I have always known what the phrase " " meant, and in my work in the Aerospace arena, I have come to appreciate its significance.
And so, any film that would attempt a title as such has to live up to my expectations and Ad Astra the movie does.
Actor Brad Pitt and the cast masterfully demonstrate what a near-future voyage to the Moon, Mars and outer solar system might feel and sound like, as well as what some hypothetical political sensitivities might entail.
A key objective of this film was an attempt to make it as scientifically accurate as possible without depleting the storytelling and the excitement of moviegoer; movies are not documentaries after all.
In other to achieve this objective of scientific accuracy, the Writer of Ad Astra Ethan Gross and the entire production team enlisted the help of Current and Veteran NASA scientists and Engineers like Robert Yowell, a veteran of the Space Shuttle Program.
The team of Scientist, and the masterful storytellers, great actors and actresses and an A-class production team makes Ad Astra my new gold standard for science fiction and one of the very few "science near fact movies".
Science-based movies and books are an incredible tool for inspiring an interest in Space Flight and Engineering, the Apollo moon landings although science reality was televised, and that televised component of the mission made the viewers a part of the program like they would not have been otherwise.
Space holds a lot of promises for mankind and the only way to realize that potential is if we can inspire and mobilize our citizens to take an interest in helping that effort one way or another.
I hope Ad Astra is not an isolated phenomenon and that there might be a sequel, and I have good reason to believe that might be the case, Ad Astra's writer Ethan Gross hinted to me that this is being considered.
Human space flight is riddled with hazards such as hardware failure, radiation and microgravity, as well as the phycological effects of isolation and monotony.
Demonstrating how humans might live through all these hazards and challenges and why we might want to or need to continue our venture into the cosmos is something only a movie like Ad Astra could do, and it does this exceptionally well.
"Released from the Earth by Rockets Advanced, Man travels through space hour by hour
On to distant and alien words, their secrets revealed, data by data.
What pain, what risk, what sacrifice, what satisfaction.
To the end of the Universe, man will go, why he does, he's always known.
Man is Kin of the Stars"
Ad Astra/ Endless Quest
