11-18-2021, 12:11 PM
(seen on Criterion)
I have a very strict rating system for science fiction movies daring to venture into space or to the moon or Mars.
The grade depends heavily on how they present the space suits.
Most directors don't realize there's two distinct kinds of suits. One is used aboard ship, in the ship's atmosphere and pressure, and is intended merely as a precaution -- like when the Russians decide it's a good idea to blow up a satellite and create a debris field right in front of you. With this kind of suit, you're surrounded by the atmospheric pressure of the ship, so the suit doesn't need any special pressurization, and you breathe from tanks of regular air (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, etc., just like on Earth).
Then there's the EVA (extravehicular activity) suits. You know, for going on spacewalks or bunny-hopping on the moon or Mars. In these cases, you're surrounded by vacuum or something approaching it, and the suit has to act like the ship -- which means maintaining an atmospheric pressure to keep you from exploding. But you can't have a full-on Earth atmosphere, as the pressure would render you a balloon animal, arms and legs fully extended, and any flexing of the limbs would be prohibitively tiring. For this reason, this suit keeps you at only about 1/4 Earth's atmospheric pressure. But in remedying the pressure problem, it introduces another. If you breathe regular air, the dissolved gases (mainly nitrogen) in your bloodstream will come out of solution, forming gas bubbles -- essentially, you get the bends.
So for these suits you have to breathe pure oxygen. Not only that, but you must prepare for an EVA by pre-breathing pure oxygen for an hour or two -- to purge nitrogen from your bloodstream -- before suiting up and going out. This important detail, though tedious, is almost always ignored in crappy science fiction movies.
Which brings us to Nude on the Moon. How did it fare?
Flawless.
I have a very strict rating system for science fiction movies daring to venture into space or to the moon or Mars.
The grade depends heavily on how they present the space suits.
Most directors don't realize there's two distinct kinds of suits. One is used aboard ship, in the ship's atmosphere and pressure, and is intended merely as a precaution -- like when the Russians decide it's a good idea to blow up a satellite and create a debris field right in front of you. With this kind of suit, you're surrounded by the atmospheric pressure of the ship, so the suit doesn't need any special pressurization, and you breathe from tanks of regular air (78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, etc., just like on Earth).
Then there's the EVA (extravehicular activity) suits. You know, for going on spacewalks or bunny-hopping on the moon or Mars. In these cases, you're surrounded by vacuum or something approaching it, and the suit has to act like the ship -- which means maintaining an atmospheric pressure to keep you from exploding. But you can't have a full-on Earth atmosphere, as the pressure would render you a balloon animal, arms and legs fully extended, and any flexing of the limbs would be prohibitively tiring. For this reason, this suit keeps you at only about 1/4 Earth's atmospheric pressure. But in remedying the pressure problem, it introduces another. If you breathe regular air, the dissolved gases (mainly nitrogen) in your bloodstream will come out of solution, forming gas bubbles -- essentially, you get the bends.
So for these suits you have to breathe pure oxygen. Not only that, but you must prepare for an EVA by pre-breathing pure oxygen for an hour or two -- to purge nitrogen from your bloodstream -- before suiting up and going out. This important detail, though tedious, is almost always ignored in crappy science fiction movies.
Which brings us to Nude on the Moon. How did it fare?
Flawless.
I'm nobody's pony.