Science
Sex in space: How movies and TV are picturing your future life on Mars – CNET
We’re years, if not decades, away from being able to send humans to Mars, but that hasn’t stopped the entertainment industry from imagining what humans might encounter on the red planet.
In the 1960s film The Angry Red Planet, Mars is redder than you’ve ever seen and inhabited by an unfriendly giant bat-spider. In Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall (1990) the red planet is a colony on the brink of war with a strong population of mutants. If we learned anything from the film John Carter, a 2012 adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, it’s that humans have almost unlimited abilities on Mars and human-looking Martians/Barsoomians speak with a British accent.
But Hollywood’s most recent portrayals of Mars or even its colonization have been less about the green-skinned, head-exploding creatures of Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (1996) and more about what the planet would realistically look like after we arrive and terraform it.
I’m talking about movies like James Gray’s Ad Astra, where Brad Pitt, en route to Neptune, finds himself making a pit stop at an oppressive and charmless Martian colony. Or TV shows like MARS, a National Geographic docudrama that blends interviews with real scientists, astronauts and other Mars experts with the fictional story of the first crew that lands on Mars, in 2033. These kinds of titles, while leaning on fiction, also confer an idea of what the future of Mars colonization could end up looking like.
“You can’t portray Mars in purely fanciful ways anymore without straining suspension of disbelief,” Andy Weir, author of the 2011 best seller The Martian, tells me. He says modern-day people are too well-educated about the realities of the planet.
More science in science fiction
That increased authenticity, and increasingly more educated audience, could be due in part to the collaboration filmmakers seek with space agencies like NASA. Last year alone, NASA worked with the makers of 30 television programs and 19 feature films, including Ad Astra, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and Star Trek: Picard.
The agency even vets scripts, working back and forth with filmmakers. “Not everything becomes accurate, but it’s at least a bit more accurate than it would have been had they not contacted us,” Bert Ulrich, NASA’s Multimedia Liaison, tells me during a phone conversation. NASA gives production teams access to footage and imagery.
“I think it’s definitely possible to make a story that’s 100% correct in terms of science,” Weir tells me when I ask if it’s fair to say Hollywood stories about space are always going to contain some scientific imprecisions. Weir’s book was the source material for a 2015 Ridley Scott movie with a star-packed cast led by Matt Damon and Jessica Chastain.
His initially self-published book was lauded for its scientific accuracy and research. “I try to stick with real science as much as I possibly can,” Weir said. “Sometimes I’ll hand-wave, but only if there’s no other option.” The Martian’s protagonist, Mark Watney, popularized the catchphrase “I’m gonna have to science the shit out of this.”
Both the book and its cinematic adaptation take dramatic license, though. As Ulrich points out, there are no sandstorms on Mars like the one shown at the beginning of The Martian, which initially strands Watney on the planet. NASA suggested the filmmakers opt for a lightning strike instead, but Ridley Scott decided to stick to the story of the sandstorm. “We were fine with that. We understand that artists are artists,” says Ulrich.
Brad Pitt in Ad Astra.
Twentieth Century Fox
The Martian isn’t the only offender. Former NASA astronaut and USC Professor Garrett Reisman tells me about the teardrop that rolls down Brad Pitt’s face in Ad Astra. James Gray, the movie’s director, was perfectly aware that’s not possible in zero gravity, but he decided to leave it and ignore the laws of physics because it looked good. “Brad Pitt was expressing such amazing emotion,” Reisman, who was a consultant for the film, explains in a phone conversation. “Nobody ever goes to a movie for the orbital mechanics. They go for the story.”
And stories need to be appealing, thought-provoking and human in a way that resonates with the audience and piques people’s interest.
During the presentation of the second season of MARS in front of the Television Critics Association, executive producer Ron Howard spoke about the need for a balance between facts versus storytelling in the show. “Our desire is to deal with science in as accurate a way as we could, as well-researched a way as we could. But also to make a great show,” he said. “We’re not unwilling to take a few leaps.”
He was referring to the fact that the show toys with the idea of life on Mars, even though no definitive proof has been found. MARS also broaches the subject of death and loss, and one of its characters becomes pregnant, too. And here’s where human relationships and good old-fashioned drama come into the science fiction equation.
