It looks like humankind is getting ready to start its long-delayed expansion in our Solar system. There are ongoing plans for establishing some kind of Moon-based station, for flights in cislunar space and finally, for a manned mission to Mars. There are also efforts to extend the life of the ISS, not to mention the proposed construction of a Chinese space station in the next few years.
It’s been a while since the last time I set up a “best of” list, this will another trip to memory lane, dedicated to the sci-fi movies made in the first decade of this century. There’s no particular order, I’ve enjoyed all of them, so fast your seat belt and have fun.
I’m enjoying a family rerun of the first season of Space:1999, a show that never fails to amaze me. While my nine-year-old son is accepting this show at face value (this is part of his formation as a sci-fi fan, he’s already a whovian – this is also parenting done right), me and my wife remember our impressions from the bottom part of the seventies (in Italy the show was aired in 1977 or in 1978, I believe).
Eleven years ago (September 13th, 2007), Google announced one of the most challenging prizes in the human history, called the Lunar X Prize. Twenty million USD, plus a number of bonuses, for the first privately funded spacecraft able to reach the Moon and perform some task on our satellite.
If you are a long time SF reader and/or a writer in the same genre, you may have dedicated some thought about how we will work and live outside our planet. In the next few years we’re expecting new manned missions to the Moon and to Mars and it’s a given that we have to leave our cradle someday, to expand in our solar system and beyond.
One of the main problems is about transports, of course. Going to the Moon from our planet is quite costly and energy-consuming, that given the need of overcome the gravity and the resistance of our atmosphere. But what about the Moon or Mars (or any other moon or planet accessible in our system)? If we get to drill mines anywhere or to manufacture any kind of goods out planet, how do we get the stuff home?
I’m reading a wonderful book (Return to the Moon), an essay by Harrison H. Schmitt (former astronaut, the last man on the Moon with Apollo 17 mission); this is a citation from this book – words to be remembered:
“Whenever and however a Return to the Moon occurs, one thing is certain: that return will be historically comparable to the movement of our species out of Africa about 150,000 years ago. Further, if led by an entity representing the democracies of the Earth, a Return to the Moon to stay will be politically comparable to the first permanent settlement of North America by European immigrants.”
You know, we have to go back to the Moon. The sooner, the better. And Mr. Schmitt is the right man for tell us how this new frontier has to be tackled.
Strano ma vero, dopo una settimana con molti post pro fantascienza ieri sera sono riuscito a vedere un film. Di fantascienza. Di per sé è un evento, quando poi il film in questione vale la pena si mette a piovere, come sta succedendo oggi a Livorno.
Dal titolo sapete già che si tratta di Moon, film inglese del 2009 davvero gustoso. Minimale come allestimento dal momento che ci sono pochissimi attori, un uso pressochè nullo di computer graphic e scenografie che devono davvero molto al serial Spazio 1999 e al film 2001:odissea nello spazio.
La storia la potete trovare qui, con tutti i dati del caso. Non voglio fare spoiler quindi non anticiperò nulla. Regia e sceneggiatura, quest’ultima con Nathan Parker, sono a firma di Duncan Jones (figlio di David Bowie) che qui debutta nei lungometraggi.
UP: la recitazione di Sam Rockwell, chiamato a un ruolo difficile e stressante. Il feeling del ‘basso futuro’, con rimandi trasparenti a produzioni che ho amato molto. L’uso dei modellini e dei plastici invece della CGI.
DOWN: il rumore. Sulla Luna dove non c’è atmosfera. Proprio non ci si fa ad avere un minimo di plausibilità?
Voto: 07,00 / 10,00.
Angelo Benuzzi 