Is space travel really a hoax?

Capricorn One (1977)

Director: Peter Hyams

With the confidence of singlehandedly defending the motherland against the German soldiers in Operation Barbarossa in 1941 and essentially stalemating Hitler in the Führerbunker, Russians knew they were no pushovers. Stalin's forced post-war industrialisation efforts skyrocketed the Soviet Union into space exploration.

The Americans, coming out of World War 2 smelling of roses, after being able to turn the war around after their participation, felt they had to be numero uno. After all, after the Second World War, the US of A was the wealthiest nation around. On top of it, the war forced the migration of top scientists from Europe to America.

The 1960s saw rabid competition between leaders of the free world and the communist bloc to outdo the other in space exploration. The race intensified when the Soviets sent their first cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin, to orbit the Earth in 1961. That spurred JFK to declare that America, the leader of the free world, would send a man to the moon by the decade's end. He asserted, 'We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.' in 1962.

After the disastrous 1967 Apollo I fire, which killed all three crew members, their ability to send a man to the moon and back became suspect. So in 1969, when the USA suddenly announced to the world, with photos and TV transmissions, many sceptics insisted that the Moon Landing was staged in a studio here back on Earth. Flying a man in a tin can, forcing themselves out of the g-forces of Earth, and exposing themselves to deathly ionising radiation that encapsulated the planet was not humanly possible, in their minds. So, when this movie came out, I guess the Moon Landing deniers must be telling everyone, "I told you so!"

Even with the American space programme, funding was always the problem. The Indians later showed they could do all the Americans did for a fraction of their budget. That is another story. Safety was another issue. With the lack of fall-back backup, no rocket would be approved in the 21st century. What they did back then can be termed space charlatans today, promising more than they actually could. 

Due to faulty supplies (as in the Apollo I mission), the life support system in Capricorn One was faulty. To avoid embarrassment, the Agency decided to fake their mission to Mars. The film shows, in a relatively poor execution of storytelling, direction, acting and script writing, how the world is hoodwinked into believing the journey is complete. In fact, the astronauts did not even leave the launch pad.

We see a relatively young James Brolin, Sam Waterson and O.J. Simpson in this 1977 film.

We have come a long way since the 1960s. Now, we are offering space tourism to the rich and high-heeled, just for the kick of it. If you do not mind burning a large hole in your wallet or the long waiting line, those interested should contact Elon Mask or Richard Branson.

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The Apollonian-Dionysian balance

Rush (2013)


Friederich Nietzsche identified enduring dichotomies within and amongst us that make our world tick. These two attitudes, both named after Greek Gods, have clashing features. Apollo, son of Zeus, stands for order, logic and reason while Dionysius, the God of Wine, represents chaos, madness and drunkenness. Nietzsche thinks we need both. It emerges from nature itself and can be applied in our day-to-day activities, from art, psychology, ethics to politics.

Apollonian way of doing things can be visualised how a scientist functions with his obsession with precision, discipline and punctuality. The Dionysian effect can be seen in music and art form, which may appear chaotic and not following the rules but nevertheless is music as it is, pleasant to the ears and emotive.

Nietzche saw the fusion of frenzied energy of the Dionysian to be applied constructively inside an Apollonian framework as ideal.

This biopic depiction of the professional rivalry between two F1 racing legends, Niki Lauda and James Hunt brings us to a time when F1 racing meant booze, girls and drug. Even though the movie depicts them as mortal enemies, in real life, they were close friends and had kept in touch for a long time.

James Hunt is the impulsive hard-drinking, the hard-partying late-night bad boy of F1. Lauda, on the other hand, is a fastidious, calculative and disciplined racer who prepares his every move meticulously and goes to bed early.

A memorable quote in the film goes like this. 'Drivers are revered not because of what they do, driving around in circles but because of their brush with death. The closer they are with death, the more people find them fascinating.' I suppose the same applies to other professions that deal with or hold people's life at the clutch of their hands. This would include people in the medical fraternity or in the mafia business.

