For the last post of the semester (already?!), I’m going to include a few of my favorite things: movies, space, and Chris Hadfield.

The day before break, I finally watched the sci-fi thriller Gravity. In case you haven’t heard about this movie, here’s a one sentence summary from IMDb: “A medical engineer [Sandra Bullock] and an astronaut [George Clooney] work together to survive after an accident leaves them adrift in space.”

When I first saw previews months ago, I thought the movie looked interesting because of its setting, if a little corny. I was very excited when the movie first premiered and generated positive reviews. Then, as the accolades rained down, I became slightly incredulous. So many people (my parents, Chris Hadfield*, movie critics, etc.) were saying it was so good that I knew I had to see it.

But, like these things often do, it slipped to the wayside. (Part of the problem was that I would have had to figure out how to get to the theater. Turns out it involves a bus, and it’s very simple.) Eventually, though, I saw it (good thing it was still in theaters!), and I even paid the extra $2.50 to see it in the 3D because I had heard it was worth it.

So, what did I think? I don’t want to ruin the plot, so I’ll stick to some general remarks: I thought it was fantastic. There were certain parts of the plot that I thought were probably slightly inaccurate (but then again, what do I know?). [Turns out most of the movie is pretty accurate. Look here for a fact check.] The visuals were really, really stunning, though. The movie was psychologically stressful for me, because the scenes seemed scarily real. I totally agree with the 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

*For an astronaut’s take on the movie, I obviously looked to Chris Hadfield. Here are a few snippets of Gravity-related posts from various dates of Hadfield’s Facebook page:

• “Gravity opens today. It’s a very fun ride, beautifully shot. After seeing it, let me know if you’d rather fly in space w/ Sandra or George.” (October 4th)
• “From the New York Post – If you’ve seen Gravity, you’ve got to read Col. Chris Hadfield’s description of what space is really like: nyp.st/18KSSvi” (October 7th)
• “Gravity was so beautiful it was almost real. This SpaceX test rocket is beautiful in real possibility: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZDkItO-0a4” (October 13th)

Here’s “Astronaut Chris Hadfield On Sandra Bullock’s ‘Gravity’ Underwear” from Hadfield’s appearance on Conan.

Have any of you seen this movie? If so, what did you think?

Although I’m really not a fan of what’s been going on in Russia ahead of the Winter Games, I love the Olympics in general, so imagine how excited I was when I found out the Olympic torch was traveling to space! What I didn’t know was that Olympic torches have actually gone to space before (in 1996 and 2000). However, this is the first time one has gone on a spacewalk. Due to perfectly understandable safety concerns, the torch was not lit during this leg of its trip.

The torch relay for the 2014 Sochi Winter Games started on September 29^th, with NHL superstar Alex Ovechkin being the first Russian to carry the flame. (If you have time, check out the video in this link. It includes a portion of the elaborate flame-lighting ceremony in Olympia by Greeks dressed in ancient garb.)

The torch was on board as the three astronauts (a Russian, an American and a Japanese) of Expedition 38/39 travelled to the ISS on November 7th. On November 9th, the two Russian members of Expedition 37/38 took the torch outside the station for a spacewalk. (And yes, the torch was tethered to prevent it from floating away.)

During this spacewalk, the two astronauts also performed routine maintenance.

The torch came back to Earth on November 10th with American Karen Nyberg, Italian Luca Parmitano, and Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin as they came down from their six month stay on the ISS, having completed their portions of Expeditions 36 and 37.

Under normal circumstances, these three astronauts would have come down before the three news astronauts went up. Since the torch needed to be carried, this order was reversed. So for a few days, the station had nine residents instead of the typical six.

Apparently, these nine astronauts (with four nations represented between them) passed the torch along to one another in their own version of a torch relay. Sounds pretty awesome!

Did anybody else watch reruns of the T.V. show “The Jetsons” as a kid? It was a little before my time, but I loved it nonetheless. A huge part of its appeal was its setting—outer space. The Jetsons had such a cool life, filled with amazing gadgets and technology that I often imagined what it would be like to join them.

I now know that living in space would look nothing like the cartoons of my childhood. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would look like, but I do know it wouldn’t be as easy and fun as the Jetson family makes it seem.

