h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I felt that way when it happened.

But that is one fine film. I love the fact that part of it was filmed in space - minutes at a time.

heheh, yes, gripping. Ruins the fingernails.

What was filmed in space? Tom Hanks wasn't in space was he? Come back Tom! Don't go there. Which bits were filmed in space?

I couldn't be an astronaut. I'd get so claustrophobic, and homesick for gravity. Although I'd quite like to go to a simulator, pretend I was an astronaut for about half an hour. And then go home and eat chick pea stew and watch TV.

The weightless part was filmed aboard the 'Vomit Comet'.

This is a NASA airplane that goes high enough and fast enough to render everyone weightless for a few minutes per pass. It's horribly expensive to do.

And, apparently, it's hard on astronauts, actors, and film crews. Danger of violent antiperistalsis? Considerable. Hence the name 'Vomit Comet'.

But that's what makes the film so realistic. Instead of pretending they're floating - they REALLY ARE.

And boy, would I love to do that.

My first voyage into space was taken with Susan, the red-headed girl of my dreams, back when we were both about 10. We took a cardboard box on the back porch to Pluto. It was very cold there, because it was January. Fortunately, my mother was waiting with hot choclate and marshmallows for both of us...

What?? Serious?? The Vomit Comet??? . So, Tom Hanks and his colleagues really were floating then. Ohmigod, that's intense.

Do they pay actors a lot of money, like, danger money, for enduring this procedure?

Awww that is so adorable, you and Susan off to Pluto, with your mother waiting with the chocolate and marshmallows.

Can I come? Can I come to Pluto, please?

Hi folks! Actually the vomit comet doesn't get anywhere near 'space'. It's hard to say where space starts since the atmosphere of the Earth doesn't stop abruptly at any point, it just gets thinner and thinner. A convenient marker for space is the point beyond which regular aircraft can't fly. That is about 50 miles/80 km up. The vomit comet only goes up to about 33 000 ft/10 km, which is ordinary for an aircraft. Commercial jets can fly up to 45 000 ft/12 km or so. The trick to the vomit comet is not the height, it's the trajectory. It follows close to the trajectory of an object thrown into the sky at about a 45-degree angle with the ground. It first builds up speed so it goes as fast as possible when *starting* this trajectory. Then the engine thrust is reduced so the plane is effectively in free fall, even though it's still moving upward under its own momentum, like a ball thrown into the sky. Because it is actually in free fall (or close!) at this point, there are no gravity effects inside it. It travels upward for a while, reaches a peak and then starts falling downward again, but effectively it is 'falling' through both the up and the down phases. It can maintain virtual gravity-less-ness for about 25 seconds at a time. Eventually they have to fire the engines again and pull up out of the 'fall' so as not to hit the ground at great speed. But they then can head upwards again and start a new free-fall session. During the maneuver of pulling back up again for the next free-fall trajectory, the plane experiences the opposite, namely a felt gravity of about twice normal! So anyways the plane can repeat the whole process up to 60 times per flight!

Thanks, Willem, for that precise information!

Yes! Thanks Willem. I feel most authentically queasy now. . And slightly floaty.

Can you tell on a film if the floating is real, or if it's simulated? This is a whole new world. I thought all space movies were made with computer effects.

Or wires.

Remember when flying was done with wires? I remember seeing Peter Pan on the stage in London, in the 60s, and you could see the wire when he flew, which was all part of it.

Thunderbirds Are Go! Talking of wires, reminded me of puppets. Any Thunderbirds fans out there? (puts hand up. . Although I preferred Stingray.)

Marina, Aqua Marina.

There's this documentary style film out called Supermarionation, about the inventors, Sylvia and Gerry Anderson.

Super. Marionette. Animation.

At the end of every show it would say Filmed In Supermarionation.

All I remember is the terrible 'Fireball XL5'. After I wrote about that one for NaJo, Bluebottle asked me to finish the Guide Entry. But I declined. I was never able to watch a whole episode, even as a kid.

