My Three Songs: 04/12/11

1. Foreigner - Feels Like the First Time
2. Heart - Magic Man
3. Deep Purple - Space Truckin'

Theme :: Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space. The Russian cosmonaut made his historic flight 50 years ago today.

Chapter 82.3: To Seek Out New Life and New Civilizations...

Now this seems pretty cool! The folks in charge of the Hubble Telescope have created a contest in which people can vote for what they think it should explore next. I remember not too long ago people were talking about letting the Hubble die an ignominious death, so I'm glad to see people still see value in the work it continues to do.

But the contest ends on March 1, so go out there and seek out new life and new civilizations. Boldly go where only Hubble can go right now.

Chapter 81.4: Earthrise on a New Era

I had almost forgotten that forty years ago, our first moon adventurers were in orbit. One of them, Bill Anders, took the photo that accompanies this little post.

Andrew Chaikin, who wrote A Man on the Moon, which was the basis for what became HBO's excellent From the Earth to the Moon series, posted an article on Space.com about the legacy of that flight and the prospect of a future flight to Mars. I can only hope, like Chaikin, that in the not too distant future we send a new group of astronauts to Mars. While it seems unlikely to happen soon, given the economic crisis this country and many others are facing, to my mind a flight to Mars is about reaching beyond ourselves and achieving together that which we can never achieve alone. Landing humans on Mars won't happen in 2009, but I hope that we make progress toward that end.

Chapter 73.4: From the Earth to the Moon... and Then Some

Perhaps the image above impresses me because I'm a bit of a space geek, but I think this is an amazing shot. In case it's not obvious, this is a picture of the earth and the moon. What's less obvious is where the photo's taken from: Mars.

The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter took this image last fall. It's hard to make out, but the land at the lower half of the earth is South America.

Cool!

Chapter 72.9: Jump In, The Movie's Fine!

Valentine's Day is a lot more enjoyable when you're past your twenties and happily married. A long day at work turned into a wonderful evening when I got home, because unbeknownst to me my wife had decided that if I ran late, we'd see a movie. Funny how fate works and time changes everything.

With that seemingly inoccuous item, I jump to my point: Jumper. The story of a young man who discovers that he has the ability to circumvent the laws of space (but not time, thankfully) and zip from here to there faster than I can type. A lot faster.

I suppose this type of thing has been done before, but I don't care. I also don't care that it's received mixed reviews. I enjoyed this film.

It has flaws, however. Hubris, for one. It's rather ballsy to assume you'll have an audience for a trilogy, which is what this film is proposing to do. But with its comic book feel (though it's based on a novel by Stephen Gould) perhaps developing an audience isn't so tough, I don't know. More importantly, the film feels incomplete. A good first episode of a trilogy -- see Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings -- needs to feel like a story was told. Jumper felt like a TV pilot.

Another flaw is that the main characters are left woefully undeveloped. You come out of Star Wars and the Fellowship of the Ring feeling like you know something about Darth Vader or Strider/Aragorn. But Jumper leaves you with two scenes of the lovely Diane Lane, who plays David's estranged mother. And you know virtually nothing. I'm sorry, that's lazy writing and directing. You needed a scene to establish some connection, some love, some something. Screw mystery, an audience needs to connect with the characters. All this did was set up film No. 2. Insert $10, press play. Go screw yourself. (Like I said, there are flaws.)

But there's enough potential in the first movie for me to see the second film. The cinematography is excellent, for one thing. The effects feel as natural as possible, and the exciting thrill ride aspect of the chase scenes is wonderful. You don't have to be twelve to think this film is cool.

And Jamie Bell, who plays Griffin -- David's mentor/friend -- is excellent (despite being occasionally incomprehensible, what with that thick accent of his). Film fans may know Bell best as Billy Elliot (Dance, Billy, dance!), but he's become quite a strong actor since then. Rachel Bilson's cute, of course, though I hope she's given more of a role to play in the future.

