[Mission Controller] T minus 10.

[Computer] Oxygen supply depleted.

What?!

[Astronaut] Hold on!

[rocket rumbling]

Hi, I'm Nicole Stott. [chiming]

[Narrator] Nicole Stott is a retired astronaut.

And here's me in space.

[chiming]

Today, I'm gonna look at how astronauts

are portrayed in Hollywood.

[chiming]

Blackout period in Apollo 13.

Flight team, I've lost the radio contact.

Roger that.

Expect to regain signal in three minutes.

This blackout period does happen.

It's not unique to Apollo 13.

[Newscaster] No re-entering ship has ever

taken longer than three minutes to emerge from blackout.

Still, today, when we have Soyuz landings,

the Soyuz capsule coming back in.

It's a predicted time.

It's understood where it should happen.

Okay, flight, that's three minutes.

We are standing by for acquisition.

They'll let you know.

Hey, we will lose com with the crew

for 30 seconds or a minute,

or whatever it might be.

Odyssey, this is Houston, do you read?

And then you'll always get the ground

calling a little bit early ahead

to see if they've regained communications or not.

[suspenseful music]

[Ken] Odyssey, Houston, do you read me?

For some reason, even when you know that's gonna happen,

there's this like, you're kind of at the edge of your seat.

Okay, we're gonna hear back from 'em,

we're gonna hear back from 'em.

[Ken] Odyssey, this is Houston, do you read me?

But it's just the physics of

coming back into the atmosphere.

[capsule rumbling]

You get this like really hot plasma

coming around the ship that ionizes the atmosphere

and causes this disruption of the ability to communicate.

[dramatic music]

And then it stops and you can talk again.

[Jim] Hello, Houston, this is Odyssey.

It's good to see you again.

[mission controllers cheering]

Worm hole travel, Contact.

[dramatic music]

[swooshing]

Oh, God!

[Ellie gasping]

[swooshing]

I'm gonna try and keep recording.

When I look at this scene,

I'm thinkin' yeah, it's gonna be

in the future a little bit.

But I think I would still have a spacesuit and a helmet on.

[swooshing]

And maybe not just be in this little seat, I don't know.

[seat rattling]

It seems like there should be some more substance

to what she's sittin' in there.

[swooshing] [metal clanking]

When we launch to space and when we land,

we wear, they're actually called ascent entry spacesuits.

If you've watched a space shuttle launch or landing,

you always see the crew in these orange suits.

The purpose of the suit was to help you survive

if all the air in your spaceship went away

or if you go into kind of a critical emergency situation.

And so, you'd have a suit on.

It could pressurize up, keep your blood flowin' right.

You had the helmet on so that you could breath air.

And I think that's gonna go on for a long time.

With the new spaceships we're building,

we're incorporating spacesuits

into the launch and landing of those,

because those are two of the most

critical stages of the flight.

Life support, how's she doin'?

We still have data.

Heart and respiration are high but within limits.

She's okay.

Ellie, do you copy?

If you could hear, I am okay to go.

The control room scene and the way they're communicating

with her in preparation for launch

and kinda of the stages that they go through

all sounds very familiar,

kind of what you would expect through a launch sequence.

Someone in control, do you read me?

When you can't hear ground control,

the crew will still continue to speak

in hopes that maybe you're just not hearing

their response to you but they can hear you.

I'm gonna try and keep recording.

So, a lot of times, we'll use the words like

in the blind, where I'm just gonna keep

talking to ya and hope that you hear me.

And so that you can stay up to speed

as much about what's goin' on with me.

And then hopefully, at some point,

I'll hear you again.

AI on spaceships and 2001: Space Odyssey.

Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

[HAL] I'm sorry, Dave.

I'm afraid I can't do that.

Right now, I think the current status

of artificial intelligence, or AI,

on our space missions is

that we're not really saying

we have AI in place.

I think that will come.

There are some things that we're testing.

What we do have is automated control of things.