I think you can usually tell if the floating is fake, but hey, sometimes it's pretty good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vjxq0VdlnM

I mean, if my shower did that, I might be upset...

Thinking of poor special effects, do you remember the scene in the BBC TV version of the Hitchhikers Guide, where Arthur Dent and Marvin are walking on the planet Magrethea?

They are supposed to be watching the setting of Magrethea's two suns, and then they walk away. But it's still daylight!

heheh. Yes. Interesting shower indeed. . Is that Sam Beckett from Quantum Leap? What's he doing in Star Trek, floating around starkers?

You know what, I never saw the TV version of Hitchhikers. . I want to watch it now.

Sam Beckett became Captain Archer, the first captain of the Starship Enterprise. I think he was wanted on a number of planets...the Klingons, the Romulans...pretty much everybody was mad at him except the Andorians. The Vulcans weren't too fond of him, either.

I think he was the best Enterprise captain.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5Bc8_SkEu4

(Oh, and that Vulcan at the end is Gary Graham, of 'Alien Nation'.)

Really? The first Captain of the Enterprise?? Oh. That's interesting. Really??

Where have I been? erm.. . On my own planet, that's for sure.

He had a beagle called Porthos? He did so, I know he did. I just checked.

My life just went funny. . I blame Porthos.

Porthos was adorable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgRXmGzGoV0

Porthos boldly watered trees on planets where no canine had been seen before. Once, Captain Archer had to deliver an elaborate and colourful apology to some culture because Porthos lifted his leg against a sacred tree.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04eWNfttTBI

Great music in that Enterprise link by the way.

You know, I've just realised in a moment of eureka loveliness , that it's OK to live completely and entirely in my own world. .

OK, so I miss most of the cultural milestones, like, not knowing about Captain Archer. But ahh the joy of discovery is still fresh! There was a beagle on the Enterprise?? I am like a six year old, full of wonder, and lost in time.

OK, so I fail to engage in watercooler conversations, staring blankly into the distant bubbleland. Ah, but each bubble contains a postcard, a text, a message from my own world, and erm, yes, and how to make moments of eureka loveliness last forever. I just forgot what I was talking about. .



It is so Christmassy in town! Today the Salvation Army were playing carols outside the pharmacy, Ding Dong Merrily on High! Yes! And I finally remembered to buy toothpaste.

And then there are Flekki and Lazar.

Who??? Flekki and Lazar. I don't know who they are. I think they might be band members. They are at the threshold of my daydreams, I'd better let them in. The characterisation homework for my writing group is taking a strange turn.

Oh! Hullo Mister D!

Ah! News of Porthos!! See, it's news to me. This is amazing. I shall go have supper and then return to learn about my new discovery.

The other way of simulating weightlessness is by means of a parachute drop, up to the time one pops one's canopy, though to avoid wind resistance acting in on the body, it would need to be done in an enclosed capsule, say from 73,000 feet- not routine, but definitely feasible, allowing a longer period of weightless than on a vomit comet flight.

I particularly liked the changes in the Star Trek "Enterprise" logo material that came following the cancellation of the series, for sheer panache, documenting departure from the main "Star Trek" historic line to the 'Counter Kirk' alternate universe, from its inception.

I still say that the 'Vulcan Academy of Sciences' elements putatively responsible were really not Vulcans at all, but instead, Tellurites in disguise.

Ah, pigs in space.

CC, I, too, experience time out of order. It doesn't bother me - especially since there's the internet. I spent yesterday in the 1830s, on the Illinois frontier, and today, Bel had me running around in postwar Germany...

As somebody from 'Deep Space Nine' said, 'They'll get it in 30 years.' So why shouldn't we be the right audience, anytime?

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Enterprize_(1743)

(Depicted in the "Star Trek Enterprise" opening logo material, along with an ancient Melanesian sailing vessel of the type thought to have been used in the opening of the Australasian archipelago, at about the same time Homo Sapiens first came to Europe, which at the tine was still the domain of the Neanderthals.)

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPn-lTytfGo