MovieChat Forums > Europa Report (2013) Discussion > Open the pod bay doors, Hal...

Open the pod bay doors, Hal...

posted 11 years ago by DangerManTX
39 replies | jump to latest

Okay, after Andrei was safely in the airlock and depressurized, why couldn't another astronaut suit up, get outside and attempt to save the other astronaut? Contriving some equipment to scrub him, and get him inside the airlock. They still had 20 minutes of air and anyway it's a movie, that's a long time in a movie. But then NASA astronauts can go out for 6-8 hours at a time, so why can the astronauts in this movie only go out for short times like 1-2 hours?

Naturally when he pushes Andrei into the airlock he goes flying the other way thanks to Newtonian Physics, guess he wasn't a Physicist, any High School kid could have put him right there.

Now although Hydrazine is toxic, it can be diluted and washed away with enough water. In a real emergency would it not be more probable that some of the crew retreat to a safe and sealed off area of the ship, while Andrei recovered to a point where he could then help remove the other astronaut out of his contaminated suit? After which they could exit the airlock and be treated for any exposure to the Hydrazine, the airlock could be physically cleaned and any tainted materials disposed of. Guess I'm thinking too deeply and logically for this movie...

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

You're not "thinking too deeply and logically for this movie."

Rather you aren't considering that you can't just open the door to a depressurized airlock and not compromise the rest of the ship.

Or that Jupiter's radiation is what restricts their time in the spacewalk compared to on the ISS.

The rest of your post is semigibberish.

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

I happen to be a Scientist, to you it probably sounds like semigibberish. Basically if you plan on writing a convincing Sci-Fi script, you are supposed to do a little research into what it is you claim might happen in your space opera hokum. Some of the audience know hokum when they see it. Only gibberish here was the script itself.

[–] crimsondrake90 11 years ago

Ok then, "DangerManTX" the "Scientist" (random unnecessary capitalization must make it true and not a sign that the person using the word is only semi-literate): at the start of the EVA scene it is stated that they have 13 hours or so, they are shown working on various sections of the ship with the footage "skipping ahead" until the accident at the end.

It takes longer than 20 minutes to get into one of those space suits, never mind doing so then coming up with a way to scrub the other suit clean, all on the outside of the ship in way below freezing temperatures, since you mention cleaning/diluting the hydrazine with water (real scientific thinking right there), which they have so much of that they have to drink their own (filtered/distilled) urine.

As holdek01 said, pressurizing the contaminated room and opening the door would compromise the rest of the ship, it's not like they can hold their breath and open the windows to wait for the smell in the room to air out, it's a fully contained environment.

Finally, drifting off into space as a result of not being a "Physicist" is obviously not what kills him. He clearly knew he was a goner because they had run out of options and simply made the decision to throw Andrei inside without bothering to hold on. It not only makes for a more dramatic/cinematic shot than that of one dying whilst clinging to the ship, it's what one would probably choose to do with their final moments anyway. For example, he might have reasoned that if he held onto the door he'd have had time to lose his willpower and go inside the airlock out of irrational fear, killing himself, Andrei and everyone else on board. One does not simply work for a 13 hour EVA without flying off into space if they do not know exactly what they are doing.

Keep up that deep, logical thinking bro.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

I happen to be a Scientist

Uh huh...says the guy who doesn't understand basic physics or chemistry.

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

Don't be stupid now. If I didn't understand Physics, I wouldn't have discussed Physics. Suggest you learn some and you might also see why this was a very stupid movie. I'm still laughing at their borrowed rocket footage. What a rubbish film, just about right for your unscientific mentality.

[–] Seymour-Pats 11 years ago

What's with the random capitalization? I'm not usually picky about stuff like that, but you don't usually see educated people randomly capitalizing things. You're claiming to be educated, but you haven't really backed up your claims with any solid science.

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

If I didn't understand Physics, I wouldn't have discussed Physics.

But you don't, and you did.

People mouth off about stuff they don't understand all the time especially on the Internet. You are one of those people.

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

I have nothing to prove to you, you don't know me. :) I could easily hold a PhD and teach Physics and Cosmology at a well known US university, hey a lot of people do, but why bother arguing that with you. Since you aren't doing that yourself, you preclude that no one else is doing that. I'll collect my paycheck same as usual, and you'll still collect yours for that McDonalds job you hold down. You are clearly vacuous in all that you say. 'L'. If you are going to talk to me, talk Physics, if you can't refute me with the Science, then best not to say anything. Make that a quarter pounder, large fries, small coffee.

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

I could easily hold a PhD and teach Physics and Cosmology at a well known US university.

But you don't. You know how I know that? Because you don't understand planetary radiation or pressure.

Since you aren't doing that yourself, you preclude that no one else is doing that.

No, I just preclude that you, specifically, are doing that.

If you are going to talk to me, talk Physics,

I already did. I corrected you on two elementary errors you made in your original post.

Make that a quarter pounder, large fries, small coffee.

You do seem to know a lot about the McDonald's menu, though, so congratulations on that, I guess.

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

Nah you really didn't. Your bs'ing now. The Physics in this film was pitiful at best. As I said I have nothing to prove to you, and don't actually care. You never quite know who's who on here. Glad you appreciate my knowledge of the Mcdonald's Menu, I'm sure it makes your day easier when I can just drive up and put my order in. Everyone's a winner.

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

How would you know how good the physics are? You're just pretending to be a scientist online.

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

"How good the Physics are", you say? Yes how good are those Physics? LOL. You're an idiot. Your written English is also rubbish. As I said already, I have nothing to prove to you. Since you cannot refute my scientific opinions, you are clearly not a scientist. McDonald's that's your future... Make that a Big Mac, large fries, and a large drink.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

The difference is, I never claimed to be a scientist. You did.

