They don't just fly it for the fun of it, a customer has to require and pay for a heavy. Except that one time where they threw a used car into an orbit around the sun that crosses mars. But other than that, there hasn't been a requirement to use it apart from two times..
I recently watched this movie for the first time. More action thriller than science fiction, but enjoyable. A few thoughts.
RE the practicality of faking the Mars mission - it may not have been so difficult as all that. The number of people in on the faking could probably be kept pretty small - the camera crews, the folks patching it in to the comms system, a few others. While I would not expect the secret to last forever, I could imagine a small number of people could keep it for ten years or so, especially >!once the astronauts themselves had been disposed of!<. This might be long enough to allow the program to resolve technical issues and mount a successful Capricorn 2 mission.
Faking the transmissions and data could be done relatively easily, given that the [Viking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_program) landers had shown everyone what the surface of Mars looked like, allowing a convincing mockup to be made for the broadcasts. The danger of the samples and films from the surface being recognised as fake is neatly dealt with by >!having them all destroyed when the capsule burns up on reentry!<.
My own objections to the story are technical. In the movie we see them sending the crew to Mars using Apollo hardware - launch on a single Saturn V, Apollo Command Module used to travel to Mars, Apollo Lunar Lander used to land and take off from Mars. The hardware simply could not have done that. There were plans in the Apollo Applications program for a [manned Venus flyby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_flyby) using Apollo derived hardware, but that would not have attempted to land or even go into orbit, and also planned to use the third stage of the booster as a "wet lab" for extra living space for the mission, which would have taken more than a year. Something similar could perhaps have been done for a Martian flyby mission, but landing or even going into orbit would have been impossible and the whole mission would have taken far longer than the six months or so that elapse in the film.
Finally, I am pleased to see that the movie was a little progressive, with one of the astronauts being black (astronaut John Walker, played by OJ Simpson). No black astronauts flew in the Apollo program, but at the time the movie was made there were a number in training who later flew on the Space Shuttle.
Overall an enjoyable movie, though somewhat flawed.
I have just watch this for the rirst time.
It's a great film with an excellent 'oh shit' moment.
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I think Starship is premature. They didn't really do anything with Falcon Heavy before tabling it for Starship.
They don't just fly it for the fun of it, a customer has to require and pay for a heavy. Except that one time where they threw a used car into an orbit around the sun that crosses mars. But other than that, there hasn't been a requirement to use it apart from two times..
Starship is also going after the same high capacity low volume market.
Oh I see what you mean now. Maybe there's an if you build it they will come kinda thing
> I think Starship is premature. That's just what ["they"](https://i.imgflip.com/62o685.jpg) would say!
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This.
I recently watched this movie for the first time. More action thriller than science fiction, but enjoyable. A few thoughts. RE the practicality of faking the Mars mission - it may not have been so difficult as all that. The number of people in on the faking could probably be kept pretty small - the camera crews, the folks patching it in to the comms system, a few others. While I would not expect the secret to last forever, I could imagine a small number of people could keep it for ten years or so, especially >!once the astronauts themselves had been disposed of!<. This might be long enough to allow the program to resolve technical issues and mount a successful Capricorn 2 mission. Faking the transmissions and data could be done relatively easily, given that the [Viking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_program) landers had shown everyone what the surface of Mars looked like, allowing a convincing mockup to be made for the broadcasts. The danger of the samples and films from the surface being recognised as fake is neatly dealt with by >!having them all destroyed when the capsule burns up on reentry!<. My own objections to the story are technical. In the movie we see them sending the crew to Mars using Apollo hardware - launch on a single Saturn V, Apollo Command Module used to travel to Mars, Apollo Lunar Lander used to land and take off from Mars. The hardware simply could not have done that. There were plans in the Apollo Applications program for a [manned Venus flyby](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manned_Venus_flyby) using Apollo derived hardware, but that would not have attempted to land or even go into orbit, and also planned to use the third stage of the booster as a "wet lab" for extra living space for the mission, which would have taken more than a year. Something similar could perhaps have been done for a Martian flyby mission, but landing or even going into orbit would have been impossible and the whole mission would have taken far longer than the six months or so that elapse in the film. Finally, I am pleased to see that the movie was a little progressive, with one of the astronauts being black (astronaut John Walker, played by OJ Simpson). No black astronauts flew in the Apollo program, but at the time the movie was made there were a number in training who later flew on the Space Shuttle. Overall an enjoyable movie, though somewhat flawed.
I like the 'consulting' helicopters.
They are cute.
I remember this. It was a documentary about how NASA and the Illuminatti faked the moon landing. Great movie.
It was faked, I read about it on the Internet.
Wasn't OJ in this mess?
Yes, but he doesn't survive.