Sex in space
Not everything in Hollywood’s new wave of Mars and space representations is necessarily naturalistic. As author Mary Roach describes in her book Packing for Mars, “[t]ake away or greatly reduce the force of gravity, and thrusting just pushes the object of one’s affections away.” That’s to say that sex in space isn’t necessarily what we’re used to experiencing on Earth.
“If you want to see some hilariously lame zero-g sex scenes, check out the porno film (The Uranus Experiment),” Roach recommends via email after I inquire whether she’s seen the sex scenes from The Expanse. I’m curious about their accuracy. The Expanse is based on the series of novels by Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck and is set in a future where the solar system has been colonized by humans.
Roach hasn’t watched The Expanse, but she throws more light on the subject of weightless intercourse and its practicability in her book, implying that it’s hard to imagine that absolutely every astronaut has resisted the urge when given the opportunity.
Dominique Tipper, Cas Anvar, Wes Chatham and Steven Strait in the fourth season of The Expanse.
Amazon Prime Video
“I don’t think there’s any question that it’s physically possible,” Reisman says when I inquire about the subject of sex in space, but he notes he hasn’t tried it or talked to anyone who has. “Just based on the sheer kinematics and mechanics involved … There’s no reason why it couldn’t work.”
Or, as astronaut Roger Crouch told Roach for her book, sex in space is a matter of the imagination of the participants. “The Kama Sutra couldn’t start to cover all the possibilities.”
Those words would tickle any Hollywood producer.
A boring affair?
The thing is, when we finally make it to Mars, it remains to be seen how much the planet will look like what Hollywood has represented. The astronauts probably won’t look as dazzling and perfectly bearded as Pitt’s character did in Ad Astra after a long journey back to Earth inside a spaceship. It’s unlikely they’ll sound half as witty as Mark Watney did in The Martian. And hopefully, no human feces will be used as potato fertilizer.
Weir tells me the first settlers on Mars will take things very seriously and nothing will be left to chance. “There will be setbacks, but it’ll probably be a boring, successful affair,” he says.
Reisman doesn’t necessarily agree. For the former astronaut, something as complex as going to another planet always comes with the element of surprise and challenges. “It’s never going to be as predictable as you might think,” he says.
However close to a Hollywood production Mars ends up being, Reisman says there are signs the story will keep going, and he highlights the money, resources and time devoted to Mars by people such as Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, SpaceX founder Elon Musk and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson.
“They want to make science fiction real,” Reisman says. And space tourism sounds like the perfect sequel for this story.
Science
Asteroid Apophis will visit Earth in 2029, and this European satellite will be along for the ride
The European Space Agency is fast-tracking a new mission called Ramses, which will fly to near-Earth asteroid 99942 Apophis and join the space rock in 2029 when it comes very close to our planet — closer even than the region where geosynchronous satellites sit.
Ramses is short for Rapid Apophis Mission for Space Safety and, as its name suggests, is the next phase in humanity’s efforts to learn more about near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) and how we might deflect them should one ever be discovered on a collision course with planet Earth.
In order to launch in time to rendezvous with Apophis in February 2029, scientists at the European Space Agency have been given permission to start planning Ramses even before the multinational space agency officially adopts the mission. The sanctioning and appropriation of funding for the Ramses mission will hopefully take place at ESA’s Ministerial Council meeting (involving representatives from each of ESA’s member states) in November of 2025. To arrive at Apophis in February 2029, launch would have to take place in April 2028, the agency says.
This is a big deal because large asteroids don’t come this close to Earth very often. It is thus scientifically precious that, on April 13, 2029, Apophis will pass within 19,794 miles (31,860 kilometers) of Earth. For comparison, geosynchronous orbit is 22,236 miles (35,786 km) above Earth’s surface. Such close fly-bys by asteroids hundreds of meters across (Apophis is about 1,230 feet, or 375 meters, across) only occur on average once every 5,000 to 10,000 years. Miss this one, and we’ve got a long time to wait for the next.
