New sci-fi film The Europa Report

[grondilu]

I've watched it.   It's not bad, but I would not recommend it either.

[Blackstar]

http://thespacereview.com/article/2359/1

Death, and life, in space
by Dwayne Day
Tuesday, September 3, 2013

    “... As I move back along my route towards the airlock, I become more and more certain that the water is increasing. I feel it covering the sponge on my earphones and I wonder whether I’ll lose audio contact. The water has also almost completely covered the front of my visor, sticking to it and obscuring my vision. I realize that to get over one of the antennae on my route I will have to move my body into a vertical position, also in order for my safety cable to rewind normally. At that moment, as I turn ‘upside-down’, two things happen: the Sun sets, and my ability to see—already compromised by the water—completely vanishes, making my eyes useless; but worse than that, the water covers my nose—a really awful sensation that I make worse by my vain attempts to move the water by shaking my head. By now, the upper part of the helmet is full of water and I can't even be sure that the next time I breathe I will fill my lungs with air and not liquid. To make matters worse, I realize that I can’t even understand which direction I should head in to get back to the airlock. I can’t see more than a few centimeters in front of me, not even enough to make out the handles we use to move around the Station.”

    – EVA 23: exploring the frontier, Luca Parmitano Blog

Who would have thought that an astronaut would drown in space?

Fortunately, Mr. Parmitano did not drown, but his description of what happened during his July EVA demonstrates just how close he came to dying in space, from an entirely unexpected problem. The event reminds me of one of the odder criticisms that I’ve heard of the movie Europa Report. (Warning: this article contains multiple spoilers, so quit now or forever hold your peace.) That criticism is that at least one scene in the movie—an EVA that goes badly resulting in the death of an astronaut—is unrealistic. The criticism seems to be that astronauts would never conduct an unplanned EVA without having backups in place, such as another crewmember ready to assist in an emergency. But this is a rather weak criticism, because the moviemakers did a pretty good job of setting up the situation in a realistic fashion so that there are answers to what happened. It is testimony to the film’s high degree of technical accuracy that you actually have to be relatively familiar with space operations in order to find the inaccuracies.

[Robotbeat]

Was a decent film. Good review!

[Star One]

Now listed on Amazon but without a release date.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Europa-Report-Blu-ray-Dan-Fogler/dp/B00E0KWB58/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1378324521&sr=1-1&keywords=the+europa+report

[martinlematre]

I liked the first half of the film, which seemed to be pretty scientifically accurate. Then all hell broke loose and they pulled a Sunshine.

[p51]

I liked the first half of the film, which seemed to be pretty scientifically accurate. Then all hell broke loose and they pulled a Sunshine.

That's a good way to put it.

[go4mars]

You can already guess that everybody dies in the end. So why bother watching it?

Because what is important is not that they died, but what they did while they were alive.

Your observation is worthy of a bumper sticker! 

To Elmar: I hope your sentiment is confined merely to movies. 

I like this thread.  Maybe I'll start daydreaming about a "nominal" mission screenplay. 

[Robotbeat]

You can already guess that everybody dies in the end. So why bother watching it?

Because what is important is not that they died, but what they did while they were alive.

+Eleven.

All men die. Not all men truly live.

[bunker9603]

I was able to watch it on Time Warner Cable. It was an "Early Release Motion Picture" just about a month ago. It was $9.99, but certainly worth every penny.

[Oli]

It was ok I guess.

I hated all the explanations by "experts" and voice-overs, in fact anything not happening on the ship was simply annoying and distracted from the experience. Other than that the catastrophic events felt a bit, well, constructed and the lack of realism for a film that pretends to be realistic was a bit disturbing.

What works though is the "found footage" approach, which probably allowed them to save lots of expensive CGI and sets. The actors are ok too, although the characters are somewhat underdeveloped.

[Blackstar]

Own a piece of the film:

http://www.propstore.com/cms/europa-report/?amp;utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter+

Here is a short video showing some of the props:

[Blackstar]

Here's a group looking at what it would take to do a human Europa mission:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2013/09/objective-europa/

[Robotbeat]

Already have a thread:
http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=32885.0

[Ronpur50]

I watched this film last night.  I found it rather confusing at the beginning, but finally caught on to the found footage premise that was going on.  The decisions of the crew bothered me, why a single crewperson EVA....


The spacewalk incident was very dramatic, and I loved the ship design.

[Elmar Moelzer]

You can already guess that everybody dies in the end. So why bother watching it?

Because what is important is not that they died, but what they did while they were alive.

Your observation is worthy of a bumper sticker! 

To Elmar: I hope your sentiment is confined merely to movies. 

I like this thread.  Maybe I'll start daydreaming about a "nominal" mission screenplay.

Noone is talking about that. I am all for action and drama in a movie. It is just the same with all found footage movies. The premise gives away the ending. And it annoys me. Plus the camerawork in these movies drives me insane. Also, I generally prefer a somewhat positive ending. Call me naive, but my real life has enough drama and negativity in it. I dont need that in my "entertainment" too.

[Lars_J]

I finally saw this (it is on Netflix streaming now in the US) - and I liked it more than I thought I would.

The found footage aspect of it was a nice touch - all footage was from internal or external cameras. They did a fair amount of work to make the ship exterior and interior plausible. (Lots of bags strapped in places like on ISS)

On the bad side I found the shifting timeline (flash forwards and backwards) annoying.

It was also a bit hilarious how nobody thought... Hey, an astronaut is drifting away slowly - if only we weren't in a spaceship with thrusters that would allow us to try and go get him.

[Blackstar]

It was also a bit hilarious how nobody thought... Hey, an astronaut is drifting away slowly - if only we weren't in a spaceship with thrusters that would allow us to try and go get him.

But that was not the problem. The problem was that his spacesuit was covered in hydrazine and they could not let him in the airlock or he would kill the other crewman and himself and contaminate the airlock. If you watch it again, note that he's dead very soon after he floats away.

[Lars_J]

It was also a bit hilarious how nobody thought... Hey, an astronaut is drifting away slowly - if only we weren't in a spaceship with thrusters that would allow us to try and go get him.

But that was not the problem. The problem was that his spacesuit was covered in hydrazine and they could not let him in the airlock or he would kill the other crewman and himself and contaminate the airlock. If you watch it again, note that he's dead very soon after he floats away.

The timeline cutting makes it unclear how much time actually passed - didn't he state he had at least 15-30 mins of air left? They could at least have made an effort to catch up to him while figuring out options. Surely hydrazine also evaporates in vacuum conditions, so the toxicity would be reduced over time.

Anyway, a contrivance of the plot, for sure. (Just like a certain event in 'gravity')

[Elmar Moelzer]

The timeline cutting makes it unclear how much time actually passed - didn't he state he had at least 15-30 mins of air left? They could at least have made an effort to catch up to him while figuring out options. Surely hydrazine also evaporates in vacuum conditions, so the toxicity would be reduced over time.

Anyway, a contrivance of the plot, for sure. (Just like a certain event in 'gravity')

I too would believe that hydrazine would evaporate. They could have still cought him and provided him with extra air until that happens. It does seem odd to me too.

[DFSL]

I recently watched this movie. Can't say I found it particularly compelling.