I watched Apollo 18 last night

[Jonathan]

Not bad at all, part sci-fi, part horror flick.
A bit predictable, but still fun. They did a
good job of putting the viewer on the surface
of the Moon, and especially cooped up inside
that little LEM.

One question the movie raised for me.
Could the astronauts take off from the
Moon, rendezvous and return to Earth, even
if Houston was actively trying to stop them
from getting back home?

[Sylvia Else]

There were certainly no remote controls. The question is whether the
astronauts can calculate the trajectories without Houston's help. Also,
there'd presumably be no rescue ship at the splash-down point.

Sylvia.

[David Spain]

Sylvia Else wrote:
>
> There were certainly no remote controls. The question is whether the
> astronauts can calculate the trajectories without Houston's help.

Well do we know if there was a contingency upon failure of S-Band comms?
Jorge? That would tell you right there.

> Also,
> there'd presumably be no rescue ship at the splash-down point.

Oh there'd be a ship alright (or a "boat" or some fighters with air-2-sea load
outs).

;-)

Dave

[David Spain]

David Spain wrote:
> Oh there'd be a ship alright (or a "boat" or some fighters with
> air-2-sea load outs).
>
> ;-)

Actually air-to-air makes more sense and easier to target.

Dave

[David Spain]

Jonathan wrote:
> One question the movie raised for me.
> Could the astronauts take off from the
> Moon, rendezvous and return to Earth, even
> if Houston was actively trying to stop them
> from getting back home?

Umm didn't see Apollo 18, maybe will on cable pay-per-view, not sure.

How did they handle the story line of the CM pilot just, well,
saying see you guys (or whatever you are) later....

I'd put the CM/SM's delta-v capability over LM/AM anyday....

Dave

[bob haller]

actually the CM could land on solid ground at the cost of a rough
landing and a crushed capsule

[Brad Guth]

Only with a set of very powerful momentum reaction gyros and good
enough computers controlling all of it's reaction thrusters, and
they'd probably need a lot of extra fuel that wasn't planned on.

[Jonathan]

"David Spain" <nos...@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
news:3PqdnYNYhb3Wu7HS...@giganews.com...

> Jonathan wrote:
>> One question the movie raised for me.
>> Could the astronauts take off from the
>> Moon, rendezvous and return to Earth, even
>> if Houston was actively trying to stop them
>> from getting back home?
>
> Umm didn't see Apollo 18, maybe will on cable pay-per-view, not sure.
>
> How did they handle the story line of the CM pilot just, well,
> saying see you guys (or whatever you are) later....

That would be a spoiler. The ending was pretty good.
It took you by surprise, but was entirely plausible.
Little would offend the more dedicated space fans.

The ending was one of those ...'oh my god that's exactly
how it ..should...happen' moments, when you say to yourself...
"If it'd been me up there, I would've predicted that ending, and
been ready for 'it' to happen.

But I didn't see it coming.

[Sylvia Else]

On 4/02/2012 10:30 AM, Jonathan wrote:
> "David Spain"<nos...@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> news:3PqdnYNYhb3Wu7HS...@giganews.com...
>> Jonathan wrote:
>>> One question the movie raised for me.
>>> Could the astronauts take off from the
>>> Moon, rendezvous and return to Earth, even
>>> if Houston was actively trying to stop them
>>> from getting back home?
>>
>> Umm didn't see Apollo 18, maybe will on cable pay-per-view, not sure.
>>
>> How did they handle the story line of the CM pilot just, well,
>> saying see you guys (or whatever you are) later....
>
>
> That would be a spoiler.

Though for those who don't intend to see the movie, or don't care about
spoilers, the Wikipedia article for the movie contains a plot summary,
including the ending.

Sylvia.

[Robert Clark]

All in all I'd give the movie a thumbs up. I think science fiction
fans would like it best though. It did have some shock moments for
horror fans.
An aspect of the movie I liked is that the mission landed at the
lunar south pole near one of the permanently shadowed craters. There
was some dialogue in fact about not going too far down into the crater
since their suits were not rated for temperatures that low.