When Apophis was discovered in 2004, it was for a short time the most dangerous asteroid known, being classified as having the potential to impact with Earth possibly in 2029, 2036, or 2068. Should an asteroid of its size strike Earth, it could gouge out a crater several kilometers across and devastate a country with shock waves, flash heating and earth tremors. If it crashed down in the ocean, it could send a towering tsunami to devastate coastlines in multiple countries.
Over time, as our knowledge of Apophis’ orbit became more refined, however, the risk of impact greatly went down. Radar observations of the asteroid in March of 2021 reduced the uncertainty in Apophis’ orbit from hundreds of kilometers to just a few kilometers, finally removing any lingering worries about an impact — at least for the next 100 years. (Beyond 100 years, asteroid orbits can become too unpredictable to plot with any accuracy, but there’s currently no suggestion that an impact will occur after 100 years.) So, Earth is expected to be perfectly safe in 2029 when Apophis comes through. Still, scientists want to see how Apophis responds by coming so close to Earth and entering our planet’s gravitational field.
“There is still so much we have yet to learn about asteroids but, until now, we have had to travel deep into the solar system to study them and perform experiments ourselves to interact with their surface,” said Patrick Michel, who is the Director of Research at CNRS at Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, in a statement. “Nature is bringing one to us and conducting the experiment itself. All we need to do is watch as Apophis is stretched and squeezed by strong tidal forces that may trigger landslides and other disturbances and reveal new material from beneath the surface.”
By arriving at Apophis before the asteroid’s close encounter with Earth, and sticking with it throughout the flyby and beyond, Ramses will be in prime position to conduct before-and-after surveys to see how Apophis reacts to Earth. By looking for disturbances Earth’s gravitational tidal forces trigger on the asteroid’s surface, Ramses will be able to learn about Apophis’ internal structure, density, porosity and composition, all of which are characteristics that we would need to first understand before considering how best to deflect a similar asteroid were one ever found to be on a collision course with our world.
Besides assisting in protecting Earth, learning about Apophis will give scientists further insights into how similar asteroids formed in the early solar system, and, in the process, how planets (including Earth) formed out of the same material.
One way we already know Earth will affect Apophis is by changing its orbit. Currently, Apophis is categorized as an Aten-type asteroid, which is what we call the class of near-Earth objects that have a shorter orbit around the sun than Earth does. Apophis currently gets as far as 0.92 astronomical units (137.6 million km, or 85.5 million miles) from the sun. However, our planet will give Apophis a gravitational nudge that will enlarge its orbit to 1.1 astronomical units (164.6 million km, or 102 million miles), such that its orbital period becomes longer than Earth’s.
It will then be classed as an Apollo-type asteroid.
Ramses won’t be alone in tracking Apophis. NASA has repurposed their OSIRIS-REx mission, which returned a sample from another near-Earth asteroid, 101955 Bennu, in 2023. However, the spacecraft, renamed OSIRIS-APEX (Apophis Explorer), won’t arrive at the asteroid until April 23, 2029, ten days after the close encounter with Earth. OSIRIS-APEX will initially perform a flyby of Apophis at a distance of about 2,500 miles (4,000 km) from the object, then return in June that year to settle into orbit around Apophis for an 18-month mission.
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Furthermore, the European Space Agency still plans on launching its Hera spacecraft in October 2024 to follow-up on the DART mission to the double asteroid Didymos and Dimorphos. DART impacted the latter in a test of kinetic impactor capabilities for potentially changing a hazardous asteroid’s orbit around our planet. Hera will survey the binary asteroid system and observe the crater made by DART’s sacrifice to gain a better understanding of Dimorphos’ structure and composition post-impact, so that we can place the results in context.
The more near-Earth asteroids like Dimorphos and Apophis that we study, the greater that context becomes. Perhaps, one day, the understanding that we have gained from these missions will indeed save our planet.
Astronomy PhD candidate Veronika Dornan served as the astronomer in residence at Killarney Provincial Park. She’ll be back again in October when the nights are longer (and bug free). Dornan has delivered dozens of talks and shows at the W.J. McCallion Planetarium and in the community. (Photos by Veronika Dornan)
BY Jay Robb, Faculty of Science
July 16, 2024
Veronika Dornan followed up the April 8 total solar eclipse with another awe-inspiring celestial moment.
