Fact checking what sounds like a monumentally dumb flick.
26 thoughts on “Moonfall”
“The Roche limit is when you have so much stress that it shreds physical objects and pulls them apart,” McKinnon explained. In other words, on its approach the moon would actually start breaking apart, and pieces of it would rain down on Earth.
Stephenson first began planning his novel around 2006, while he was working at Blue Origin.
[Johnny Carson voice] I did not know that.
The book was shortlisted for the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
And got beat by (among others) The Fifth Season (N. K. Jemisin) and Ancillary Mercy (Ann Leckie).
We laugh so we can avoid crying.
The Hugo is now a reliable indicator of what not to read since SFWA has long been a fully converged institution. N. K. Jemisin has all the appeal of a wet smelly sock.
I thought if a body was pulled apart at the Roche Limit, it ended up forming rings around the planet.
IIRC Seveneves had *something* hit the Moon which caused it to fall apart and resulted in a Kessler cascade with resulting bits hitting Earth’s atmosphere and frying the surface. Had lots of good ideas in it and someone obviously took him for ride in the wave at Minden NV I’d say in a modern high performance sailplane judging by the amount of gratuitous soaring described.
I’m not sure the Kessler Cascade thing could happen that way though
An illustration of the fact that ideas aren’t covered by copyright and are endlessly recycled, as witness:
Originally published in 1939, it was my very first SFBC selection when I joined back in 1964. If you want to see how close you can come without crossing the line, read “Rite of Passage,” by Alexei Panshin (Nebula winner, 1969) and “Orbital Resonance,” by John Barnes (Nebula winner, 1992). Apparently, by 1992, Panshin and his book were forgotten.
“Apparently, by 1992, Panshin and his book were forgotten.”
As they should have been.*
*Yes, I am a Heinlein fan.
Which Heinlein, the guy who wrote 1940s space operas to pay off his mortgage, the one who wrote sanitized childrens books in the 1950s, or the aging fellow who wrote goofy sex romps for incels basically from then on? That said, Heinlein wrote two books of distinction in his later career: “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” which shows a command of the English language second to none, and “Glory Road,” a superlative book about PTSD psychosis, despite the editorially grafted-on ending. That happened to Heinlein a lot, as witness the differences between the version of “Podkayne of Mars” he wrote (Poddy is killed) and the one the editors rewrote (Poddy lives happily ever after).
I read most of Heinlein as it came out, starting with the juvies in second grade, and followed along until he died, writing increasingly senile narratives. I think the worst thing that can happened to a writer is when he devolves into self parody, so when that happened to me, starting about 15 years ago, I decided to quit while I was ahead (my last published story in Asimov’s was in 2009).
Alexei Panshin was a strange case. I never knew him, but “Rite of Passage” is the only readable book he ever wrote, the rest verging on drivel. I knew John Barnes quite well before I quit the SF world. His other books were far better than “Orbital Resonance.” Go figure. I never won a Hugo or Nebula, which is probably just as well, or I might be writing drivel still. One of my novels won a Dick award (yes, I find that funny too) and one of my short stories was a Hugo finalist.
I will be the first to admit that most (almost all) of what he wrote post (and some pre, Stranger in a Strange Land was 1960) Moon is a Harsh Mistress is quite self-indulgent and down right weird. It’s almost as if, after reaching a certain financially secure level, he decided to write just for himself. He kept selling, but it became increasingly obvious he wasn’t writing for the fans.
The juvenile writer guy is the space opera writer forced to tailor his space opera to 1950’s librarian standards. I like both because they present Heinlein in a time he was still writing for the audience. Even his harshest critics liked him back then.
Re Heinlein: kind of hard to argue with success. I did like “Friday” which broke the previous cycle. I read once it was after his carotid artery unblocking procedure.
I read “Rite of Passage” and agree it was the only readable thing Panshin wrote. The rest were drivel. Couldn’t even get into them.
“Orbital Resonance” was book 2 of the series of which “The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky” was book one. That one is a manual on how to run an armed insurrection. “Kaleidoscope Century” is downright terrifying. Barnes is good, as is Michael F. Flynn.
There aren’t many new ideas in SF but most of the movie/TV stuff is sheer drivel, the exceptions being Twilight Zone and other series which do the odd episode based on well known SF short stories.
