5 ms·

I've just been watching From the Earth to the Moon (1998) these past few days, go check it out if you haven't, I had never heard of it.

by dysoco 3y ago

Dalewyn 3y ago
I also highly recommend When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_Missions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_M...
- rkagerer 3y ago
  For All Mankind is a fictional alternate history with an awesome first season.
  - fsloth 3y ago
    For All Mankind is so so drama but it becomes super good if you are familiar with the nuts and bolts space program, and all the seasons hold up from this aspect - as the timeline diverges the tech becomes a bit less grounded, but it's forgivable for the audacity of a parallel history space dream the script shows. The character arcs are more like ... Space Soap Opera arcs rather than more grounded but that makes it only more entertaining IMO. They don't fully open the soap box on first season which is probably why it's the best of them. The soap aspect is also somewhat defensible. A number of significant individuals critical to the space program back then had super weird life stories beyond their technical contributions. For sure, you had the stereotypical buttoned up test pilots with nerves of steel... but you also had.. Black magicians and Industrial scale mass murderers. So, it's arguable are the For All Mankind characters too looney or not looney enough by a large margin. [0] Black magician: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons [1] Industrial scale mass murderer:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rudolph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rudolph
    - aebtebeten 3y ago
      Some (sub)orbital geopolitics don't seem to have changed much in 8 decades: You too may be a big hero Once you've learned to count backwards to zero "In German oder English I know how to count down Und I'm learning Chinese" says Wernher von Braun (for countdowns in a Japanese translation, see "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise") Someone on HN convinced me recently that "Hitler in his Bunker" was on the looney side, but up until then the only non-looney explanation I had found for his behaviour was that he had been hoping he could sell germany wholesale either to the US[0] or to the USSR, not anticipating they would actually stay allied until after the war, each picking up the bits[1] they wanted retail (Operations Paperclip and Осоавиахим, respectively). [0] had the Sportpalast speech been given in 1953 instead of 1943, the "only we are protecting the West against communism" shtick might have gone over much better in the States. [1] it turns out that developing not just rockets but also jets is far less useful when, logistically speaking, you no longer have much oil and can no longer refine or synthesise sufficient jet fuel. (someday I'd like to figure out how much early-50's graph theory may have been just the first unclassified publication of network analyses developed during the war for strategic bombing purposes; compare Kantorovich' development and application of linear programming during the Siege of Leningrad) Linebarger relates that at the end of WWII, when getting Nazi units to surrender, they had difficulties[2] because although the officer corps was aware how operationally screwed they were, morale in the ranks was still high. [2] supposedly the difficulties decreased after the psychological warfare operators created an official looking "surrender form", in the blanks of which soldiers could fill in their name, birthplace and Jahrgang, occupation, etc. etc. then provide, dutifully filled out, to Allied units. As an anglophone, it's certainly plausible, but maybe those are just my stereotypes speaking?
  - dysoco 2y ago
    For All Mankind's first season was awesome, as the show progressed more into future years I feel it turned more soapy and speculative though it's still fun. I wasn't a fan of this last season though so I hope they do something cooler for the next one.
rkagerer 3y ago
Are there any other films you'd recommend which focus more on the technical and engineering aspects, rather than the astronauts and people?
- pjmorris 3y ago
  Not a film, but 'Apollo: Race to the Moon' by Murray and Cox is a book covering the engineering and management efforts that went into Apollo, and is the closest, most interesting and entertaining thing I've found that is similar in spirit to the LEM episode of 'From the Earth to the Moon.'
- devilbunny 3y ago
  Not a film, but the book How Apollo Flew To The Moon is a fairly technical story of how it was done.
- KineticLensman 3y ago
  Not films, but 'Sunburst and Luminary' by Don Eyles, about coding the software that would land on the moon, and 'Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight' by David A. Mindell, about the tensions associated with increasing computerisation of space craft
Simon_ORourke 3y ago
A fantastic TV miniseries!!! My favourite is the episode about the guys from Grumman building the LEM, which is filled with the best kind of engineering one-liners and zingers I've yet seen on TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLQeqMaHVYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLQeqMaHVYs "Hey, let's help him see it!"
fsloth 3y ago
For those with large screens to watch it on, Apollo 11 is a heartbreakingly beautiful documentary of the first moon landing using restored film material. While the software engineering aspects are left to the more obscure corners of the Apollo lore, Margaret Hamiltons groundbreaking contributions to the program should be known to enyone who programs professionally. Her teams work does show up, as the Apollo landing computer runs out of memory during the landing: - "1202 Alarm" - "1202? It's executive overflow, if it does not occur again we are fine" They were fine. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_(2019_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_(2019_film)
mikeocool 3y ago
The Right Stuff is also a great book about the initial astronaut selection process and training.
- Triphibian 3y ago
  I'm in the middle of reading it right now. Very enjoyable and does a great job of getting into the mindset of the military test pilot.

