Tag: space week

The Four-Colour Final Frontier: Comics for World Space Week

Gus

Ever since 1929, when Buck Rogers left the written pulp magazines for the four-colour newspaper comic strip, comics have provided the perfect canvas for stories about space travel and other planets.

While the terror of little green men and mysterious alien jungles of the 50s and 60s eventually fell away due to Sputnik, Voyager, and the Mars rovers, writers and artists found new storytelling opportunities in the vastness of space in the modern day, whether they be conscious genre throwbacks like Mark Millar and Goran Parlov’s Flash Gordon pastiche Starlight, first contact political thrillers like Letter 44, or melancholic examinations of living on other worlds like Tom Gauld’s Mooncop.

And while Space Week may only last seven days, it’s always a good time to revisit the classic Tintin duology, Destination Moon and Explorers on the Moon as well!


Destination moon / Hergé
“Destination Moon (1953) gives a detailed account on the preparation and the launching of the expedition to the Moon for which Professor Calculus has chosen Syladavian soil. Tintin and Captain Haddock are amazed to find that Professor Calculus is planning a top-secret project from the Sprodj Atomic Research Centre in Syldavia. And before our intrepid hero knows it, the next stop on this adventure is …Space.” (Catalogue)

Saga. Compendium one / Vaughan, Brian K
“Containing the first nine volumes of the acclaimed, New York Times-bestselling series, this compendium tells the entire story of a girl named Hazel and her star-crossed parents. Features gorgeous full-color artwork, including a new cover from Eisner-winning co-creator Staples. Collects #1-54.” (Catalogue)

Starlight : the return of Duke McQueen / Millar, Mark
“Forty years ago, Duke McQueen saved an alien world from destruction. Back on earth, nobody believed his story. Now his kids are grown, his wife has passed on, and life has little to offer. Until the day a strange boy from the world he once saved makes an appearance, coaxing Duke to join him on one last adventure. Can Duke handle the leap from has-been to hero? Collects Starlight #1-6.” (Adapted from catalogue)

Letter 44. Volume I, Escape velocity / Soule, Charles
“On Inauguration Day, newly elected President Stephen Blades hoped to tackle the most critical issues facing the nation: war, the economy, and a failing health care system. But in a letter penned by the outgoing President, Blades learns the truth that redefines “critical”: seven years ago, NASA discovered alien presence in the asteroid belt, and kept it a secret from the world. A stealth mission crewed by nine astronauts was sent to make contact, and they’re getting close-assuming they survive the long journey to reach their destination. Today, President-elect Blades has become the most powerful man on the planet. This planet.” (Catalogue)

Mooncop / Gauld, Tom
Living on the moon . . . Whatever were we thinking? . . . It seems so silly now.” The lunar colony is slowly winding down, like a small town circumvented by a new super highway. As our hero, the Mooncop, makes his daily rounds, his beat grows ever smaller, the population dwindles. A young girl runs away, a dog breaks off his leash, an automaton wanders off from the Museum of the Moon. Mooncop is equal parts funny and melancholy. capturing essential truths about humanity and making this a story of the past, present, and future, all in one.” (Adapted from catalogue)

The Manhattan Projects. 1 / Hickman, Jonathan
“What if the research and development department created to produce the first atomic bomb was a front for a series of other, more unusual, programs?” (Catalogue)

What do astronauts read in space?

Neil

What do Astronauts read in space?

What books inspired them to become Astronauts?

To celebrate the launch of our World Space week online film festival. We have done a bit of exploring of our own and found out what two Astronauts like to read in space or inspired them to become Astronauts.

For full details of our online World space week film festival click here.

Astronaut Anousheh Ansari dreamed about going into space from a very young age,  a dream she achieved just after her 40th birthday, when she became the first Iranian in space. She is now the CEO of the X prize foundation. The book she cites as her inspiration for her dream of becoming an astronaut was The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti choose The Martian by Andy Weir, The Invincible by Stanisław Lem. And her personal favourite of her picks was The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Samantha said she had three good reasons for picking it as her favourite:

  • The first was that in the book the answer to the ultimate question is forty two, and she was a crew member on the forty second Expedition.
  • Second, the book contains an important reminder to not take ourselves too seriously.
  • And finally, and perhaps most importantly, ‘Don’t panic’ is printed on the cover.