Also “The Last Judgment” by J. B. S. Haldane, in which future civilizations extract so much energy from tides that the Moon collides with the Earth.
“The moon’s diameter is 2,159 miles. The Earth’s is 7,917.5 miles. Which means that the entire planet would be a massive impact crater. ”
I’d kind of like to see the kind of crater that wrapped around the planet. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be around when it happened, but I bet it’d look interesting afterwards.
The map in “The Hopkins Manuscript” shows the Moon spanning the Atlantic (I guess it flattened out a bit when is splashed down).
Hmm.
Now, easiest way for Moon to hit Earth is giving the Moon 1 km/sec of immediate thrust. But suppose one gave this amount thrust over period of 28 days, thereby causing it to spiral inward to Earth and thereby increase the Moon’s orbital velocity. Which seems like stupid, in terms energy use, way of hitting Earth.
Another way would be to lower the Moon’s perigee, say to 40,000 km and then lower apogee.
So if Moon gets closer to Earth, the Earth/Moon barycenter gets closer to the center of Earth.
Is this “how” the Earth spins faster??
I am sure it would, though it seems Earth would orbit around it’s barycenter, faster.
Though one the moon going to around Earth faster [about 1 day rather than 1 month] but don’t see that having any particular noticeable effect.
Or it just some weird reverse time alien technology, so Earth gains back it’s spin?
The movie has Halle Berry in it.
I think Rand and everyone else here is overthinking this.
You think that enough time for NASA to look at it?
“2020 XL5 measures about 0.73 miles (1.2 kilometers) across, almost three times longer than 2010 TK7 ”
“the object is also likely a C-type asteroid”
” Briceño said. “So they might become ideal bases for an advanced exploration of the solar system, or they could even be a source of resources.””
Or it could be a moon that hits Earth.
If we wait long enough.
When it escapes L4 in a few millennia, it might hit Earth, Venus or Mars. All three have atmospheres… so when it enters one of those, it will become Fireball XL5.
it will become Fireball XL5. Say that’s a real toot! Are you pulling my leg?
– S. Zodiak
On a more scientific note, a new supermaterial is born:
This Moonfall movie is shaping up to be an epic disaster movie; its opening weekend competition seems to be “Jackass forever”, and it’s managing to lose to it. If that’s not an absolutely epic disaster, what is?
I did manage to sit through the trailer to Moonfall. It was a bit painful to watch. I took note of the inserted laugh tracks in the trailer, and that the trailer seems to be trying to pass off the movie as a slapstick comedy. This tells me that even the studio knows it’s a stinker.
I remember sitting in a theatre with a couple of friends to watch one of the terrible Star Trek movies (“Insurrection” I think) at a cheap late afternoon showing. The trailer reel featured something that looked just about as dumb as one could imagine: “The Core” where determined scientists have to get the Earth’s Core to do something, using nukes and a crawler to get them to the molten core. Jules Verne had to be laughing hysterically somewhere…
Anyway, in the shocked silence after this wave of stupid had washed over us, one of our group turned to us and said in absolute mock Newscaster sincerity, “That could happen.”
I’ve seen “The Core” (free on TV), and I do have to give them credit for one thing; the name of the impervious supermetal of the vehicle hull. They called it unobtanium. The rest of the movie was poor, but that, at least, made me smile.
I want to see a double-billing of Moonfall and Don’t Look Up. Just because it’d read so well on a theater marquee!
We’re in the middle of a disaster movie right now. Do we need yet another Emmerich world disaster CGI fest? The guy’s made so much money off of computer graphics that he should be paying large royalties to Intel and Nvidia corps.
“The Roche limit is when you have so much stress that it shreds physical objects and pulls them apart,” McKinnon explained. In other words, on its approach the moon would actually start breaking apart, and pieces of it would rain down on Earth.
So basically Seveneves. Have you read that Rand?
Stephenson first began planning his novel around 2006, while he was working at Blue Origin.
[Johnny Carson voice] I did not know that.
The book was shortlisted for the 2016 Hugo Award for Best Novel.
And got beat by (among others) The Fifth Season (N. K. Jemisin) and Ancillary Mercy (Ann Leckie).
We laugh so we can avoid crying.
