Good Science and Bad Science And Lack Thereof In Science Fiction Films and TV Series

[J Riff]

Oh dear no, absolute zero, or any close approximation of same, will cause brain damage in far less than a minute. Before real spacesuits, there was an accident or two. The only heat would have to come from the friction of falling, if in atmosphere... if in space, forget it.

 

[BAYLOR]

If you go to the films forum and find the thread on the original Arny version of "Total Recall" there is a long discussion on this subject based around the "eye-popping" effects in that film with the actual quoting of science articles IIRC. If think the final agreement was that blood won't boil or lungs explode. The eye-popping is unlikely, but then it is also possibly a false memory too!

On Mars you'd suffocate very quickly in that thin cold air.

 

[BAYLOR]

Oh dear no, absolute zero, or any close approximation of same, will cause brain damage in far less than a minute. Before real spacesuits, there was an accident or two. The only heat would have to come from the friction of falling, if in atmosphere... if in space, forget it.

Also isn't much the Martian atmosphere composed of Carbon?

 

[Dave]

You must have seen the film, right? Either there are ancient Martian machines that produce Oxygen, or, everything is an implanted false memory. You take your pick.

 

[BAYLOR]

You must have seen the film, right? Either there are ancient Martian machines that produce Oxygen, or, everything is an implanted false memory. You take your pick.

Given that it was inspired by a Philip k Dick story , it's a tough choice.

 

[Camiedee]

The Martian is a great movie, and as far as I saw, there was only one major scientific flaw, that being the Mars storm

 

[J Riff]

Lots air on Mars, none in space. The instant transition to a low enough temperature will knock a human being cold in a second. But, in those movies where the air is leaking out while everyone yells, eyebugs, and inflates... well I've never seen that, except in movies. It seems to me that the heat would disappear but pronto, even before the air was gone?

 

[galanx]

Mercury doesn't have an atmosphere, and the temperature in daytime is 427C/800C in the daytiime, though down to -170C /-280F at night. It depends how much energy the object in question is exposed to, not whether there's an atmosphere to conduct it. A spaceship flying close to the sun needs a heat shield even though it's in a vacuum.

NASA's Cosmicopia -- Ask Us - Space Physics - Heat, Temperature, and the Electromagnetic Spectrum

Scroll down to answers 5 and 6.

Oh dear no, absolute zero, or any close approximation of same, will cause brain damage in far less than a minute. Before real spacesuits, there was an accident or two. The only heat would have to come from the friction of falling, if in atmosphere... if in space, forget it.

 

[psikeyhackr]

Lots air on Mars, none in space. The instant transition to a low enough temperature will knock a human being cold in a second.

The air pressure on Mars is about 1% that of Earth. That is why the storm at the beginning of The Martian is nonsense. But the vacuum of space means that radiation is the only way to lose heat. The Enterprise in TNG lost heat too fast when the environmental systems went out.

psik

 

[Mirannan]

The air pressure on Mars is about 1% that of Earth. That is why the storm at the beginning of The Martian is nonsense. But the vacuum of space means that radiation is the only way to lose heat. The Enterprise in TNG lost heat to fast when the environmental systems went out.

psik

Yup. If anything, the temperature on Enterprise ought to have been going up. Lots of power generation ultimately ending up as heat, a big ship (low ratio of area to volume) which was light-coloured - which also decreases radiative heat loss.

 

[J Riff]

Oh don't believe that stuff about Mars, plenty O2 up there, they just keep it out of sight. But, high altitude depressurization, without a sealed spacesuit - ? done for in seconds. High meaning 8 miles high. The movie stuff I still wonder about. Seems highly unlikely that even Arnie could live thru it.

 

[BAYLOR]

Oh don't believe that stuff about Mars, plenty O2 up there, they just keep it out of sight. But, high altitude depressurization, without a sealed spacesuit - ? done for in seconds. High meaning 8 miles high. The movie stuff I still wonder about. Seems highly unlikely that even Arnie could live thru it.

What about below the surface of Mars?

 

[J Riff]

That's the best place to hide it. And, yknow.... water, plants, Martians.... *

 

[BAYLOR]

That's the best place to hide it. And, yknow.... water, plants, Martians.... *

Life below the ground wouldn't that be wonderful.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Talking of Total Recall I just watched the bloody awful 2012 remake and wondered if the writers or producers had EVER stepped into an elevator. For those of you who haven't seen it (trust me, you have better things to do with your time) the plot revolves around a tunnel through the centre of the earth connecting Australia and Britain. There is a huge shuttle that can go from one to the other in minutes. It called 'the Fall' because that's what it does. It falls right through the centre of the earth and arrives at it's destination to be clamped into place to stop it falling back again before everyone has got off. (Presumably some extra energy is pumped into the system somewhere of the thing would never make it back to the top again.) Now here's the thing. Falling. This thing is in freefall. It's contents must be in freefall too. Not in this move they ain't. There's a point in the middle of the earth where the gravity suddenly STOPS and the passenger compartments rotate 180 degrees (so people don't arrive at their destination upside down) - and then it's back to 1G all the way up!

 

[Khuratokh]

Battlefield Earth. So much wrong on so many levels.
F-16 jets that have been sitting in a bunker for over 2000 years that only require fuel to fly. Fuel that is also 2000 years old.
Considering how often F-16 fail even with regular maintenance and that jet fuel deteriorates over time, this takes the cake.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Nit Pick mode: they were Harrier Jump Jets.

 

[J Riff]

I guess that's the 'Fiction' part of SF... )

 

[BAYLOR]

Battlefield Earth. So much wrong on so many levels.
F-16 jets that have been sitting in a bunker for over 2000 years that only require fuel to fly. Fuel that is also 2000 years old.
Considering how often F-16 fail even with regular maintenance and that jet fuel deteriorates over time, this takes the cake.

In the book they used Psychlo space ship and not Jets. Jets after 2000 years would be corroded beyond recognition and even if the the planes somehow miraclulously survived intact Tthe electronics an much of the wiring would dry corrode and crumble to dust.

 

[JunkMonkey]

In the book they used Psychlo space ship and not Jets. Jets after 2000 years would be corroded beyond recognition and even if the the planes somehow miraclulously survived intact Tthe electronics an much of the wiring would dry corrode and crumble to dust.

I didn't get that far in the book but it was obvious that Hubbard had no idea of what a thousand years was like. I gave up when they were finding 1000 year old Thompson Submachine guns with working ammo, and millennium-old telephone directories that had been left lying out in the open and had 'almost gone to pieces'.

(That's 1000 years not 2000 BTW. The book is subtitled: Battlefield Earth: A Saga of the Year 3000.)