Movie: The Story of Carl Sagan

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Dr. Carl Sagan. (NASA)

Have you heard about the upcoming movie about Carl Sagan called Voyagers? Andrew Garfield of Spiderman fame will be playing Dr. Sagan. Daisy Edgar-Jones will play the part of Ann Druyan. The new film will be one of many shown at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, starting next week.

Here is the basic outline of the film by The Hollywood Reporter:

The film is set in 1977 as NASA is preparing to launch humanity’s first interstellar probes, the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 missions. A team, led by Sagan, sets out to create a message to accompany them: the Golden Record, a group of images and sounds meant to express the essence of humanity and act as a first-contact greeting for any galactic lifeforms the probes might reach. But what starts out as a race-against-the-clock mission becomes an epic, unexpected love story between Sagan and his collaborator Druyan.

I have seen Andrew Garfield in a number of films and TV shows, and he never disappoints. Seeing his take on Dr. Sagan’s story should be fascinating and fun.

With all the recent films and series on twisted business icons, I will be happy to take a break and watch a film that covers one of science’s great icons. Maybe it can encourage a new generation of scientists and supporters of science.

Space Stories: Sagan as Scripture, Chinese Lunar Plans, and Outer Space in NYC

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Ballantine Books

Here are some recent stories of interest.

—Gizmodo.com: “New NASA Official Took Her Oath of Office on Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’”

When Dr. Makenzie Lystrup was sworn in as the new director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center last week, she didn’t take her oath of office on the Bible or the U.S. Constitution, but rather on a tome revered by space enthusiasts everywhere: Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot. The book, published in 1994, is named after an iconic image of Earth, snapped by the Voyager I probe, that depicts the planet as a small speck smothered by the emptiness of space. That photo inspired astronomer Carl Sagan to write: “Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.” For many, the book serves as a reminder of humanity’s place in the universe and the need to preserve our home planet, which makes it similar to holy scripture for a newly appointed NASA director.

—Time: “In Five Years, China Will Start Building a Lunar Base With Bricks Made From Moon Soil“

China plans to start building a lunar base in about five years, kicking off with bricks made of moon soil, according to scientists with ties to the project, the South China Morning Post reported. Ding Lieyun, a top scientist at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, told local media that the first brick would be made from moon soil during the Chang’e 8 mission around 2028.

—AFAR: “NASA Teams With NYC Museum on New Immersive Outer Space Exhibit“

With its blazing city lights, New York is one of the worst places to go stargazing. But space aficionados will want to visit lower Manhattan this spring—dark skies or not—thanks to a new digital art exhibit created with participation from NASA and CNES (the French space agency) that opened April 7 at Hall des Lumières, the city’s first permanent immersive art center. An earlier iteration of this show premiered at Hall des Lumières’ sister museum in Paris, Atelier des Lumières, in 2021. Destination Cosmos: The Immersive Space Experiencewill run for eight weeks through June 4, 2023, at Hall des Lumières, which opened in 2022 in the former Emigrant Savings Bank across from City Hall.

Podcast: Discussing Science Fiction and Astronomy with Andy Weir & Rob Manning

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Planetary Society

If you have not yet tapped into The Planetary Society’s podcast Planetary Radio, then now is the time to do so. Host Mat Kaplan and his guests had a great time on the recent podcast, One Last Blast: Author of ‘The Martian’ Andy Weir with JPL Chief Engineer Rob Manning.

Both Andy Weir (author of The Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary) and Rob Manning (Chief Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) were shooting the you-know-what as they chatted about science fiction books they read as teenagers, the role of real science in fictional tales, astronomical conspiracy theories, and mankind’s need to expand into the unknown.

It was interesting to hear Andy Weir talk about curiosity being humanity’s survival mechanism. He pointed out that curiosity has allowed humanity to survive disasters here on Earth because we were all spread out rather than clustered on one flood plain. The same applies to expansion beyond the Earth.

Check it out for yourself. You may want to check out some of the earlier podcasts as well, such as:

Credit: Random House Publishing Group

Gift Ideas: Popular Astronomy Books

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Credit: Ballantine Books

If you are looking for another gift idea for the holidays, maybe you should consider one of the many popular astronomy books. Here are the 10 most popular from Goodreads:

  1. Cosmos, by Carl Sagan
  2. A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking
  3. Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, by Carl Sagan
  4. The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan
  5. The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory, by Brian Greene
  6. The Universe in a Nutshell, by Stephen Hawking
  7. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson
  8. The Grand Design, by Stephen Hawking
  9. Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, by Carl Sagan
  10. Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, by Neil deGrasse Tyson 

It’s great to see that Carl Sagan is still educating the public so many years after his death. As with the Voyager spacecraft, his words and contributions are traveling far and wide.

A Day in Astronomy: The Birth of Carl Sagan

Posted on by onespaceman2000
Image (Credit): Astrobiologist Carl Sagan. (Nautilus.us)

On this day in 1934, scientist and communicator Carl Edward Sagan was born in Brooklyn, NY. He was to become a great communicator of all things related to astronomy. He has played a key role over the years introducing millions to our place in the universe through his books, television series, speeches, and scientific work. His television series Cosmos was a milestone in educational television, bringing the stars and planets into everyone’s living room, while his books (Contact, Pale Blue Dot, The Dragons of Eden) continue to encourage the next generation of astronomers.

Dr. Sagan has a long resume, but I am most fascinated with his work to communicate with extraterrestrial life. He was a strong supporter of the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and worked with NASA to ensure our spacecraft were equipped with a record of human activity to educate other planetary civilizations, including the gold records placed on the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes as well as the two Voyager space probes.

Years ago, the Smithsonian magazine had a good summary of Dr. Sagan’s life in the article “Why Carl Sagan is Truly Irreplaceable.” I recommend the article as a good way to get to know the man, though delving into his books is even better.

Credit: Ballantine Books

Extra: Carl Sagan was also the founder and first president of the Planetary Society. Visit this Planetary Society site, Ann Druyan wishes you a happy Sagan Day, for more on Dr. Sagan’s work.