The Hugo is now a reliable indicator of what not to read since SFWA has long been a fully converged institution. N. K. Jemisin has all the appeal of a wet smelly sock.
I thought if a body was pulled apart at the Roche Limit, it ended up forming rings around the planet.
IIRC Seveneves had *something* hit the Moon which caused it to fall apart and resulted in a Kessler cascade with resulting bits hitting Earth’s atmosphere and frying the surface. Had lots of good ideas in it and someone obviously took him for ride in the wave at Minden NV I’d say in a modern high performance sailplane judging by the amount of gratuitous soaring described.
I’m not sure the Kessler Cascade thing could happen that way though
An illustration of the fact that ideas aren’t covered by copyright and are endlessly recycled, as witness:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hopkins_Manuscript
Originally published in 1939, it was my very first SFBC selection when I joined back in 1964. If you want to see how close you can come without crossing the line, read “Rite of Passage,” by Alexei Panshin (Nebula winner, 1969) and “Orbital Resonance,” by John Barnes (Nebula winner, 1992). Apparently, by 1992, Panshin and his book were forgotten.
“Apparently, by 1992, Panshin and his book were forgotten.”
As they should have been.*
*Yes, I am a Heinlein fan.
Which Heinlein, the guy who wrote 1940s space operas to pay off his mortgage, the one who wrote sanitized childrens books in the 1950s, or the aging fellow who wrote goofy sex romps for incels basically from then on? That said, Heinlein wrote two books of distinction in his later career: “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” which shows a command of the English language second to none, and “Glory Road,” a superlative book about PTSD psychosis, despite the editorially grafted-on ending. That happened to Heinlein a lot, as witness the differences between the version of “Podkayne of Mars” he wrote (Poddy is killed) and the one the editors rewrote (Poddy lives happily ever after).
I read most of Heinlein as it came out, starting with the juvies in second grade, and followed along until he died, writing increasingly senile narratives. I think the worst thing that can happened to a writer is when he devolves into self parody, so when that happened to me, starting about 15 years ago, I decided to quit while I was ahead (my last published story in Asimov’s was in 2009).
Alexei Panshin was a strange case. I never knew him, but “Rite of Passage” is the only readable book he ever wrote, the rest verging on drivel. I knew John Barnes quite well before I quit the SF world. His other books were far better than “Orbital Resonance.” Go figure. I never won a Hugo or Nebula, which is probably just as well, or I might be writing drivel still. One of my novels won a Dick award (yes, I find that funny too) and one of my short stories was a Hugo finalist.
I will be the first to admit that most (almost all) of what he wrote post (and some pre, Stranger in a Strange Land was 1960) Moon is a Harsh Mistress is quite self-indulgent and down right weird. It’s almost as if, after reaching a certain financially secure level, he decided to write just for himself. He kept selling, but it became increasingly obvious he wasn’t writing for the fans.
The juvenile writer guy is the space opera writer forced to tailor his space opera to 1950’s librarian standards. I like both because they present Heinlein in a time he was still writing for the audience. Even his harshest critics liked him back then.
Re Heinlein: kind of hard to argue with success. I did like “Friday” which broke the previous cycle. I read once it was after his carotid artery unblocking procedure.
I read “Rite of Passage” and agree it was the only readable thing Panshin wrote. The rest were drivel. Couldn’t even get into them.
“Orbital Resonance” was book 2 of the series of which “The Man Who Pulled Down the Sky” was book one. That one is a manual on how to run an armed insurrection. “Kaleidoscope Century” is downright terrifying. Barnes is good, as is Michael F. Flynn.
There aren’t many new ideas in SF but most of the movie/TV stuff is sheer drivel, the exceptions being Twilight Zone and other series which do the odd episode based on well known SF short stories.
Also “The Last Judgment” by J. B. S. Haldane, in which future civilizations extract so much energy from tides that the Moon collides with the Earth.
“The moon’s diameter is 2,159 miles. The Earth’s is 7,917.5 miles. Which means that the entire planet would be a massive impact crater. ”
I’d kind of like to see the kind of crater that wrapped around the planet. I mean, I wouldn’t want to be around when it happened, but I bet it’d look interesting afterwards.
The map in “The Hopkins Manuscript” shows the Moon spanning the Atlantic (I guess it flattened out a bit when is splashed down).