I've just been watching From the Earth to the Moon (1998) these past few days, go check it out if you haven't, I had never heard of it.

by dysoco 3y ago

I've just been watching From the Earth to the Moon (1998) these past few days, go check it out if you haven't, I had never heard of it.

Dalewyn 3y ago

I also highly recommend When We Left Earth: The NASA Missions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_Missions https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_We_Left_Earth:_The_NASA_M...

rkagerer 3y ago
For All Mankind is a fictional alternate history with an awesome first season.
- fsloth 3y ago
  For All Mankind is so so drama but it becomes super good if you are familiar with the nuts and bolts space program, and all the seasons hold up from this aspect - as the timeline diverges the tech becomes a bit less grounded, but it's forgivable for the audacity of a parallel history space dream the script shows. The character arcs are more like ... Space Soap Opera arcs rather than more grounded but that makes it only more entertaining IMO. They don't fully open the soap box on first season which is probably why it's the best of them. The soap aspect is also somewhat defensible. A number of significant individuals critical to the space program back then had super weird life stories beyond their technical contributions. For sure, you had the stereotypical buttoned up test pilots with nerves of steel... but you also had.. Black magicians and Industrial scale mass murderers. So, it's arguable are the For All Mankind characters too looney or not looney enough by a large margin. [0] Black magician: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Parsons [1] Industrial scale mass murderer:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rudolph https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rudolph
  - aebtebeten 3y ago
    Some (sub)orbital geopolitics don't seem to have changed much in 8 decades: You too may be a big hero Once you've learned to count backwards to zero "In German oder English I know how to count down Und I'm learning Chinese" says Wernher von Braun (for countdowns in a Japanese translation, see "Royal Space Force: The Wings of Honnêamise") Someone on HN convinced me recently that "Hitler in his Bunker" was on the looney side, but up until then the only non-looney explanation I had found for his behaviour was that he had been hoping he could sell germany wholesale either to the US[0] or to the USSR, not anticipating they would actually stay allied until after the war, each picking up the bits[1] they wanted retail (Operations Paperclip and Осоавиахим, respectively). [0] had the Sportpalast speech been given in 1953 instead of 1943, the "only we are protecting the West against communism" shtick might have gone over much better in the States. [1] it turns out that developing not just rockets but also jets is far less useful when, logistically speaking, you no longer have much oil and can no longer refine or synthesise sufficient jet fuel. (someday I'd like to figure out how much early-50's graph theory may have been just the first unclassified publication of network analyses developed during the war for strategic bombing purposes; compare Kantorovich' development and application of linear programming during the Siege of Leningrad) Linebarger relates that at the end of WWII, when getting Nazi units to surrender, they had difficulties[2] because although the officer corps was aware how operationally screwed they were, morale in the ranks was still high. [2] supposedly the difficulties decreased after the psychological warfare operators created an official looking "surrender form", in the blanks of which soldiers could fill in their name, birthplace and Jahrgang, occupation, etc. etc. then provide, dutifully filled out, to Allied units. As an anglophone, it's certainly plausible, but maybe those are just my stereotypes speaking?
- dysoco 2y ago
  For All Mankind's first season was awesome, as the show progressed more into future years I feel it turned more soapy and speculative though it's still fun. I wasn't a fan of this last season though so I hope they do something cooler for the next one.

rkagerer 3y ago

Are there any other films you'd recommend which focus more on the technical and engineering aspects, rather than the astronauts and people?

pjmorris 3y ago
Not a film, but 'Apollo: Race to the Moon' by Murray and Cox is a book covering the engineering and management efforts that went into Apollo, and is the closest, most interesting and entertaining thing I've found that is similar in spirit to the LEM episode of 'From the Earth to the Moon.'
devilbunny 3y ago
Not a film, but the book How Apollo Flew To The Moon is a fairly technical story of how it was done.
KineticLensman 3y ago
Not films, but 'Sunburst and Luminary' by Don Eyles, about coding the software that would land on the moon, and 'Digital Apollo: Human and Machine in Spaceflight' by David A. Mindell, about the tensions associated with increasing computerisation of space craft

Simon_ORourke 3y ago

A fantastic TV miniseries!!! My favourite is the episode about the guys from Grumman building the LEM, which is filled with the best kind of engineering one-liners and zingers I've yet seen on TV. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLQeqMaHVYs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLQeqMaHVYs "Hey, let's help him see it!"

fsloth 3y ago

For those with large screens to watch it on, Apollo 11 is a heartbreakingly beautiful documentary of the first moon landing using restored film material. While the software engineering aspects are left to the more obscure corners of the Apollo lore, Margaret Hamiltons groundbreaking contributions to the program should be known to enyone who programs professionally. Her teams work does show up, as the Apollo landing computer runs out of memory during the landing: - "1202 Alarm" - "1202? It's executive overflow, if it does not occur again we are fine" They were fine. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_(2019_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11_(2019_film)

mikeocool 3y ago

The Right Stuff is also a great book about the initial astronaut selection process and training.

Triphibian 3y ago
I'm in the middle of reading it right now. Very enjoyable and does a great job of getting into the mindset of the military test pilot.