Imagine being one of the first colonists on a different planet. Every single thing you do here every day would be different there. Everything. Your body would move differently because of the change in gravity. Your food would taste differently. There would be no civilization to speak of. You would land on a planet, and there would be nothing there. It would most likely be unfeasible to consider a journey back to Earth, especially for a first mission. If something went wrong, you could rely only on your fellow colonists.

Here’s a video of William Shatner talking to Chris Hadfield:

Starting at 2:56, they discuss a potential mission to Mars. Hadfield affirms that he would go to Mars were he given the opportunity, saying, “It was a risk that I decided to take many, many years ago. Really, to accomplish anything worthwhile in life is going to take risk. … And some things are really worth directing your life toward and putting your life on the line for.”

Although the idea of going to another planet still seems far-fetched, Hadfield argues that it is really the next step. He believes “going to Mars is inevitable…It’s just a matter of when we figure out how.” I’m interested to see if it will occur during my lifetime.

Though Hadfield would be willing to go in a heartbeat, knowing full well the dangers inherent in such a mission, and knowing full well he would never return to Earth, I am not like him. As much as I like hearing about space, as much as watching videos of astronauts in space makes me want to experience, briefly, life on the ISS, there is absolutely no way I would go to Mars. Just thinking about it in the most theoretical sense, from the comfort of my own chair, frightens me beyond explanation. What are your thoughts on space colonization? Would you be willing to move to another planet?

My plan for this post was to share my favorite pictures taken by Chris Hadfield. (For those of you who haven’t read the rest of my blog, Hadfield is a former astronaut who served as commander of the International Space Station. While in space, he would post several pictures of Earth a day.) I quickly realized that it would be very time consuming to go back through all of the thousands of photos Hadfield has posted. Therefore, the photos I will be sharing aren’t necessarily representative of my absolute favorite photos. (In fact, all of these pictures were taken within a fairly short time span.) They are, however, all stunning.

I’ve included in quotation marks the caption Hadfield posted with each picture, along with the date it was posted. Here they are in no particular order:

1) “The effortless natural art of the southern Sahara.” 4/24/13

2) “Berlin at night. Amazingly, I think the light bulbs still show the East/West division from orbit.” 4/6/13

3) “Spaceships glowing blue in the dawn as we leave Florida headed across the Atlantic.” 5/12/13

This one is cool because Florida is recognizable even from the different perspective.

4) “Chris [Cassidy] and Tom [Marshburn], helmet lights doing their best to light the universe on the dark side of the Earth.” 5/11/13

This isn’t a typical picture in that it’s a portrait of life in space, not on Earth, but it’s so amazing. I can’t even imagine what those two were seeing at that moment.

5) “Dr. Seuss-inspired swirls in the Black Sea.” 5/12/13

6) “Tonight’s Finale: Dubai, the Palm Island like a trilobite in the night.” 4/30/13

I briefly lived in the United Arab Emirates so my family has followed the economic boom with particular interest. The man-made art looks incredible.

7) “Some selfies are more thought-provoking than others. Amazing what you can see in the reflection.” 9/30/13

Yeah, I mean, this is pretty much what my selfies look like too. (Again, not really a traditional Hadfield picture and posted after he returned to Earth, but still so cool.)

8) “Mecca, home to both 3 million and more than [a] billion of us simultaneously.” 4/27/13

9) “Tonight’s Finale: People ask to see stars – my camera does its best in dim light. Our atmosphere glows in the dark.” 3/27/13

BONUS: This one’s not taken by Hadfield, but it’s so cute I have to share it.

“I think Brianna will be a fine astronaut. The Right Stuff, in miniature.” 5/1/13

Side note: For a little while, I wanted a life-sized Chris Hadfield cardboard cutout, like the one in the last picture. Although that dream was never realized, my friends kindly made me a miniature version who now lives in my dorm room:

Hadfield’s pictures are awe-inspiring, and the captions make them all the more powerful. Knowing that they were taken and posted from space makes them even cooler. I also love reading through the comments and hearing about people’s experiences with the place in the picture. Do any of these pictures speak to you?