Hmm.
Now, easiest way for Moon to hit Earth is giving the Moon 1 km/sec of immediate thrust. But suppose one gave this amount thrust over period of 28 days, thereby causing it to spiral inward to Earth and thereby increase the Moon’s orbital velocity. Which seems like stupid, in terms energy use, way of hitting Earth.
Another way would be to lower the Moon’s perigee, say to 40,000 km and then lower apogee.
If Moon was in 40k by 40k orbit, where would the Earth/Moon barycenter be?
“So in order to increase the existing barycenter from 4,665.86 kilometers to 6,371 kilometers (the Earth’s average radius), you would need to increase the Moon’s distance from the Earth by the factor 6,371/4,665.86 = 1.365 times. That is equivalent to increasing the Moon’s average orbital distance from 384,000 kilometers to about 524,300 kilometers.”
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=74841.0#:~:text=The%20distance%20of%20the%20barycenter,6%2C371%2F4%2C665.86%20%3D%201.365%20times.
So if Moon gets closer to Earth, the Earth/Moon barycenter gets closer to the center of Earth.
Is this “how” the Earth spins faster??
I am sure it would, though it seems Earth would orbit around it’s barycenter, faster.
Though one the moon going to around Earth faster [about 1 day rather than 1 month] but don’t see that having any particular noticeable effect.
Or it just some weird reverse time alien technology, so Earth gains back it’s spin?
The movie has Halle Berry in it.
I think Rand and everyone else here is overthinking this.
An editor at Wikipedia has watched this movie so I don’t have to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonfall_(film)
If I want to see her, I’ll watch “John Wick 3”. She was awesome in that movie.
Wasn’t Halle Berry in “Monster’s Ball?” I never can remember which one is which.
Space 1999. or how to cancel angular momentum immediately.
Earth has an extra companion, a Trojan asteroid that will hang around for 4,000 years
https://www.space.com/earth-extra-moon-trojan-asteroid-2020-xl5-discovery
You think that enough time for NASA to look at it?
“2020 XL5 measures about 0.73 miles (1.2 kilometers) across, almost three times longer than 2010 TK7 ”
“the object is also likely a C-type asteroid”
” Briceño said. “So they might become ideal bases for an advanced exploration of the solar system, or they could even be a source of resources.””
Or it could be a moon that hits Earth.
If we wait long enough.
When it escapes L4 in a few millennia, it might hit Earth, Venus or Mars. All three have atmospheres… so when it enters one of those, it will become Fireball XL5.
it will become Fireball XL5.
Say that’s a real toot! Are you pulling my leg?
– S. Zodiak
On a more scientific note, a new supermaterial is born:
https://scitechdaily.com/mit-engineers-create-the-impossible-new-material-that-is-stronger-than-steel-and-as-light-as-plastic/
This Moonfall movie is shaping up to be an epic disaster movie; its opening weekend competition seems to be “Jackass forever”, and it’s managing to lose to it. If that’s not an absolutely epic disaster, what is?
I did manage to sit through the trailer to Moonfall. It was a bit painful to watch. I took note of the inserted laugh tracks in the trailer, and that the trailer seems to be trying to pass off the movie as a slapstick comedy. This tells me that even the studio knows it’s a stinker.
I remember sitting in a theatre with a couple of friends to watch one of the terrible Star Trek movies (“Insurrection” I think) at a cheap late afternoon showing. The trailer reel featured something that looked just about as dumb as one could imagine: “The Core” where determined scientists have to get the Earth’s Core to do something, using nukes and a crawler to get them to the molten core. Jules Verne had to be laughing hysterically somewhere…
Anyway, in the shocked silence after this wave of stupid had washed over us, one of our group turned to us and said in absolute mock Newscaster sincerity, “That could happen.”
I’ve seen “The Core” (free on TV), and I do have to give them credit for one thing; the name of the impervious supermetal of the vehicle hull. They called it unobtanium. The rest of the movie was poor, but that, at least, made me smile.
I want to see a double-billing of Moonfall and Don’t Look Up. Just because it’d read so well on a theater marquee!
We’re in the middle of a disaster movie right now. Do we need yet another Emmerich world disaster CGI fest? The guy’s made so much money off of computer graphics that he should be paying large royalties to Intel and Nvidia corps.