'Moon' movie mines inner space

New Scientist ^ | 06/18/09 | Rachel Courtland

[KevinDavis]

[KevinDavis]

A big thanks goes to Visualops for the Banner!!

[GSP.FAN]

The reviews for it are good they say it is a kind of homage to Kubricks 2001.
Will add to netflix ...

[Psycho_Bunny]

Great...that review just gave it away.

[ak267]

If the guy has been on the moon for several years, won’t he be unable to ever go back to Earth? The lower gravity would eventually eat away as his bones, degrade his muscles and weaken his circulatory system. How many rads will he be taking?

[cripplecreek]

While the cost of retrieving the material may be prohibitive, in the world of Moon, Lunar Industries has found a way to make a profit,

If its the fuel that some believe it to be, the world would pay our way and then some. From what I've read, a load small enough to fit in a shuttle cargo bay would fuel the entire world for a year.

Maybe that's the real value of the movie. Use science fiction to drive science fact.

[LRS]

From the article:Rockwell excels in portraying both of these hapless characters as they struggle in an Orwellian future where a corporation has the means and the desire to manipulate mind, memory and genome. This vision of corporate corruption is the basic premise of the film...

They lose me there. I am sick of the evil corporation plot line...

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Sounds like "2001" meets "Silent Running".

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Use science fiction to drive science fact.

"An excellent idea my good man."

[eclecticEel]

Given the energy yield, He3 would sell for something like $1,000,000 a kg. It’s very easy to picture a viable business with numbers like that - even considering the high cost of getting there and back. If only the market was there for it.

[eclecticEel]

They never seem to realize that no corporation gets to have that kind of power unless it’s subsumed by the state - the very thing Zero can’t do fast enough.

As an aside, it’s annoying the way they pretend that they won’t be giving away the moviess twist, but then go ahead and do so in the last section.

[cripplecreek]

If only the market was there for it.

If its the fuel source some claim it to be, I suspect a market would grow pretty quickly among developed nations and reactors were built.
As I understand it, Helium 3 can't even be used to produce weapons.

[Signalman]

Sam Rockwell’s a good actor. He played Chuck Barris in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind”, based on Barris’ book which claimed that while he was working on “The Gong Show” and “The Dating Game”, he was a hitman for the CIA. (Somehow I have a hard time believing that).

[cripplecreek]

I liked him as ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton in Green Mile.

[eclecticEel]

No one’s built a practical fusion reactor yet; ITER is trying to make the dueterium/trittium reaction work. If they or someone else succeeds then work can begin on the more advanced He3 variant. The fact that He3 can’t be used to make an H-bomb is actually a boon to it’s future as a fuel. If it was in fact dangerous it would only lead to concern about it falling into the wrong hands - an undesirable trait in the “fuel of the future”.

[Seruzawa]

Great...that review just gave it away.

Thanks for the heads up. I won't read the review. I usually go to see sci-fi regardless so I avoid reviews. What is it with reviews and trailers now? Especially trailers. They show waaaay too much and reveal too much. Some trailers seem to last 5 minutes. I mean, if you can't pique someone's interest enough to see a movie in a minute long trailer the another 4 minutes won't do anything but reveal most of the story. Imagine if the original trailer for The Maltese Falcon featured Bogart saying to Windsor, "You'll only have to do 20 years if you're lucky".

[max americana]

> From the article:Rockwell excels in portraying both of these hapless characters as they struggle in an Orwellian future where a corporation has the means and the desire to manipulate mind, memory and genome. This vision of corporate corruption is the basic premise of the film...

They lose me there. I am sick of the evil corporation plot line...<

Does Rachel, the author have an e-mail address? Send her this: “ you paint corporations and capitalism as evil? How about this? You receive a check everytime you write your propaganda piece, correct? Then that is pure capitalism..an exchange of goods for services and that means, you are a corporation. Now STFU, you commie twit”

[Pontiac]

It’s very easy to picture a viable business with numbers like that - even considering the high cost of getting there and back.

If they ever build the Space Elevator that cost would be greatly reduced.

Profits would be easily obtainable.

[SuziQ]

Will add to netflix ...

I'll do the same! We were talking last week about the mining of Helium 3 on the moon. It's an interesting concept.