Today’s post isn’t strictly space related, but it is Chris Hadfield related and it’s a good life lesson. As I’ve mentioned earlier, Hadfield has been active on many different social media platforms, one of which being Reddit. While aboard the International Space Station, he held an AMA (short for “Ask Me Anything”) in which he answered Redditors’ questions.

A lot of interesting and funny information was shared in that thread, so take a look through it if ever you have the time. What I want to focus on, though, is Hadfield’s response to the question, “Any advice to a young person who wants to get into this field?” Prepare yourselves, because this is really deep. Are you ready? Here we go:

Decide in your heart of hearts what really excites and challenges you, and start moving your life in that direction. Every decision you make, from what you eat to what you do with your time tonight, turns you into who you are tomorrow, and the day after that. Look at who you want to be, and start sculpting yourself into that person. You may not get exactly where you thought you’d be, but you will be doing things that suit you in a profession you believe in. Don’t let life randomly kick you into the adult you don’t want to become.

These words inspired someone so much that they made a cartoon strip, which you should definitely check out.

This message really doesn’t just apply to kids who want to be astronauts; it’s a fantastic lesson for everyone. As a college student struggling with worries about my major, my career, and the rest of my life in the long run, it is especially relevant.

Recently, while I was freaking out about my future, my brother gave me a talk. One thing he said was something along the lines of, “Most people who are happy in life aren’t happy by accident. They found out what they liked to do, and they made plans to do it,” to which I replied, “Marc, you’re basically Chris Hadfield.”

My brother also told me that he schedules an hour of time every once in a while to reflect on what he’s been doing and whether or not he’s satisfied with what’s going on. That’s something I’ve decided I want to do, because it’s far too easy to get swept up in what’s going on now and not worry about what’s going to happen later. I don’t want to wake up one day and find myself trapped in a job I don’t like. So, tonight, I’m doing some reflection. I don’t expect to plan my entire life out, but I’m hoping to make a start.

Over the summer, my family took an old-school road trip up the eastern coast to the Maritimes, a region of Canada consisting of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. (If ever you have a chance to visit any of these provinces, I’d highly recommend it—all three are gorgeous, with tons of outdoorsy stuff to do and awesome people to meet.) Anyway, we spent lots of time in the car. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would, probably because there was much less bickering than when I was younger. One of the things my siblings and I did to pass the time was listen to audio books.

At the top of our list was Ender’s Game, a sci-fi novel written by Orson Scott Card. The storyline follows a child genius named Ender Wiggin through his time at Battle School (a military academy that orbits the earth) and beyond in his quest to defeat the alien Buggers in an extraterrestrial war. My siblings and I all read the book during our late elementary school/early middle school years, and we all loved it. Listening again, we caught a lot of deeper meaning we had missed while reading at such a tender age. We had decided to listen to brush up our memory for the movie coming out November 1^st. Here’s a trailer:

This has the potential to make a very good movie, especially if they pull off the special effects well.

At the end of the audio book, there’s an interview of sorts with Card, where he talks about the challenges of creating a movie adaptation. The one thing I remember him talking about is the difficulty of having a story full of children. With the exception of a few key adults, children are the main characters in Ender’s Game. Card mentions that, although every once in a while there is one—or maybe two—really good child actor out there, to fill a whole cast with them is pretty much impossible. The choices are either to use older actors, or to use less talented actors.

In the end, Asa Butterfield has been chosen to star as Ender. I really don’t have any  expertise in the field of child actors, but Butterfield does come with some impressive credentials, having starred in The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and Hugo, among others. He is also 16, whereas Ender Wiggin is 10. I also know next to nothing about his supporting cast (except for Harrison Ford and Ben Kingsley, but they’re definitely not children…), but I’m hoping for the best.

To wrap things up, here’s an interesting issue I just heard about. When I went onto IMDB to check the release date of the movie, I scrolled through the message boards and saw a lot about boycotting. As I explored the comments, I learned that Orson Scott Card has been rather vocal in his anti-gay marriage opinions. Therefore, some people are calling for a boycott of the movie, arguing that Card will profit financially from the movie. Here’s a (biased) website with more on the issue. While I don’t agree with Card’s opinions, he has a right to have those opinions and to express them. These opinions are not expressed at all in the book. Personally, I agree with the comments made by Harrison Ford and director Gavin Hood in this article on the matter. The book is fantastic, so I’m going to go see the movie. For me, it’s as simple as that.