This opposing features in the drivers form a compelling narrative for a cliffhanging adrenaline-fueled, rubber-burning suspense at the F1 track set in the early to mid-70s. The excellent direction by Ron Howard makes the experience more enjoyable.

Life would be boring if everyone conforms to a universal set of rules and practises fair play all the way. The Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy remains a useful way to view art, psychology, society and every other aspect of life.

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Houston, the Eagle has landed!

Insignia of Apollo 11.

It all started as squabbles between brothers. Much like Kane and Abel, both brothers thought their respective brand of economic reforms was the way forward. One believed in freedom and liberty whilst the other insists that discipline and order bring the best in people. The world soon became divided into two blocks - the vibrant capitalists and the red communists. 

Who said competition is terrible? Did it not surge to dominate over the other? Both tried to showcase their achievements; USA and USSR became the leaders of their respective sects. Industrialisation was viewed upon as the clear proof of success, and soon, the craze of space exploration became the next in-thing.

At one time, it appeared like the Russians were winning with hands down. They had managed to send Laika, the space dog to outer space in 1957. Soon they managed to send Yuri Gagarin (1961) and Valentina Tereshkova (1963, a female cosmonaut) to orbit Earth.

View of Earth aboard Apollo 8 on
Xmas eve 1968. 

This made JFK, in 1962, famously put a challenge to America to land a man to on the Moon by the end of the decade. His seminal speech, given at Rice University boldly proclaimed, "We choose to go to the moon... not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." awoke a nation to singlemindedly venture into space. 

With a chest heaving with hope and accomplishment, the baby boomers, after having fought a world war for a second time which killed off and incapacitated a right proportion of their men in their productive years, raised to the occasion.

Laica, Space Dog (1957)

The Herculean task was dangerous, with many technicality difficulties. So many things had to be sorted out - propulsion forces, complex mathematic calculations, life support, insulation, lunar landing and safe return of astronauts. If that was not enough, faulty electrical wiring caused a fire in Apollo 1 even before launch killing all three crewmen, put a damper on the whole Apollo project. Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the Americans slowly sprang back into action. Subsequent launches sequentially took crafts to space, to orbit Earth, to navigate around the moon and finally set up a dress rehearsal before finally landing Man on the Moon on 20th July 1969.

After the launch and separation of the spacecraft from the rocket to enter the lunar orbit, the most significant challenge happened in the last thirteen minutes of Eagle's (the Lunar Module) descent onto the moon. 

The computers which controlled the lunar mission were primitive. Humans were just dabbling with computers. In fact, most of the engineers involved in the endeavour were clueless of the word software in computers. The concept of digital portable general computer was alien but was installed in the spacecraft. The data of information carried in the two computers sent in Apollo rocket is comparable to present-day mobile devices. As Armstrong and Aldrin were on their descent, the fourth astronaut (i.e. the computer) gave an unknown alarm - 1202. The third astronaut was, of course, Collin who was in the mothership Columbia orbiting the moon.

Communication between Mission Control and Apollo was painfully inadequate with a lot of static. 

After a moment of uncertainty, it was determined that the computer was screaming out that it had too many commands to respond. That was all. The interesting fact about the engineers assigned at the Mission Control in Houston was that their average age was just 27! Imagine these young punk deciding the safety of the astronaut and shouldering the whole of NASA's dreams.

Then it came to their attention that there were boulders on their planned landing site. Armstrong had to steer the vessel skilfully calculating the descent on the window panel - digital assistance was still primitive. Then he realised that he was running dangerously low on fuel as he found a suitable landing site. He was left with 18 seconds amount of fuel only at docking. 

The drama came to a joyous ending as Armstrong announced, "Houston, the Eagle has landed!" The rest is history as Armstrong laid his foot on the lunar soil to proclaim the now immortalised statement, 'a small footprint for man, a giant step for mankind!'

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07grkvh

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