points out that if it were'nt for Sputnik then Eisenhower would not have increased funding to Science education. If he had'nt we would probably be living in a very different world.

"Stroll through a University Campus in the US today and notice the dates on the Science buildings. Everywhere you look, much of infrastructure that supports the training of scientists in the US was built in the years immediately after Sputniks flight."

If not, would we have the internet ? Would the 80's have been as they were ?

Actually the "Man Conquers..." film reminds me of the ST: Enterprise episode ... "In a Mirror Darkly", but not because of the "darkly" bit, just because of the "what if" element

MouseOnMars

[Paolo Amoroso]

Of course I've already heard of Von Braun, but I did'nt know about Colliers and the Braun / Ryan articles.

See the Collier's section at Fabio Feminò's science fiction site.


Paolo Amoroso

[MouseOnMars]

Thankyou Paolo !

Here are the publications I was looking at when I was a kid.



More fiction than Science fiction, but no less inspiring to a small boy than those Colliers articles, I guess. Much more about Man's far future and exploration beyond the Solar System. Maybe this is why I always see Mars as some kind of analog of an alien Planet "out there", more than the planet next door, after reading these books.

Interesting political discussion on those pages ( I'm afraid I used google translation, my Italian is a bit basic ). I've only really just begun examining recent history in that light. While the Vietnam war was being fought all these space missions were going on. Mercury, Gemini, Apollo. All those Vietnam films, the history lessons. The philosophical discussions that taught me to agonise over our "war like ways", seemed to forget to figure in the space missions. Political I guess. But I'd hardly say that Von Braun's hopes have been diverted. Maybe a little delayed. The ISS bears a remarkable resemblance to the Colliers predictions, apart from not being a hoop. Apart from Apollo, the other missions have used increasing miniaturisation, computers, robotics, and, I'd argue, a form of "telepresence" not predicted by Colliers or even Von Braun. How many of us sit in our "Astronaut Armchairs" connected to the Rovers, or other probes through the internet ? Of course that can never replace actually being there, but that seems soon to come.

MouseOnMars

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Of course that can never replace actually being there, but that seems soon to come.

Mouse, I wish that I could be believe that was true...but I can't. Those enough old enough to remember Apollo & the national committment to the space program witnessed a massive amount of coordinated & fully supported effort that took the US from suborbital flight capability only to routine lunar landings in just barely more than eight years...and then everything went away, as if it all was just a dream. The current US Moon/Mars initiative is a pale ghost of Mercury/Gemini/Apollo in terms of national goals and public interest, and is consumed by projectitis like almost everything else in government in this era...I frankly don't give it much of a chance the way things are today.

Here's how things were then: My dad, a baker, was so convinced in 1966 that space exploration was THE wave of the future that he mounted a poster of the Solar System on a cardboard backing, and had me learn the planets, not only their distances from the Sun but also in order of size (as understood at the time). I was three years old, couldn't even read yet, loved it, was fascinated by it...still am. But it's not like that today, nor was it after Apollo 11 for many reasons, and that's why achieving these goals is so damn hard now.

This is why I personally feel that Man Conquers Space is a seminally important movie that must be made. Although retro in theme, it will evoke important memories in Baby Boomers, who are now at their peak point of economic and political influence. That brilliant tag line in the new trailer for 2007 in that reality: "There are 6.5 billion humans. 420,000 live off world. There's room for plenty more." Want the BBs to think on that, feel some outrage at a future lost that so many of us of that generation experience from time to time (or constantly!), take some action.

A former American president once asked on a different issue, "If not us, who? If not now, when?" That's the question that millions of people must ask about the human exploration of the Solar System. This movie will help that to happen.

[Stu]

Thankyou Paolo !

Here are the publications I was looking at when I was a kid.

Wow!! We have the same bookshelf!! I devoured those books as a kid... loved the Peter Elson illustrations especially, they've inspired me almost as much as Bonestell's and others. Thanks for triggering some v happy memories!

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BTW, and this is a long shot here except possibly for Emily... ...does anybody have any way of turning Ron Howard and/or Steven Spielberg on to Man Conquers Space? Seems to me that the producers could benefit from some sponsorship at this level...

[djellison]

Ron Howard and/or Steven Spielberg

They'd just ruin it by trying to make it 'appeal' to a 'wider' audience.