This week’s post deals with two aspects of the commercialization of the space industry, the first part being the privatization of space exploration for scientific purposes, and the second being the emergence of a space tourism industry (shout out to Jordan for the idea!).

1) In my mind, privatization—at least in part—of the space industry is a proper and necessary step. Government programs (i.e. all the big players you’ve probably heard of: NASA, the Canadian Space Agency, Roscosmos, the European Space Agency, etc.) have gotten us far, but for the most part, their power is waning. [See this great Time article for more about the Space Race.]

Government agencies have serious constraints, namely limited funding, regulations, and bureaucracy and politics. Giving private companies more opportunities to get involved in the space-exploration industry—say, by allowing them access to NASA launchpads—fuels competition and thus increases advancements.

I don’t know how this is playing out on a global scale, but in America, at least, NASA has accepted privatization—whether out of choice or necessity, I’m not sure. NASA retired its space shuttle fleet a couple of years ago, with Atlantis’s last flight in July 2011 marking the end of the space shuttle era. However, as a participant in the International Space Station, NASA must meet certain requirements, one of these being a resupply requirement. NASA has contracted private companies for help:

• Cygnus, a commercial freighter designed by the Orbital Sciences Corporation, reached the International Space Station (ISS) on Sunday the 29^th, loaded with food and supplies.
• SpaceX, a leading player in the private sector, launched a new version of its rocket, also on Sunday. This line of Falcon rockets helps NASA resupply the ISS but also launches private satellites.

And that’s not all. According to the Cygnus BBC article I linked above, “The carriage of freight is the first service to be bought in from external suppliers; the transport of astronauts to and from the station will be the second, later this decade.” By buying these “services,” NASA hopes to save money and then invest this money in other missions, such as the exploration of Mars and the asteroids.

If you’re interested, Wikipedia has a great set of charts detailing the different private spaceflight companies and their progress so far.

2) A young industry that will probably boom in the upcoming decades is space tourism. Though NASA would never agree to bring civilians on a joyride in space, private companies could, and some already are! For example, Virgin Galactic has already run two test flights and plans to start commercial spaceflights in 2014.

This company charges around $200,000 for a suborbital flight including four minutes of weightlessness—an exorbitant price for a glorified hybrid plane/rollercoaster ride. It’s not quite a trip to the moon, but we’ll probably get there eventually. And to be honest, if I had $200,000 to spare, I’d probably do it. The list of celebrities signed up for a Virgin Galactic flight so far includes Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, Stephen Hawking (who was offered a free ticket), Tom Hanks, and Katy Perry.

*Super cool NASA news tidbit of the week: “Nasa plans first 3D printer space launch in 2014”

**Super uncool NASA news tidbit of the week: because of the government shutdown, the NASA website is not running.

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So much has been shaking in the space-realm! Here’s a brief recap of the extraterrestrial-related news I’ve been hearing about for the past couple of weeks:

1. Big blow to scientists: Curiosity, the rover sent up to Mars in August 2012, has yet to detect any methane. The vast majority (95%) of methane on Earth is produced by living organisms. Since telescopes and satellites have picked up discernible amounts of methane, scientists believed that they would find this gas on Mars, and that it would be a good sign in terms of extraterrestrial life. Unfortunately, after one year of collecting and analyzing data without luck, it seems unlikely that a sufficient amount of methane exists. This is by no means the end of the line in terms of Mars research or extraterrestrial research in general, but it definitely is a disappointment.

2. Voyager has left the solar system! I repeat, Voyager has left the solar system!

Voyager 1 is a probe that was launched by NASA in 1977, 36 years ago. It was originally meant only to study Saturn but was later able to continue farther into space. It’s the spacecraft that contains the Golden Record, which you may have heard of before—it’s a record included to inform any other life forms the probe may encounter about us, humans.

NASA recently confirmed that Voyager crossed into interstellar space in August 2012, making it the first manmade object to do so. It’s hard for me to even fathom what leaving the solar system even means, but I do know that it’s pretty amazing.

