In ‘Ad Astra,’ Brad Pitt Suits Up for Deep Space Exploration
Ad Astra director James Gray appeared alongside several NASA luminaries to discuss the real challenges of blasting off for faraway planets.
By S.C. Stuart
In Ad Astra, Brad Pitt is Major Roy McBride, an astronaut tasked with building the world’s largest antenna in the (continued) search for intelligent life “out there.” But midway through a daring feat of engineering—poised high above the Earth’s surface—he’s almost killed by a mysterious power surge.
McBride must then head into deep space and find the cause of the massive electrical bursts from beyond. Because (no spoilers here) his long-lost astronaut/scientist father (Tommy Lee Jones) might be behind them, working nefariously out of a secret laboratory somewhere near Neptune.
The film’s title comes from the Latin phrase Per aspera ad astra (“Through hardship to the stars,” in case your knowledge of ancient languages needs a reboot). IMHO, the father/son Jungian psych drama is rather exhausting, but the breathtaking views of space (kudos to cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema), battles with lunar pirates, and imaginative future (med)tech elements, are wonderful. And there are plenty of geeky nods to space-themed cinema classics, from 2001: A Space Odyssey to Gravity.
Director James Gray brought together a dream team of advisors, including Garrett Reisman, who flew two space shuttle missions to the International Space Station (ISS), and aerospace engineer Robert Yowell, a 30-year veteran of the space program. Ahead of the movie’s opening weekend, PCMag was invited to a preview and panel discussion at Fox Studios in Los Angeles, where Gray appeared alongside several NASA luminaries.
‘Ready for the Next Stage’
The movies make space travel look exciting, glamorous, and sometimes terrifying, but true space exploration requires more than strapping on a spacesuit and blasting off on an adventure.
“We’ve had 18 years on the ISS, learning how to create a sustainable method of living and learning in lunar space. Now we’re ready for the next stage,” said Dr. Tracy Caldwell Dyson, a NASA astronaut who has logged more than 188 days in space, including over 22 hours in three spacewalks.
“In Low Earth Orbit we know how to keep humans alive, [but] they’re now going to have to become more autonomous in deep space,” added Jessica Vos, NASA Orion Crew Systems Engineer.
First stop: the moon (again). The Gateway stage, which will orbit the moon, “allows us to take landers, orientate ourselves anywhere, and then explore any place [on the surface],” said Lara Kearney, Deputy Program Manager of NASA Gateway. That’s a step up from the Apollo Mission teams, which had to position themselves over the equatorial region and stay there once they landed.
“The moon is a stepping stone,” Kearney pointed out. “Mars is very challenging, and so we will learn how to use the resources from the moon so we don’t have to bring everything we need away from Earth.”
Once humans do make it to Mars, they’ll need to get around. NASA is working on a helicopter that will be attached to the Mars 2020 rover.
“It’s not that easy to fly in the Martian atmosphere because it’s so thin,” explained Dr. Laura Kerber, a Planetary Scientist at JPL. “It was quite a challenge to get that to work aerodynamically. But it’ll be very exciting scientifically, because you have your rover on the surface, [and the] helicopter [will] drop it off and it’s going to…fly up [and] get this incredible vantage point…and I’m very excited for it to happen.”
Unlike other depictions of space, Ad Astra focuses less on robots and more on the human drama of going into the unknown. But robots are already onboard the ISS, and astronaut Dr. Tracy Caldwell Dyson welcomes her silicon co-workers.
“Our robots are made by super-smart people and…they truly go into the unknown, do the reconnaissance, and tell us a lot-whether we should go there, and if we go there, what we should do [next].”
Ad Astra is billed as a thriller, but it’s also a love letter to space exploration that’s deeply researched and carefully executed. It’s not absolutely accurate on how matter responds to atmospheres outside our own. But, perhaps unlike 2001: A Space Odyssey, it’s one NASA scientists can feel good about taking their families to see it.
Originally published at https://www.pcmag.com on September 25, 2019.
