One of the 21st Century’s Best Sci-Fi Movies Gets Huge Praise From NASA Astronauts

With NASA preparing to send men back to the moon for the first time in over 50 years with the Artemis II mission, astronauts talked about their favorite sci-fi space movies. The films they talked about ranged from real-life stories like Apollo 13 and The Right Stuff to comedies like Galaxy Quest and classic masterpieces like 2001: A Space Odyssey. However, there was also a more modern-day masterpiece from director Ridley Scott that got huge praise from the NASA astronauts. This movie was The Martian, based on the novel by Andy Weir, and while it was a fictional tale, it received high praise for its science.

CNN asked 11 astronauts to share their favorite space films, and one of the movies chosen was The Martian. The movie follows Matt Damon’s Dr. Mark Watney, a botanist and mechanical engineer who is part of the Ares III team on Mars. However, when the tam leaves the Red Planet, an accident causes him to get left behind, where he has to survive alone until NASA can find a way to retrieve him.

According to Clayton C. Anderson, who spent five months aboard the International Space Station in 2007, The Martian’s story of teamwork and comradarie were very realistic. “It shows the dedication of NASA’s workforce, working together, sometimes at huge personal sacrifice, to get the job done,” Anderson said. He then pointed out that the film was right on, because the three things that guarantee a mission’s success are “protecting the crew, the vehicle, and mission objectives.”

A second NASA scientist, Dr. Kate Rubins, also spoke about the scientific realism of The Martian. She spent 300 days in space and was the first person to sequence DNA beyond Earth. “It does a great job of showing how biology and chemistry can be used to make what you need from what you have on hand,” Rubins said. She also said that Damon’s character utilizing what he had available is “critical during space missions, like growing food or making essential materials, instead of relying upon resupply from Earth.”

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The Martian Production Worked With NASA Directly

It makes sense that The Martian would get such high praise from NASA. That is because Ridley Scott and the movie’s producers worked with NASA directly on the movie. In fact, NASA invited novelist Peter Weir to tour the Johnson Space Center and Jet Propulsion Laboratory when the novel was published. When preparing to make the movie, Ridley Scott and producer Mark Huffam called NASA and spoke with Bert Ulrich, its film and television liaison.

NASA then sent staff members to help Scott depict the science and technology used in The Martian. James L. Green, director of the Planetary Science Division, and Dave Lavery, program executive for Solar System Exploration, both joined the production as consultants. After talking to Green twice before filming, Scott and his production team asked NASA hundreds of questions, which either Green answered or another expert responded to. Production designer Arthur Max then received an eight-hour tour of the Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Much like how Top Gun served as a major promotional tour for military sign-ups, NASA hoped The Martian would serve as a promotion for a future mission to Mars.

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