Open the pod bay doors.

And that's a great thing,

because then the crew isn't having to interact all the time

to maintain the systems or ensure that everything is good.

That can happen automatically.

Even when we're flying the spacecraft,

there's automation associated with that, a lot of it.

But in every case, I believe, we're still in the situation

where we can manually take over if we need to,

either as the crew members onboard or from the ground

through the control systems that they have.

[HAL] I think you know what the problem is

just as well as I do.

Our hope is that the AI,

whichever ones we do employ at some point,

are not set up that they could take control.

[HAL] This mission is too important

for me to allow you to jeopardize it.

Asteroid belt in Armageddon.

Everybody hang out.

This could get a little rough.

Engaging evasive break now.

[swooshing] [engines rumbling]

Yeah, this is one of those scenes that I think shows,

there is a lot that's far-fetched in Armageddon.

[engines rumbling] [swooshing]

[dramatic music]

[Astronaut] Houston, we overshot our landing field.

Land might not be the right word to use with asteroid.

I think it's more like you're docking with it,

you're intercepting it and then keeping pace,

and attaching somehow just because of the physics

of an asteroid and the way it moves through space.

And we're looking at how you do that.

Right now, we have missions that have gone to asteroids

and small spacecraft that have gone there

and done that and taken pictures

and landed on it, I suppose.

Gonna hit!

[computer beeping] [dramatic music]

There's a lot of work going on right now,

into how we track asteroids, how we identify them.

And then, maybe even more importantly,

once we know they're there,

what do we do about them if they're,

like in the scenario in this film,

if they're actually coming towards Earth

and could be a real threat to us.

And they're looking at missions

that could resolve that for us.

[swooshing] [dramatic music]

We're goin' in, we're comin' in hot.

I think one thing as a crew member

that bothers me when I watch scenes like this

is this is absolutely a time

when you would have your helmet on.

Negative!

Mayday, Houston, mayday.

We've lost RCS.

Some of the terminology that's used, like mayday, mayday,

I get what they're doing.

It's like, hey, they're gonna go down.

But mayday, mayday implies that somebody

could get there to rescue you.

And that is not likely at all in this kinda scenario.

Oh, my God, this is it.

[glass shattering]

I mean, I was excited by watching this movie though, too.

So, on the two missions that I flew in space

and the ones that we have done, even going to the moon,

were not flying through asteroid belts.

We have not, as human beings, done that yet.

When I think about an asteroid or a meteor, perhaps,

is more appropriate for the kind of mission I've had,

is I'm thinking about these single,

small pieces of debris that might have

the potential of hitting my spacecraft

versus ever considering the idea

that I'm gonna have to fly through this massive belt

of huge and small pieces of debris.

G-force training in Space Cowboys.

[machine whirring]

This thing moving?

[metal tapping]

[computer beeping]

[machine whirring]

This is such a great scene.

Yeah, she will take the record out.

I love that scene.

So, we have the opportunity, as shuttle crew members,

to go experience the centrifuge,

so this machine that kinda spins you around

and simulates not just the G-forces that you'll feel,

you experience them like you would as you were launching.

So, it takes you through the same trajectory

that you would experience launching on the space shuttle.

This is not a toy.

And they mention it in the film.

It's three Gs, is what it's limited to.

[Eugene] That was three Gs.

And you're on your back

and it's coming through your chest.

[Astronaut] I am so pleased.

I love the interaction between these guys

that have been friends and like frenemies, even,

throughout the years.

First one to pass out buys the beer tonight.

They go right back to kinda this competitive,

yet like friendly competition in here.

You're on.

Even in the end, when they're like wakin' back up,

and it's not, Oh my gosh, what happened?

It's, Hey, who passed out first?

Eugene.

What?

Which one of us passed out first?

There's just something very human

and nice about that to me.

I'm gettin' too old for this [beep].

Video messages in Interstellar.

You once told me that when you came back,

we might be the same age.

