The movie Passengers doesn’t hit theaters for another couple weeks, but the crew aboard the International Space Station can watch it early. The movie revolves around a mission to send humans to inhabit an exoplanet orbiting another star, so Sony Pictures is going to send the movie to the space station so the real-life astronauts can watch it at their leisure.
The director and producers of Passengers worked closely with NASA and real-life scientists to ensure they get the science right. Passengers is an action-thriller, but at its heart lies the very real possibility of interstellar space travel, and mankind’s quest to explore the universe and seek out potential new homes beyond Earth.
Neal H. Moritz, a producer of Passengers, said, “The movie is about the very real possibility of traveling to a new home around another star. It’s fascinating to discover the real science behind that—to see how astronomers are discovering exoplanets and finding ways that what we imagine could someday become a reality.”
NASA has been very active in recent years—both with the actual work of exploring the universe, identifying potential inhabitable planets, and devising plans to get us there, as well as with the public relations aspects of it. Exploring space—and manned space missions in particular—relies heavily on public support. The science is there and the budget can be found in most cases, but without the will of the public driving the missions things seem to fizzle out. Working closely with movie studios to make sure they portray things realistically is a great way to stay involved and keep the general public engaged.
There is momentum behind the idea right now. The National Geographic series Mars is also about the drive to launch a manned mission to inhabit another planet—albeit a much more well known planet in our own solar system. The fact that a manned mission to Mars is essentially considered to be a foregone conclusion, though, puts us one step closer to an interstellar mission like the one depicted in Passengers.
Jennifer Lawrence and Chris Pratt—the stars of Passengers—put together a video for NASA. It’s a sort of PSA for exploring space and identifying habitable exoplanets. In addition, Tiffany Kataria, a NASA JPL scientist and expert on exoplanet exploration, and Dr. John Bradford, CEO of SpaceWorks, will speak to press about the current technologies being developed to make deep space travel a reality at the Passengers press junket this weekend.
I have been excited about this movie since the first trailer I saw. The more I learn about the science and the real-world implications, the more intriguing it sounds—so I am definitely looking forward to checking it out in a few weeks.