Missions to some of these permanently shadowed craters are in fact
being now contemplated since orbital observations suggest these might
have deposits with a high proportion of cometary ice, organic
materials, and minerals that could be used for propellant or to
support a lunar colony.
And since such deposits from comets, which are believed to have
delivered the building blocks of life to Earth, would be preserved in
pristine condition from early in the solar systems history, who knows
what else they could contain ...


Bob Clark

[Jonathan]

"Robert Clark" <rgrego...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:a4326d83-f253-4451...@t2g2000yqk.googlegroups.com...

On Feb 3, 8:39 pm, Sylvia Else <syl...@not.here.invalid> wrote:
> On 4/02/2012 10:30 AM, Jonathan wrote:
>
> > "David Spain"<nos...@127.0.0.1> wrote in message
> >news:3PqdnYNYhb3Wu7HS...@giganews.com...
> >> Jonathan wrote:
> >>> One question the movie raised for me.
> >>> Could the astronauts take off from the
> >>> Moon, rendezvous and return to Earth, even
> >>> if Houston was actively trying to stop them
> >>> from getting back home?
>
> >> Umm didn't see Apollo 18, maybe will on cable pay-per-view, not sure.
>
> >> How did they handle the story line of the CM pilot just, well,
> >> saying see you guys (or whatever you are) later....
>
> > That would be a spoiler.
>
> Though for those who don't intend to see the movie, or don't care about
> spoilers, the Wikipedia article for the movie contains a plot summary,
> including the ending.
>
> Sylvia.

>And since such deposits from comets, which are believed to have
>delivered the building blocks of life to Earth, would be preserved in
>pristine condition from early in the solar systems history, who knows
> what else they could contain ...

It seems so hard to imagine life on the Moon, but I think
the ultimate initial condition for life is just some kind of
persistant energy gradient. Life and self organization thrives
from changes in state.


> Bob Clark

[B0b Mosley]

...I downloaded a really good-quality Russian copy of this off the
torrents when it premiered. It has sat in the downloads folder,
unwatched, ever since. I suspect someone'll chop it up into 15 minute
segments and throw it up - literally and expurgorically - on YouTube
in a month or three. Then I'll download a low-rez reference copy,
throw it into my YouTube Space History clip archive under the Apollo
Missions section under an "Apollo 18" folder, where it will remain
unwatched for an indefinite time. After reading the reviews and the
Movie Spoiler synop, I wouldn't pass up two hours of ABC's pathetic
coverage of the JFK Assassination - considering the most bumbling
network catastrophy coverage in US TV history - to watch even the last
20 minutes of this mess where all the action is supposed to take
place.

Living lunar regolith. Has anyone bothered to call Steve Baxter and
tell him to inquire as to whether the choads who made this mess ever
read "Anti-Ice"?

[shakes head in utter dismay, but not enough to cause dizziness]

OM

[Jonathan]

"B0b Mosley" <b0bmo...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:60124652-31f3-4c99...@hb4g2000vbb.googlegroups.com...

> ...I downloaded a really good-quality Russian copy of this off the
> torrents when it premiered. It has sat in the downloads folder,
> unwatched, ever since. I suspect someone'll chop it up into 15 minute
> segments and throw it up - literally and expurgorically - on YouTube
> in a month or three. Then I'll download a low-rez reference copy,
> throw it into my YouTube Space History clip archive under the Apollo
> Missions section under an "Apollo 18" folder, where it will remain
> unwatched for an indefinite time. After reading the reviews and the
> Movie Spoiler synop,

Why would anyone want to read the plot details first
unless they wanted to dislike something?
That takes all the fun out of it.

>I wouldn't pass up two hours of ABC's pathetic
> coverage of the JFK Assassination - considering the most bumbling
> network catastrophy coverage in US TV history - to watch even the last
> 20 minutes of this mess where all the action is supposed to take
> place.

Sometimes the idea of a movie or book is just the few hours
immersed in some other place or time. To do that a movie
doesn't have to be all that good, just good enough.