And today, I'm the age you were when you left.

From the station, we're able to talk,

basically, on a phones, every day.

So, I would have a pretty normal conversation

with my son after school every day.

And once a week, we would do a video conference.

And now, it's amazing.

The family members can take an ipads with them

and they can go to their kids game

and show the crew member onboard,

Hey, you know, there's Joey kicking the home run,

or whatever it is.

And it's really interesting to see,

just in that short period of time,

the way we've improved the communications.

Look at this.

You're a grandpa.

Even in a delayed time frame,

to be able to have that connection

home to our family or our friends

or even just to see views of the planet,

will be really, really important.

Orbital mechanics and The Martian.

Intercept velocity will be 11 meters per second.

I can make that work.

[suspenseful music]

Distance at intercept will be,

we'll be 68 kilometers apart.

They mention something about not having enough velocity,

this difference in velocity.

And that's really important

because you have to kind of match up the velocities

in order to be able to intercept something in space.

I could use the escaping air as a thruster

and fly towards you.

So, Watney is sayin', Hey, why don't I make that up

by givin' myself a little bit more thrust

by makin' my suit into, essentially, a rocket engine.

I'd get to fly around like Ironman.

That's why he jokes around

about it bein' like Ironman, too,

'cause you use his glove

and then fly little thrusters out of his hands.

[Watney panting] [hissing]

And I like that they did this.

[Watney panting]

From a control standpoint,

might be a lot more difficult

than what they show, all the you know?

They eventually show him kinda

floppin' around while he does it.

[dramatic music] [Watney panting]

But it's looking for a solution.

It's like taking advantage

of what the resources you have

to try to overcome the problem

that you're dealing with.

Come on, guys.

Keep it together, work the problem.

As long, I think, as that air is flowing by his hand,

it's technically not exposed to the vacuum of space

just like the rest of his body isn't.

[Melissa] 3.1 meters per second.

[air hissing]

He's still protected as long as there's that air flow.

Oxygen in a space suit, Red Planet.

[Gallagher gasping]

[Computer] Gallagher, oxygen supply depleted.

[Gallagher gasping]

[Gallagher grunting]

I think the normal supply in a suit

that we go out on a spacewalk with

has between six and eight hours worth of oxygen.

And how long that lasts will depend on

how fast you're breathing,

how hard you're working,

but usually six to eight hours.

And then, that's the normal, like primary tanks.

In case you did get a leak or something went wrong,

we have some secondary tanks that are really intended

for you to use them to get back into the station

or to get to a safe place

where you could either resupply or just get back in.

Those, I think, last for like half an hour.

[Computer] Replace your O2 canister immediately.

The ground can monitor the systems in our suit.

They've got telemetry to be able to tell us

how much oxygen we have left.

We've got little sensors on the suit itself

and a little display panel right here

that you can look down at

that if you push the buttons right,

it could tell you here's how much oxygen you have remaining,

the pressure and the estimated time.

Pettengill, [Pettengill gasping]

replace your O2 canister immediately.

And then, when it gets to a certain level,

and audible alarm will go off in your helmet.

It'll let you know, Hey, you're at this point.

And then you would talk to the ground

or your crew mates inside to decide what you do about it.

On Mars, we're not gonna be able

to just go out without a suit on.

Is it gonna hurt?

Yeah.

The atmosphere is not one that we can just breathe

without any kind of protection or air supply.

[swooshing] [wind blowing]

That's why in this movie,

it's kinda surprising that they,

that at the next stage where they open up their helmet

and are breathing normally,

that they didn't know that.

I can breathe.

I think they would have known that

that was breathable air.

Yeah, if we go to Mars, we're gonna have to be

in space suits all the time outside.

Wooden rocket, Wallace and Gromit.

[saw scratching]

[sparks buzzing]

[paint splashing]

[ominous music]

You can definitely built a wooden rocket.

I don't think there's anything stopping us from doing that.