Other astronauts have taken up other novels including Gone With the Wind, Vanity Fair and War and Peace, Faust and Robert Heinlein’s The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Astronauts also read books to children from space as part of the Storytime from space project and you can watch their out of this world readings by clicking here. Enjoy!

The little prince / Saint-Exupéry, Antoine de
” If a little fellow comes along, if he laughs, if he has golden hair, and if he never answers questions, then you will know who he is. He is the Little Prince. The Little Prince journeys to our planet from his home among the stars, encountering all sorts of benighted grown-ups along the way, and a fox, who teaches him how to see the important things in life. But the Prince has left behind a flower growing on his star, a rose which is his treasure and his burden, and before long he must return to it. ” (Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

The hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy : a trilogy in four parts / Adams, Douglas
” Book one: One Thursday lunchtime the Earth gets demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass. For Arthur, who has just had his house demolished, this is too much. Sadly, the weekend’s just begun. Book two : When all issues of space, time, matter and the nature of being are resolved, only one question remains: Where shall we have dinner? Book three : In consequence of a number of stunning catastrophes, Arthur Dent is surprised to find himself living in a hideously miserable cave on prehistoric Earth. Book three .Arthur Dent’s sense of reality is in its dickiest state when he suddenly finds the girl of his dreams. They go in search of God’s Final Message and, in a dramatic break with tradition, actually find it.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

The Martian : a novel / Weir, Andy
“Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive–and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. ” You can also borrow the film adaptation by clicking  here for details.

Gone with the wind / Mitchell, Margaret
” This is the tale of Scarlett O’Hara, the spoiled, manipulative daughter of a wealthy plantation owner, who arrives at young womanhood just in time to see the Civil War forever change her way of life. A sweeping story of tangled passion and courage, in the pages of Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell brings to life the unforgettable characters that have captured readers for over seventy years.” (Adapted from Catalogue) You can also borrow the film adaptation by clicking  here for details.

Vanity fair / Thackeray, William Makepeace
“Becky Sharp will do anything to raise her position in Society, from impoverished orphan to woman of means. Clever, lively and resourceful, Becky is the total opposite of her naive and sentimental schoolmate Amelia Sedley, a pampered yet good-natured girl from a wealthy family. As both women pursue love and life in London, against the background of the Napoleonic Wars, Thackeray paints a vivid portrait of decadent Regency England and satirises its corruption and flaws to delightful effect.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

War and peace / Tolstoy, Leo
” War and Peace centers broadly on Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in 1812 and follows three of the best-known characters in literature: Pierre Bezukhov, the illegitimate son of a count, who is fighting for his inheritance and yearning for spiritual fulfillment; Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, who leaves behind his family to fight in the war against Napoleon; and Natasha Rostov, the beautiful young daughter of a nobleman, who intrigues both men. As Napoleon’s army invades, Tolstoy vividly follows characters from diverse backgrounds – peasants and nobility, civilians and soldiers – as they struggle with the problems unique to their era, their history, and their culture. ” (Adapted from Catalogue) Also available as an eBook.

Faust, part one / Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
“Goethe’s Faust is a radical adaptation of the old German story of the wandering conjuror who sells his soul to a devil called Mephistopheles for magical powers and secret knowledge. Over a period of sixty years Goethe turned it into one of the greatest dramatic and poetic masterpieces of European literature. Goethe started work on it in the 1770s when still a young man, only finishing it near the end of his life, some fifty years later.”  (Adapted from Catalogue)

The moon is a harsh mistress / Heinlein, Robert A.
“‘ It is a tale of revolution, of the rebellion of a former penal colony on the Moon against its masters on the Earth. It is a tale of a culture whose family structures are based on the presence of two men for every woman, leading to novel forms of marriage and family. It is the story of the disparate people – a computer technician, a vigorous young female agitator, and an elderly academic – who become the movement’s leaders. And it is the story of Mike, the supercomputer whose sentience is known only to the revolt’s inner circle, who for reasons of his own is committed to the revolution’s ultimate success.” (Adapted from Catalogue)


World Space Week Online Film Festival!

Neil

A blade of grass is a commonplace on Earth; it would be a miracle on Mars. Our descendants on Mars will know the value of a patch of green. And if a blade of grass is priceless, what is the value of a human being? ― Carl Sagan

To celebrate World Space Week, we have put together a very special free online Space Film Festival. This specially selected collection of documentaries cover everything from early attempts at space exploration and the moon landings to stories about the remote probes and the mysteries of deep space cosmology. And if you want to take your exploration of space to another level, we’ve included a 24-episode course entitled Introduction to Astrophysics, as well as links to several online resources. Enjoy!

