Question: What exactly is the cause of the flash? Is that heat from the impact (IR camera), or is there visible light created by impact? It seems unlikely to be onboard fuel.

My guess – although I’m not an expert and thus not 100 % sure – is that the flash of light and heat is the result of the kinetic energy of impact. Ie. its the impact itself that creates the flash along with a crater, same as for meteorites.

I’d also guess that there could also still be some fuel explosion in what little fuel remains even if that’s just fumes …

@ # 21. Robert Carnegie :

By the way, what’s this talk about Mars colliding with the Earth sometime (again?) Like a billion years from now? I thought Laplace disposed of instability in the Solar System in the late 18th century, and when you prove something in mathematics, it stays proved. I mean, yeah, general relativity, but even so.What if Mars hits the Moon instead? I suspect still not good for us if we’re still here.

Ken Croswell posted an article on this planetary orbital instability over the very long term
back on April 24th 2008 that I emailed to the BA thinking it’d be the ideal thing for him. Yet he never posted on it – unless I just missed it.

See : http://kencroswell.com/MercuryCrash.html

This is essentially sort of like Chaos theory as I understand it … but may be wrong.

Indeed, Lang’s visual sense was remarkable. I suspect he was also influenced by Verne’s ballistic approach to a moon launch.

I’m forever using examples from Frau im Mond and Metropolis when “debating” the crazy UFO nutters who claim, “That couldn’t be fake! They didn’t have computers then!” Frau has one of the best examples of a foreground miniature in cinema history. And that’s not even getting into the fancy Schüftann shots with the mirrors…just a model stuck in front of the camera!

The Smart-1 impact was in sunlight. I imagine when you smack into something that fast you are going to vaporize what little amount of volatiles are left in the spacecraft, along with anything else that will go poof.

mega

I thought that, too, the first time I saw it, but remember that’s a modern objection since we know what real space launch vehicles look like when they take off. What did they have to compare it to at the time? Fireworks and rescue rockets that really do take off like that. Besides, Lang had to show the rocket going really, really fast and fast doesn’t start off slow. Remember that this was a silent film and that Lang was completely visually oriented as a director. It’s the same reason he made the outrageous decision to have a breathable atmosphere on the moon. Otherwise his actors would have to wear space suits (which were hard-hat diving suits) and have their faces hidden. Tough to do a good acting job with no sound and no facial expression!

- Jack

I just watched Frau im Mond the other night. Quite an undertaking. Thankfully Fritz Lang learned to trim a bit. Still, I was amazed at the film’s prescient science. Although I did think it was rather silly the way the rocket accelerated like a bullet. The bottom of that spaceship would be covered with a thick layer of gooey Germans after that launch!

Both “Frau” and “Metropolis” have been restored by Kino and are available for a quite reasonable $25 or so. Of the two, Metropolis is more famous so it has more special features, but that is partly because Frau, with the restored footage is nearly 3 hours long! There just wasn’t much room for bonus features on the disc.

I’ve always wondered how they find the lost stuff. When I did “Spaceship Handbook” (which has a chapter on Frau and another on Herrmann Oberth) every reference I found said the early scenes of the movie were destroyed by the Gestapo and no longer exist anywhere. Four years later, Kino releases a restoration of the whole thing that looks like it just came from the UFA film lab!

For those of you who aren’t into silent movies, these are good ones to start on, but make sure you get restored copies, not the crap that’s been circulating for decades.

- Jack

Gary,
Sweden is set to launch their ‘Ikea I’ probe next week.

csrster said:

Michael – it’s been delayed. They couldn’t get the damn thing assembled in time.

Actually, they got it assembled, but they ended up with a bunch of extra pieces…

I think the photo could still be posted. Copyright allows for fair use in commentary and/or educational use.

That doesn’t look like a bad translation. I once had to work a whole evening with a Japanese speaker to translate a few technical comments on an industrial program.

What if Mars hits the Moon instead? I suspect still not good for us if we’re still here.

“Korinna says:
And did you ask the Moon if it minded having a probe crashed into it? I mean, I’d imagine a female body that’s been without human contact for almost 40 years would practically have an orgasm if poked.

Seriously, learn about things before you talk about them. ”

BEST REPLY EVER

Ironically, I just returned my copy of Lang’s movie to NetFlix.

What I really want is the COMPLETE (I think they found missing footage last July or so in S. America – Argentina – somewhere…take me away Google!) Metropolis.

J/P=?

Life imitates art predicting life.

- Jack