But just because of, really because of

how much energy you have to put behind it.

[rocket rumbling]

[Wallace gasping] [household objects rattling]

The space ship would be at risk of catching fire

anytime you ignited a thruster.

[lever clicking] [thruster booming]

I think, structurally, the wood just wouldn't hold together

as you're going through all these different loads

and accelerations that you would see goin' to space.

[Wallace] Gromit!

Wallace and Gromit, they build kinda

that iconic looking rocket shape.

And we actually, when we first starting building rockets,

we built them with that shape.

If you look at the new spaceship

that Elon Musk is proposing for going to Mars,

it has that very iconic smooth and then the fins at the end.

[pencil scratching]

It's an efficient way to move

through the atmosphere and space,

just the shape of that rocket.

But we've found, over time,

that there's other ways to get that same kind of efficiency

so you don't have to build it that way.

Hidden Figures, launch.

[rocket engines booming]

[Mission Control] The MA-6 vehicle has lifted off.

It's getting a little bumpy along here.

Roger that.

You are in max q.

Yeah, max q is something that

all of our spacecraft go through.

It's where you reach like this maximum pressure

on the outside of the spacecraft.

[Astronaut] Our trajectory is still A-okay.

If you stay at that pressure for a period of time,

it has the potential to tear the spaceship apart.

So, on the space shuttle,

you'll hear something, Okay, max q.

And then we would throttle back

to relieve the load on the space ship.

[booming]

Zero G and I feel fine.

[John] John Glen reports everything looks good.

Lunar rover in Moon.

[dramatic music]

[engine whirring]

In this scene, I look at the rover

and it looks totally believable.

If you see the rovers that NASA is developing right now

for our return to the moon

and potentially even for use on Mars,

they have kinda this bigger, bulkier look

than the little, almost go-kart-looking vehicles

we had in the Apollo missions.

And they're meant to be vehicles

that you can actually, you could actually travel in

and live in for some period of time

without having to have your helmet on

and using your spacesuit

and that you could go out from them

and do excursions on the surface.

Launch, Space Cowboys.

[dramatic music]

[feet clacking on metal]

[crickets chirping]

Let's have a com check.

PLT.

MS1.

MS2.

I think the whole scene here,

where they're walking down the walkway,

the crew access arm is what we called it.

It was kinda this walkway that got you

into the hatch and onto the shuttle,

all looked really good to me.

The scenes in mission control

and launch control center looked really good.

Three, two, one, ignition.

[booming]

The way they were speaking

through the countdown was great.

This whole scene for launch is really pretty accurate.

Come on, baby, hold together.

You going in too steep, Frank.

In the movie, it bothered me a little bit that

on re-entry, they had the pilot flying

versus the commander flying in the left seat.

In reality, on landing, it would be the commander

in the left seat that would be doing

all of the flying for the landing

and not the pilot in the right seat.

A robot in space, Wall-E.

[adventuresome music]

[Wall-E gasping]

[engine rumbling]

[Wall-E screaming]

Wall-E's here like clingin' on to the side

of the spaceship as it launches.

[Wall-E screaming]

I think the point is that that Wall-E's a machine, too.

So, if this metal machine,

even though we want to love it [chuckles],

can clasp onto the side of the vehicle

and is made of materials

that will tolerate that environment,

then I think that's probably not an unbelievable thing.

[Wall-E gasping]

[crashing]

I don't know if there'd ever be the satellites

that you see the spaceship going through,

will ever be bunched up like that.

But there's a lot of 'em circling our Earth right now.

You know, there are some in low-Earth orbit

and there's, what is it?

Like the geosynchronous is like

24,000 miles above the planet.

And when we talk about goin' further and further

off the Earth to get to places,

we certainly have to consider that.

[electronic buzzing]

Right now, we do that by knowing exactly

where they are in space.

And then our trajectory that takes us out further,

somehow misses them.

I don't know, it's a mystery to me.