But the real thrill in this film comes from the always amazing Samuel L. Jackson. I truly believe this man could play just about anything, but he's best with an edgy character. And as Roland he plays a (potentially) complex role of the nemesis to Hayden Christensen's David; Roland claims to be moral, but the audience can't help but feel he's basically a cop, and who knows what morality means in a world where people flit from place to place without law.

I'll leave it at that, since that's the type of ending this film engenders. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed Jumper. I'll watch the second installment, but there needs to be some pay-off for this investment. I like the characters. Now show me something other than pleasant gimmicks.

Chapter 71.2: Happy Birthday, Spirit!

My, how the time goes. It seems like just a little while ago we thought you two wouldn't make it to your first birthdays.

That's right, the little rovers that could are still going strong, several million miles away on Mars. Spirit turns four tomorrow, and her twin, Opportunity, celebrates the same birthday three weeks later.

The rovers weren't expected to last even six months, but look at them now! Last summer, scientists feared that massive dust storms would disable them both, despite the rovers being located far away from each other. Opportunity, rolling around near the Martian equator, took the brunt of it. But Spirit has not gone without challenges, breaking a wheel a couple years ago. That "disability" actually enabled it to dig up nearly pure silica, which helped to prove that water once flowed in the area.

And of course, they've taken some fantastic photos during their time on Mars.

So, happy birthday, Spirit. And Opportunity, a happy birthday to you too, coming up. Hopefully, there'll be several more to celebrate.

Chapter 66.7: Look, Up in the Sky!

I didn't see it, but the other night something bright streaked across the sky above New Mexico. According to SpaceWeather.com, some folks in New Mexico witnessed and filmed the disintegration of what must have been some massive piece of space junk. (Or was it a crashing UFO? How far away from Santa Fe is Roswell? Can the Northern Lights be viewed in New Mexico?) The description of the object being four times brighter than the moon is startling.

It reminded me of the day the spaceshuttle Columbia broke up in the skies above Texas. (Is it really four years ago already!) It was during the weekend, and for some reason I awoke very early needing to use the bathroom. I didn't have my glasses on and was startled by a brief burst of light in the night. Hours later, when I learned of the Columbia's tragic demise, I wondered if I might have inadvertently witnessed the after effects of the destruction, but the timelines don't match. Just a random burst of light, I suppose.

Either way, things like that keep me scanning the starry skies, waiting patiently for something fascinating to occur.

Chapter 66.3: 30 Years of Voyager

I've been a self-proclaimed "spaceophile" for many years, though my interest was rekindled in the mid 1990s by the film Apollo 13 and gained root with From the Earth to the Moon on HBO.

I like to call July 20 Moon Day, because it is the date on which we first set foot there. Less well known, however, are the adventures of the Voyager probes. And now we are celebrating thirty years since their launch. Today is the thirtieth anniversary of Voyager 2's launch, and its sister ship, Voyager 1, was launched just a couple weeks before that on August 20, 1977.

Both are now past the heliosphere, still sending messages and data all these years later. I believe there will be stories to tell about these ships to the generations that have been born since.

Of course, several films have already used the Voyager ships to lead into tales -- the first Star Trek movie and Carl Sagan's Contact to name just a couple -- so I'm not venturing too far afield when I say that, but I believe there's more out there. Whether I tell those tales or not, I don't know, but it's comforting to know that there's knowledge to be gained beyond our solar system. Happy Anniversary, Voyager.

Chapter 65.8: Your Spacesuit Or Mine?

I'm a bit of a "spaceophile" and I wish I could explore space. Well, these new space suits should make exploration a lot easier. And it makes space exploration look better too, for when astronauts are shown on television. This is one way to make NASA popular again, though they've still got a fair amount of work ahead of them to regain some level of respect from the American people.

Chapter 62: Destination Mars

Ever wonder what the planet Mars might have looked like eons ago, when it might have sported water and oceans? Scientists at Cal Berkeley have come up with the image I've posted above. Take a look at what they say about the likelihood that Mars once was covered with water. Interesting stuff for "spaceophiles" like me.