3. Three new astronauts successfully reached the International Space Station (ISS) late yesterday. Hooray! (Side note: I’m really behind the game here; I only know one of these new astronauts’ names. At one point, I knew all of the astronauts on board the ISS, but now I can only name three.) The astronauts—two Russians, one American—launched from Kazakhstan aboard a Russian-built Soyuz spacecraft.

Quick rundown on ISS expeditions:

In the past few years, there have been 6 astronauts on the ISS per expedition, rotating in groups of three. This means that each astronaut is a part of two expeditions and spends about six months in space.

For example, Chris Hadfield was a part of Expedition 34/35, meaning he went up to space with two colleagues to join the three astronauts from Expedition 33/34 already on board the ISS. After 4 months, Expedition 34 ended and the 3 astronauts from Expedition 33/34 returned to Earth. Hadfield was now in command, and 3 new astronauts came up to join Expedition 35.

Expedition 37 technically began on September 10, when the 3 members of Expedition 35/36 returned to Earth. Until yesterday, there were only 3 astronauts aboard the station (members of Expedition 36/37). Yesterday, these 3 were joined by the 3 Expedition 37/38 members, bringing Expedition 37 to its full crew size.

4. Also, hold the phone! Super exciting news! (Technically not a current event, but whatever.)  A couple of days ago I stumbled across this blog, written by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who is a member of Expedition 36/37 (and therefore currently in space!). I’m not sure if Parmitano writes both the Italian and English versions, or if he only writes the Italian version and someone at the European Space Agency translates it into English. Either way, it’s very well written and super interesting, so give it a read if you have the time!

It all started on April 19, 2013 with—as many of my new interests do—a Facebook status. My cousin had posted, “I like when Col. Chris Hadfield wishes us Good Morning, it makes me feel like I have a friend in space.” Suitably intrigued, I clicked on the link, and voila—I was hooked.

Here are three reasons why you should be interested in Chris Hadfield:

1. He is Canadian.
2. He has an amazing mustache.
3. He is an astronaut.*

*Technically, since he retired in July, Hadfield is a former astronaut, but I’m going to let that slide.

At the time of my cousin’s post, Hadfield was orbiting Earth, serving as commander of the International Space Station. While in space, he regularly posted pictures to his Twitter, and his son Evan uploaded these pictures to Facebook, Google+, and other social media sites. (Side note on Evan: Evan is an English major and therefore ensures everything he and his father write are grammatically correct, something I very much appreciate. I could actually write a whole post on Evan…stay tuned for that.) The first picture of the day was always captioned, “Good morning, Earth!” followed by a description of the sight. The pictures are stunning, but I’m not going to link any now because I want to dedicate at least one post solely to my favorites.

So, how did a 54-year-old astronaut become a Canadian hero? The answer lies in social media. Hadfield shared his life as an astronaut as it was happening, allowing people to be a part of an experience they otherwise could have only imagined. And he did so in such a way that made people feel connected and relevant. Hadfield may be an astronaut, but he never lost his honest, down-to-earth, farm boy look. He is humble and honest, and  he is all the more charismatic for possessing these traits.

Aside from his daily pictures and tweets, Hadfield regularly created informational videos, video-chatted with students worldwide, answered questions on Reddit, and interacted with famous people, such as William Shatner and the Barenaked Ladies. He even made his own music video. This one gets to be embedded because it’s that cool:

(Another side note: please don’t click on any of these links unless you have plenty of free time, because I guarantee you will never stop watching the related videos and reading through thousands of Reddit comments.)

My only problem with Chris Hadfield is that he’s an avid Toronto Maple Leafs fan, even going so far as to drop the puck in the Leafs’ first home game. In most people, being a Leafs’ fan is an unforgivable trait, but in this case I’ve made an exception.

If, by now, you don’t think Chris Hadfield is one of the coolest people ever, I cordially invite you to never read my blog again, because he will be mentioned a lot. But as awesome as a blog dedicated solely to Chris Hadfield would be, I plan to broaden my horizons and talk more generally about life as an astronaut, space exploration, and depictions of space in pop culture.

Until next week, my fellow earthlings.