[electronic buzzing]

Landing a ship, Prometheus.

All personnel, this is the captain.

Brace for entry.

[Crew Member] Yes, captain.

[suspenseful music]

[static crackling]

Engage landin' sequence.

Switch to manual.

Commence landing.

[ship rumbling]

From the space station,

when we undocked with the space shuttle,

and then we're gonna re-enter and land,

from the time we fired those retro-thrusters,

or the thrusters that would allow us to slow down

and enter back into the atmosphere,

it was an hour from firing 'em

to touchin' down on the runway.

But I like this scene.

You're great.

I think they go through some of the same

sequences we would if we were landing.

[Computer] All systems online.

Everybody gets in their seats, you know?

It's a little bit more in advance

than what they're showing here,

but this is a futuristic movie, too.

It seems to me, they're doing these kinds of landings

and re-entries pretty regularly.

Bringin' her down in five,

[Computer] Preparing to fire

RCS thrusters. Four.

I love that they use terms that we do.

Like, okay, firing the RCS,

which is the reaction control system,

which is the thrusters that would allow you

to either slow down or speed up

or move forward, backwards, to fly the spacecraft.

[engine whirring]

And then they physically show the thrusters

moving down into a position

that would fire against the Earth to slow them down

and then let them settle onto that planet.

[engines whirring]

It's very future.

It's very sci-fi, but they're incorporating

some things that we use all the time.

I really, in this film, like the line,

Right there, God does not build in straight lines.

God doesn't build in straight lines,

because that's something, as a crew, you would notice.

Nature is much more random and yeah.

That was really interesting to me

that they would incorporate something like that.

Yeah, I wouldn't be any good if I couldn't do that.

Gold spacesuits in Sunshine.

[ominous music]

Our spacesuits are not made out of all-gold material,

but we do use the gold visors

when we're going to be in the sun

to protect our eyes from that solar radiation.

So, when you're in space, in microgravity, floating,

where nothing really weighs anything,

it doesn't matter how much the spacesuit weighs.

[radio crackling]

[Astronaut] Affirmative, good image.

You're still gonna be able to move around in it easily.

So, we're not so worried about that.

We're more worried about the materials

and how it's going to protect you in that environment.

I don't know that we're ever gonna send people

to the sun, but if we did, [laughs],

they might need gold spacesuits.

Muppets: Pigs in Space.

[Ms. Piggy] This is first mate, Piggy.

I am finished cleaning the windows

of the command capsule, over.

Did you get all the little meteorite splatters?

Yes, it's spotless. [crew members chuckling]

I can see you two idiots perfectly through it, over.

Cleaning the space station happens all the time.

I think we are just kinda perpetually doing it.

You really get into the mode of just

clean up after yourself as you go.

And then on the weekends,

we would have like a whole list

of housekeeping tasks that we do.

You know, the vacuum cleaner was a lot of fun.

You just kinda fly around on the vacuum cleaner.

It's time for you to take out the space garbage.

Don't worry, my little feminaut.

You don't have to take out the trash

because I jettisoned it out the hatch yesterday.

The way we deal with trash on the space station

is that we have these cargo vehicles

that have come up loaded with new supplies for us.

And when we unload those, we put all of our trash

that we've collected into them.

Most of those ships burn up in the atmosphere.

What?!

I mean, it's really a very clean,

effective way to get rid of your trash.

Why do I have to do this job, anyway?

[Narrator] [chiming] Conclusion.

I hope you've enjoyed this kinda comparison

between what goes on in the movies

and what happens in real life as much as I have.

I am so thankful for the science fiction

that we are presented with.

I think it gives us an opportunity

to think about what our future could be like.

Already, we've seen so much sci-fi

that's turned into sci-fact

that I am really hopefully for

what we'll see in the future

and I hope that we can continue to compare, over time,

what we're doin' in real life

and how we're imagining it in the sci-fi movies.

[all applauding]

[Nicole laughing]