This time, the astronomy PhD candidate wasn’t cheering alongside thousands of people at McMaster — she was alone with a telescope in the heart of Killarney Provincial Park just before midnight.
Dornan had the park’s telescope pointed at one of the hundreds of globular star clusters that make up the Milky Way. She was seeing light from thousands of stars that had travelled more than 10,000 years to reach the Earth.
This time there was no cheering: All she could say was a quiet “wow”.
Dornan drove five hours north to spend a week at Killarney Park as the astronomer in residence. part of an outreach program run by the park in collaboration with the Allan I. Carswell Observatory at York University.
Dornan applied because the program combines her two favourite things — astronomy and the great outdoors. While she’s a lifelong camper, hiker and canoeist, it was her first trip to Killarney.
Bruce Waters, who’s taught astronomy to the public since 1981 and co-founded Stars over Killarney, warned Dornan that once she went to the park, she wouldn’t want to go anywhere else.
The park lived up to the hype. Everywhere she looked was like a painting, something “a certain Group of Seven had already thought many times over.”
She spent her days hiking the Granite Ridge, Crack and Chikanishing trails and kayaking on George Lake. At night, she went stargazing with campers — or at least tried to. The weather didn’t cooperate most evenings — instead of looking through the park’s two domed telescopes, Dornan improvised and gave talks in the amphitheatre beneath cloudy skies.
Dornan has delivered dozens of talks over the years in McMaster’s W.J. McCallion Planetarium and out in the community, but “it’s a bit more complicated when you’re talking about the stars while at the same time fighting for your life against swarms of bugs.”
When the campers called it a night and the clouds parted, Dornan spent hours observing the stars. “I seriously messed up my sleep schedule.”
She also gave astrophotography a try during her residency, capturing images of the Ring Nebula and the Great Hercules Cluster.
“People assume astronomers take their own photos. I needed quite a lot of guidance for how to take the images. It took a while to fiddle with the image properties, but I got my images.”
Dornan’s been invited back for another week-long residency in bug-free October, when longer nights offer more opportunities to explore and photograph the final frontier.
She’s aiming to defend her PhD thesis early next summer, then build a career that continues to combine research and outreach.
“Research leads to new discoveries which gives you exciting things to talk about. And if you’re not connecting with the public then what’s the point of doing research?”
Eyes to the skies, Vancouver, because between now and September 1st, stargazers can witness the ‘best meteor shower of the year’ according to NASA.
Known for its “long wakes of light and colour,” the Perseid Meteor Shower will peak on August 12th, 2024 – so consider this list a great place to start if you’re in search of a prime stargazing spots!
Grab your lawn chairs and blankets, and seek as little light pollution as possible. Here are some ideal stargazing spots to check out in and around Vancouver this summer.
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Wreck Beach
If you’re willing to brave the stairs and the regulars, it doesn’t get much better than Wreck Beach for watching the skies – for both sunsets and stargazing. The west-facing views practically eliminate immediate distractions from the city lights.
Spanish Banks Park
Spanish Banks is the perfect mixture of convenience and quality. Its location offers unobstructed views of the skies above, and it’s far enough away from downtown to mitigate some of the light pollution.
Burnaby Mountain Park
If it’s good enough for a university observatory, it’s good enough for us. Pretty much anywhere on Burnaby Mountain will offer tremendous viewpoints, but the higher you get the better (safely).
Porteau Cove
A short drive from Vancouver gets you incredible views of the Howe Sound from directly on the water. And naturally, its distance from any nearby community makes it a prime spot for stargazing.
Cypress Mountain
In addition to having one of the best viewpoints in Vancouver period, Cypress Mountain (and the road up to it) is also a great place to watch the sky. For a double-whammy, we say that you come around sunset, then hang out while the sky gets dark. Sure, it might take a few hours, but the view is worth it.
So there you have it, stargazers! Get ready to witness a dazzling show this summer.
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