>
> Living lunar regolith. Has anyone bothered to call Steve Baxter and
> tell him to inquire as to whether the choads who made this mess ever
> read "Anti-Ice"?
>
> [shakes head in utter dismay, but not enough to cause dizziness]
>
> OM

What I liked about this movie wasn't so much the quality
of the plot and acting etc. But I appreciated what the
were trying to do, which was somewhat novel and
effective.

They were trying to combine a whole host of different
themes, and in a way where none of them dominated
over the others.

It tried to keep the science fact aspect pretty accurate.
But it also had aspects of sci-fi, horror, conspiracy theory,
vampires, castaway, outbreak, reality tv and all mashed
together inside a claustrophobic LEM and a couple
of space suits. Even the life forms were barely shown
or explained.

About the only things they made a fuss about were those
motion activated cameras, but all they did was give
jumbled images blinking on and off all the time.

It was better than average sci-fi in my opinion.
But then, I wanted to like it.


Jonathan



s

[Robert Clark]

On Feb 9, 7:19 pm, "Jonathan" <Callinst...@gmail.com> wrote:
> ...

> What I liked about this movie wasn't so much the quality
> of the plot and acting etc. But I appreciated what the
> were trying to do, which was somewhat novel and
> effective.
> They were trying to combine a whole host of different
> themes, and in a way where none of them dominated
> over the others.
> It tried to keep the science fact aspect pretty accurate.
> But it also had aspects of sci-fi, horror, conspiracy theory,
> vampires, castaway, outbreak, reality tv and all mashed
> together inside a claustrophobic LEM and a couple
> of space suits. Even the life forms were barely shown
> or explained.
> About the only things they made a fuss about were those
> motion activated cameras, but all they did was give
> jumbled images blinking on and off all the time.
> It was better than average sci-fi in my opinion.
> But then, I wanted to like it.
>
> Jonathan
>

That's a good defense of the movie. It's not great art, but fans of
the genre could enjoy it.
A better recent film with a lunar theme would be "Moon".

Bob Clark

[Howard Brazee]

On Thu, 9 Feb 2012 22:05:31 -0800 (PST), Robert Clark
<rgrego...@yahoo.com> wrote:

> That's a good defense of the movie. It's not great art, but fans of
>the genre could enjoy it.
> A better recent film with a lunar theme would be "Moon".

For various values of "better". The basic environment that ran the
plot made absolutely no sense at all. Big Bad corporations had to
spend lots of extra money in order to do what they did. Lots.

--
"In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be found,
than in the clause which confides the question of war or peace
to the legislature, and not to the executive department."

- James Madison

[Jonathan]

"Robert Clark" <rgrego...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:9d9b8033-6b07-4422...@q12g2000yqg.googlegroups.com...

>

>That's a good defense of the movie. It's not great art, but fans of
>the genre could enjoy it.
> A better recent film with a lunar theme would be "Moon".

> Bob Clark

I like that movie too, it was better.
There's not nearly enough good sci-fi around.



s

[M]

I saw it an to me it was totally stupid. Why would the astronauts use
strobe lights in a dark crater instead of a regular flashlight? Of
course, it was merely a plot device. What a bunch of hooey. Stupid
movie.

[Robert Clark]

On Feb 22, 11:34 am, M <otake...@bigvalley.net> wrote:
>
> I saw it an to me it was totally stupid. Why would the astronauts use
> strobe lights in a dark crater instead of a regular flashlight? Of
> course, it was merely a plot device. What a bunch of hooey. Stupid
> movie.

One might argue that in complete darkness a flashlight would have
limited extent of illumination. A flash could provide bright
illumination and a further illuminated area but only for a short time.
But were the justifications of the strobe lights in 'Alien'?

Bob Clark

[GordonD]

"Robert Clark" <rgrego...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

news:a196f1ad-9056-4509...@hs8g2000vbb.googlegroups.com...

One of the most stupid plot devices I ever saw along those lines was in an
animated series for kids, many many years ago, where the heroes were
investigating reports of ghostly figures seen prowling in the woods in a
remote country area. It turned out to be the crew of a crashed Soviet lunar
mission - they were wearing luminous pressure suits because (naturally) they
were supposed to land on the dark side of the Moon...
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

"Slipped the surly bonds of Earth...to touch the face of God."