Doug

[MouseOnMars]

Mouse, I wish that I could be believe that was true...but I can't. Those enough old enough to remember Apollo & the national committment to the space program witnessed a massive amount of coordinated & fully supported effort that took the US from suborbital flight capability only to routine lunar landings in just barely more than eight years...and then everything went away, as if it all was just a dream. The current US Moon/Mars initiative is a pale ghost of Mercury/Gemini/Apollo in terms of national goals and public interest, and is consumed by projectitis like almost everything else in government in this era...I frankly don't give it much of a chance the way things are today.

Here's how things were then: My dad, a baker, was so convinced in 1966 that space exploration was THE wave of the future that he mounted a poster of the Solar System on a cardboard backing, and had me learn the planets, not only their distances from the Sun but also in order of size (as understood at the time). I was three years old, couldn't even read yet, loved it, was fascinated by it...still am. But it's not like that today, nor was it after Apollo 11 for many reasons, and that's why achieving these goals is so damn hard now.

This is why I personally feel that Man Conquers Space is a seminally important movie that must be made. Although retro in theme, it will evoke important memories in Baby Boomers, who are now at their peak point of economic and political influence. That brilliant tag line in the new trailer for 2007 in that reality: "There are 6.5 billion humans. 420,000 live off world. There's room for plenty more." Want the BBs to think on that, feel some outrage at a future lost that so many of us of that generation experience from time to time (or constantly!), take some action.

A former American president once asked on a different issue, "If not us, who? If not now, when?" That's the question that millions of people must ask about the human exploration of the Solar System. This movie will help that to happen.

I can partly appreciate what you mean. I did not live through the Apollo era, although the first space image I remember seeing (aged 5!) was an artists rendition of the Apollo/Soyuz docking in 1975 with the astronauts joining hands through the airlock.

Maybe you could consider the viewpoint I have that is in some ways the one of the wider, younger generation. I have spent hours scrutinising Mars Global Surveyor images. Something I started in about 2000. So although I have not seen astronauts walking around on Mars, or grand space missions on the scale of Apollo, I nevertheless have lived out my Star Trek inspired space dreams of exploring an alien planet ... to the extent that a kind of telepresence can provide. Did you know that Robert Picardo, who plays the Doctor in Star Trek Voyager is on the advisory panel of the Planetary Society ? That some of those Voyager episodes are masterpieces of popularising Science ? Anyway I digress.

We do not have legions of Astronauts all over the solar system, but what we do have are legions of robotic explorers and telescopes like Hubble. From my perspective this seems entirely pragmatic, and wise. Can we assume what's out there ? Even in our own solar system ? Especially outside the solar system. I wonder if our intermittent human exploration is like that for a reason. Something that, afterall, only started in the 60's. It would be shame if things were permanently set back because we encounter some unknown set back, foolishly pushing forward because we want o fulfil childhood dreams, good as those are. The safer slow route is better in my opinion, we are hardly short of Scientific material in the mean time.

MouseOnMars

[MouseOnMars]

They'd just ruin it by trying to make it 'appeal' to a 'wider' audience.

Doug

You mean Spielberg would put in a sequence where a small little girl is looking sad because the tooth fairy did'nt bring her the full Apollo mission ?

Actually, kidding aside, he probably would over sentimentalise the whole thing. But would that be so bad ? I'm starting to detect the worrying beginnings of a space elite developing if you ask me. The "real space people" who "really" understand what's it's all about ... vs... the Hoi polloi, who "don't understand Science".

Have you watched the Education sections of NASA TV ? The whole thing is geared to a wider audience. I could hardly believe my eye's at one point, as the NASA kids were discussing something and mentioned Jackie Chan. One of them said... "hey, Jackie is my friend, I could get him to visit". Of course we think he's joking, but then a helicopter lands next to where they're talking, and who gets out and says hello .... yep... THE Jackie Chan. He then went on to make a paper space plane that got launched off into the solar system (using effects).

Think I'm making this up ? Ask NASA TV.

MouseOnMars

[djellison]

Oh - I've seen the educational stuff at NASA - but it has VERY little to do with the subject in question here. This is nothing to do with understanding science or some sort of scientific elite - it's about being the intentions of the creator of MCS. It's not a 'story' - it's a 'what if'. It's a documentary of a technically demanding alternate timeline, not a sci-fi drama. It's a very unique work that needs to stand on its own.

Seriously - MCS is a labour of love for the guy making it - it's going to be a beautiful work that doesn't need tampering with by the usual suspects of Hollywood.

Doug