Sepideh – Reaching for the Stars

Year: 2013
Length: 88 minutes
Director: Berit Madsen

Watch the full film here!

“Sepideh wants to become an astronaut. She spends her nights exploring the secrets of the universe, while her family will do anything to keep her on the ground. The expectations for a young Iranian woman are very different from Sepideh’s ambitions, and her plans to go to university are in danger. But Sepideh holds on to her dreams, teaming up with the world’s first female space tourist, Anousheh Ansari, to fight to make them come true.”

Fight for Space

Year: 2016
Length: 92 minutes
Director: Paul Hildebrandt

Watch the full film here!

“In 1962, spurred by the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy famously made the bold proclamation that NASA would send astronauts to the moon by the end of the decade. The Space Race inspired a generation to pursue careers in science and technology, but as the balance of world power shifted, interest in space exploration declined.

FIGHT FOR SPACE serves as an urgent call to re-awaken our sense of wonder and discovery and features commentary by Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson.”

First to the Moon

Year: 2019
Length: 121 minutes
Director: Paul Hildebrandt

Watch the full film here!

“In 1968, NASA sent three men farther and faster than anyone had gone before. This is the story of how Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders changed history on the flight of Apollo 8.”

Blast

Year: 2008
Director: Paul Devlin

Watch the full film here!

“This film explores both the heartbreak and the glory of trying to unravel the secrets of outer space. Mark Devlin, PhD (the filmmaker’s brother) launches revolutionary telescopes on NASA high-altitude balloons. Dangerous, but necessary if he wants to look back in time and reveal a hidden Universe of never-before-seen galaxies.

BLAST! follows Mark and his team on their grueling journey across 5 continents, from Arctic Sweden to Antarctica, as they search the sky for clues to the Evolution of Everything. Along the way, the rarely-seen true life of scientists is exposed – the failures, the triumphs and the sacrifices. It’s an adventure like no other, one that will that take you around the world and across the Universe.”

Skyline

Year: 2015
Length: 75 minutes
Director: Jonny Leahan, Miguel Drake-McLaughlin

Watch the full film here!

“In 1979, Arthur C. Clarke wrote a novel about an elevator that goes to outer space. SKYLINE is the story of the people who intend to build it. From scientific gatherings to NASA’s high-stakes Space Elevator Games, the film follows the major players working to make the concept a reality. For all of them, the space elevator is more than just science fiction: it’s an achievable goal.”

Introduction to Astrophysics

Length: 791 mins
Features: Joshua N. Winn

Watch the full series here!

“Plunge into the exciting quest to investigate everything beyond Earth through the laws of physics. Introduction to Astrophysics takes you step by step through the calculations that show how planets, stars, and galaxies work. In 24 episodes by noted astrophysicist Professor Joshua Winn, you’ll tour a universe of exploding stars, colliding black holes, dark matter, and other wonders.”

The Farthest

Year: 2016
Length: 116 minutes
Director: Emer Reynolds

Watch the full film here!

“It is one of humankind’s greatest achievements. More than twelve billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our Solar System and entering the void of deep space – the first human-made object ever to do so.

Slowly dying within its heart is a nuclear generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager finally go out. But this little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth. In all likelihood Voyager will outlive humanity. THE FARTHEST celebrates these magnificent machines, the men and women who built them and the vision that propelled them farther than anyone could ever have hoped.”

A Space Program: Artist Tom Sachs’ Homemade Space Station

Year: 2015
Length: 70 minutes
Directors: Tom Sachs, Van Neistat

Watch the full film here!

“Internationally acclaimed artist Tom Sachs takes us on an intricately handmade journey to the red planet, providing audiences with an intimate, first person look into his studio and methods.

A SPACE PROGRAM is both a piece of art in its own right and a recording of Sachs’ historic piece, Space Program 2.0: MARS, which opened at New York’s Park Avenue Armory in 2012.”

Online Resources:

Interactive: Science (Gale): An online interactive database that covers science subjects. Access and manipulate interactive 3D models related to key scientific concepts.

Science in Context (Gale): Contextual information on many significant science topics and showcases scientific disciplines that relate to real-world issues.