The Martian Movie Review

Go see this movie.  No, seriously, grab a friend, or two, or more, and go see this movie.  5 Stars.  Then come back here and read the review.

Did you go see the movie?

What do you mean no?

Need more of  a reason, here's the trailer:

Grab your keys and your wallet, or someone with keys and wallet and go see this movie, now.

Did you see the movie yet?

Well whether you have or not, spoilers ahead.  Quite simply put, this is the best movie I've seen this year.  Anyone who knows me knows that I hate it when movies deviate too far from the source materials, especially when it's a book.  I hated movies like I-Robot, Starship Troopers, I Am Legend, etc... for doing just that.  On the flip side I have praise the Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter movies.

This movie, while taking certain liberties from the book, stuck to it fairly well.  I understand why it it deviated too, most of the time it was to move the story along at a faster pace.  While there were some scenes I would have liked to have seen, losing them didn't upset me.  Even the additions didn't get my blood boiling.  Yes, there were a couple that were there for the ego of the stars, but they were ok and I could pass them off.  Even the extended ending, compared to the book, worked well in my opinion, it offered more closure.

I could sit down here for hours and dissect every scene of the film, but I won't.  It it simply a great film.  It is smart, it is funny, it is well paced, and it is believable.  They didn't turn any of the characters into mustache twirling villains, and on some level you could relate to almost everyone in it.  

This was a story about people coming together to save a single brave hero.  And, it worked.  It worked so well.  I hope that Andy Weir gets a dump truck full of royalties for this movie.

And for those of you haven't read the book.

BUY THIS BOOK!!!

Like I said, there are some changes, but they are minimal and fit the new medium.

5 Stars, well earned by all involved.  Now go see the movie if you haven' yet.

Sci-Tech Tuesday

100 Years of NACA

For those outside of aviation, NACA may look like a misspelling of NASA, but the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics actually predates NASA by 43 years.  Established March 3 1915, the agency was founded to undertake, promote, and institutionalize aeronautical research.  It eventually became part of NASA, but it served as the foundation of all things aerospace for quite some time.  Find any aerospace engineer and through a NACA number at them, they'll probably start describing the wing shape attributed to it.

NASA is holding a celebration of the founding of it's parent agency March 3 and 4 and will be broadcasting the whole thing live on NASA TV.

Stratolaunch is Coming Together.

In short, Stratolaunch is Paul Allen's private space launch concept.  It will utilize the largest plane ever built to hoist a rocket up to altitude and the launch the rocket with it's payload into space.  Originally SpaceX planned to partner with them, but decided to focus instead on making their rocket reusable.

The concept here is not new, even the Germans in WW2 played with the idea, and it is how Virgin Galactic and the Spaceship Company deploy Spaceship 2.

The mothership plane is finally coming together, and it is one big mama.  I watched the hanger it is being built in go up.  That structure is mammoth in size, but as the pictures in the link show, it still won't be large enough to hold the completed aircraft once they attach the wings.  This one of those programs to watch.

Wavicles Imaged

Light is a funny thing.  Is it a wave, is it a partcile?  It acts like both and neither, coining the term Wavicle.  Researchers have now imaged light acting just that way proving the quantum-mechanical theory behind how light works.  It's quite the interesting experiment and worth a read for anyone interested in physics.