Towards a new space race in the hands of film? – ElLitoral.com

Towards a new space race hand cinema?

By Arturo Fernandez Knieling

Madrid. (DPA)

“put a man on Mars depends on the enthusiasm with which governments support this initiative,” he summed up Spanish astronaut Pedro Duque in a recent talk to the press for the premiere of the latest film by Ridley Scott, “The Martian”. The appointment responds to the obvious question that you can make an astronaut after watching this space odyssey starring Matt Damon: “Do you think that send a man to Mars?”. And just asking questions is what seems to be getting the film with the new boom of this genre in recent decades had been somewhat forgotten.

In videoconference from the European Space Agency (ESA), which leads the Flight Operations Office with responsibility for European activities in the International Space Station (ISS), Duque said yes, the man travels to Mars, but when depends on financial support from governments.

In other words: Currently, there are no funds for a mission of this kind, nor apparently interest. Something that, at least in terms of citizen enthusiasm, perhaps could change cinema hand.

Over the past decade and a half, the US space agency (Nasa) wins several setbacks in their missions that have cost him much reputation. The most famous, the explosion of the shuttle Columbia (with seven crew members on board) as in February 2003, making his re-entry into the atmosphere.

To this adds that, according to offered by The Guardian, that Washington intended budget went from 4.8 percent in the 60 to less than one per cent today. Yet Duke hinted in the talk with the media that “a new era of space Barrunta competition”. And you may be right when taking into account two aspects

The first is success in social networks harvested two of the landmarks of modern space exploration. The sisters missions Rosetta and Philae probe and probe New Horizonts both trending topic on Twitter and Instagram, two meters trends and more efficient social interest today.

And the second, the good reception at the box office had” Gravity “(2013), with which the Mexican Alfonso Cuarón took an Oscar for creating 3D sensory experience rarely seen in a movie theater, and the metaphysics” Interestellar “(2014), Christopher Nolan

Now, just before the premiere of” Star Wars: The Force Awakens “JJ Abrams is the turn of “The Martian”. And the outlook is not exactly bad. This new 3D odyssey debuted in theaters last October 2nd crowned leader of the North American box office, where it already has grossed $ 108 million

During the 60s, during the Cold War, both the Soviet and American cinema served to project and influence other cultures around the world the values ​​and ideologies of both powers, a kind of propaganda war. The space race was not exempt from this activity.

why some feel it may not be 100 by 100 chance that one of the classics of the genre film will premiere one year before the arrival of man on the moon. “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick, marked a before and after in the history of science fiction cinema. A year earlier, starring Charlton Heston “Planet of the Apes” and it was about to break out one of the most famous wars in history. The galaxy

Naturally The USSR was quick to respond to American cosmic fever. Andrei Tarkovsky filmed for many is the “2001 Soviet”, “Solaris” (1972), another metaphysical epic of unusual complexity, and representing one of the peaks of science fiction cinema during the Soviet space race.

“NASA is closer than ever to send US astronauts to Mars,” said the agency’s current administrator, Charles Bolden. How do think you can see in a video just released on Twitter under the hashtag #JourneyToMars.