Mars in Three Days? Could Happen!

Carole sent me up the link, which I think you will find equally interesting.

Imagine getting to Mars in just 3 days… or putting points beyond our solar system within our reach.

New propulsion technologies could one day take us to these cosmic destinations making space travel truly interstellar!

NASA 360 joins Professor Philip Lubin, University of California Santa Barbara, as he discusses his NASA Innovative Advanced Concept (NIAC) for energy propulsion for interstellar exploration.

To view the complete YouTube.com video, please click HERE

Review: Interstellar

 Interstellar  



Directed by Christopher Nolan

Running time 169 minutes

Budget $165 million  Box Office $672.7



Cast (partial listing)

Matthew McConaughey as Joseph
Anne Hathaway as Dr. Amelia Brand,
Michael Caine as Dr. John Brand
Casey Affleck as Tom
Ellen Burstyn as elderly Murphy
John Lithgow as Donald, Cooper's father-in-law
William Devane as Williams, a NASA board member
Matt Damon as Dr. Hugh Mann
Bill Irwin as robots TARS (voice and puppetry) and CASE (puppetry)
Josh Stewart as robot CASE (voice)

The first thing to look at in Interstellar is the out of this world cast!  Michael Caine  -  Ellen Burstyn, Pay attention, It wasn't just a small walk on part for her, but an important almost narrator.  The film is rife with instances where something is not what it appears.  John Lithgow in a part that reminds us just how good of an actor he can be.  And William Devane who has been one of my favorites for some time now,   Lets not forget about the "new" kids on the block, but are every bit as fantastic actors.   Matthew McConaughey spins this film in his hand. He was a perfect choice for the lead. Matt Damon really took a part that stretched his ability and he rose to the challenge.  The robots were a bit weird but what a freshness, non_ humanoid and still interesting and engaging, plus not stooping to robot cliches like jerky movements and that emotionless voice.

The movie premise is that the Earth is dieing.  Whole crops and even crop species are becoming extinct.   This galvanizes a super secret agency to begin with a plan to find an alternative place for humans to live.  

A select crew is chosen which will cold sleep it out to Saturn where a small wormhole has been discovered and a previous exploratory mission has already entered.  The plan being to follow the first mission in along the same trajectory to follow up on the first information block that made it back through.

And then let the weirdness begin.  Loose ends tied up, help comes from the most unusual corners.

I am reluctant to be a spoiler.  The movie as a whole is a strong 9 to 9.5, but the stuff they got wrong was done in spectacular fashion.  Watch the baseball game towards the end of the movie.

I really can't go further without really becoming a spoiler so I will end with a solid 9 maybe 9.5 well worth checking out.  

link to Wikipedia Interstellar movie

Win a Free Ticket For a Ride Into Space...

Yep, you read correctly!  The folks behind the movie 'Interstellar' have teamed up with XCOR Aerospace for a contest that will give an extremely lucky person a free space trip.

How you may be asking? Well according to the Yahoo article:

• People who purchase their "Interstellar" tickets through the online site Fandango through Dec. 1 have a chance to win a free suborbital spaceflight aboard XCOR Aerospace's Lynx Mark II rocket plane. Seats aboard the vehicle normally sell for $100,000.

 For  more info  go HERE

Voyager 1 Closing in on Interstellar Space

The latest data from Voyager 1 seems to indicate that it is at this moment at the very edge of the space influenced by Sol and entrance into interstellar space is now eminent.  

At present, Voyager is over 11 billion miles from Earth and at this remote distance particles from the sun have all but dissipated.  Controllers have also noticed that particles coming  towards Voyager from interstellar space,  have jumped markedly in the past year.

This of course means that Voyager 1 is set, any time now, to become the first  man made object to exit the solar system. 

More about Voyager 1 at Wikipedia

Complete BBC article HERE

What Stars Would We Visit First?

Once a really fast interstellar drive is produced and or human hibernation is perfected, there are a number of stars close to us that would be interesting. From the IO9 online blog:

• Astronaut Mae Jemison heads a group called the 100 Year Starship....(their goal) making interstellar travel a reality in 100 years. They've just produced this video, showing some of the stars that are "close" that are good candidates for visiting
• 
  

Voyager 1 : Truly In Interstellar Space Now?!

For the first time, Voyager's instruments have begun to detect gusts of charged particles blowing back towards our sun, so many scientists now are confident to say that voyager has indeed reached interstellar space. Of course this now begs the questions, if not from the sun then where do these charged particles originate?

Tracking puts Voyager 1 at about 11 billion miles from the sun. Roughly three or four times farther away than Pluto. The probe should have enough fuel and propellant to continue operating until at least 2020, by which time it'll be about 12.5 billion miles from us. Damn that has got to make ya proud about something!

Dvice article