(BTW, "physics" is a plural, common noun. )

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

I'm still waiting for that Big Mac...

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

Yes, you've made two things abundantly clear:

1. You like to pretend to be a scientist on the Internet.

2. You like eating McDonald's a lot.

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

Don't forget the ketchup, I have some Physics to be getting on with...

[–] holdek01 11 years ago

Keep dreaming, boy.

[–] desperateone 10 years ago

from what I gathered through these conversations , there's a third possibility .

3. DangerManTX works in McDonalds
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[–] holdek01 10 years ago

Very possible. That would also explain his intimate familiarity with the menu, and his constant promotion of it.

[–] djsnafu23 10 years ago

Dying of laughter here...respect to holdek01!!! Suspect Dangerman must be trolling. God i love IMDB

...

http://soundcloud.com/dj-snafu-bankrupt-euros

Coz lifes too short to listen to Madlib

[–] Temporary_Jesus 11 years ago

That might all be true DangerManTX, lucky this movie wasn't a documentary!

[–] BlackCanine 11 years ago

It was going to take 10 minutes for the airlock to depressurize. Add whatever time it would take for them to open the airlock, get Andrei out, get someone else in (assuming they're already suited up), close the airlock, another 10 minutes to re-pressurize, and then open the outer door and your 20 minutes are up.

Also, right before he pushed Andrei in, the captain said that he had started leaking oxygen and you could see his oxygen levels rapidly decreasing (not really explained why). This is why it only took him a couple minutes to run out of oxygen and suffocate when he was floating away.

And what water would you use to wash away the Hydrazine? Their limited drinking water? They're in a sealed environment where they have to recycle their own urine for more drinking water. This also presents the problem that if they're unable to completely remove all the Hydrazine in the airlock, it's likely that it would cycle through the air circulation and spread throughout the entire ship. I don't think it would be reasonable to jeopardize the whole mission just to try and save 1 astronaut.

[–] DangerManTX 11 years ago

There's a lot more than recycled urine to drink on a space ship. If it was a closed loop as you imagine, they'd run out of water, since not all water in the body becomes urine. Hydrazine is not as hazardous as this movie makes out. It's toxic but washes away with water. There wasn't much science in this movie at all.

[–] BlackCanine 11 years ago

Never said that they only had recycled urine to drink, just that they had to recycle their urine to begin with (they mention this when they're complaining about hygiene). It's not like they're getting a supply of fresh water delivered to them every month. A trip to Europa (and ideally back) would require a lot of water to keep all the astronauts hydrated.

[–] SkyfireX 11 years ago

Now although Hydrazine is toxic, it can be diluted and washed away with enough water

Screw washing it with water. Since Hydrazine is a freaking liquid why didn't it vaporize in the freaking vacuum of space in those 20 minutes?! It shouldn't have taken more than 5 minutes for that amount of liquid to completely vaporize in the vacuum. How about that?

My job is to watch stupid movies and complain about them on IMDB

[–] HellRaidertr 11 years ago

I agree with you unlike other posters here who have clearly formed a romantic bondage with this movie. It is illogical to assume the compound is as toxic as they made it to be. I am not a scientist or a physicist but a researcher and a thinker. After they both have entered the airlock compartment, he could have attempted to isolate the suit even if dilution was not possible. Also, I believe he did not fall behind due to action reaction principle but the ship was orbiting around pretty fast. Yes the movie was incredibly stupid and also one of the worst among found footage movies. Apollo 18 is pretty solid compared to this.

How convenient of them to attack your grammar after you said you were a scientist. Trying to decrase your credibility with such cheap ways are for people who can't discuss anything properly. Imdb users are the worst...

Hey, Soldier. Do you know who's in command here?

[–] snagletooth 11 years ago

"attack your grammar after you said you were a scientist. Trying to decrase your credibility with such cheap ways are for people who can't discuss anything properly. Imdb users are the worst..."

Well, some of them. Snotty brats.

[–] DangerManTX 10 years ago

Indeed, well happens I am a Scientist. My grammar does suck, but then I'm not an English Teacher, I'm a Scientist. Added to the fact that this is merely a forum board not a writing class. Convenient form of attack for the trolls, as always. You are smart, and a reasoning person.

[–] Decomposed 10 years ago

DangerManTX just shut up already. A scientist and university teacher who comes to IMDb to talk about trolls and type "LOL" in his posts. Sure you are...

For within each death there is always a new life, a new beginning - Dillon, Alien 3

[–] snagletooth 11 years ago

It didn't seem like it took 20 minutes to cycle the air lock, so he should have waited for Andrei to be retrieved from the lock, have the air lock be depressurized, entered it, pressurized the air lock, gotten out of the suit, left the suit in the air locker, and closed the hatch behind and life goes on.

Or, for emergencies, they could have provided for a simple respirator mask and hose to be available in the air lock, and let him disrobe at a reasonable pace and throw the suit out the external air lock door. The human body isn't going to explode nor the blood boil in a vacumn, as we see in 2001. If you could get oxygen at 1/5 atmospheric pressure, giving the same oxygen partial pressure as air @ 1 atmosphere, you wouldn't loose consciousness, certainly not for a good number of minutes.

Hydrazine isn't so toxic that the vapors and any stray mL from the cupfull or so on the suit and diluted into the many cubic meters of air, which is filtered also, would have been a threat to the ship's crew. They used this stuff as fuel in the Me 163 rocket plane in WW2, refueling at airbases. You wouldn't want the stuff to get on you nor breathe the fumes but it's not like it's nerve gas or Polonium.

But they needed a plot device.......

[–] markfilipak 9 years ago

It's even simpler than you infer, snagletooth.

If James entered the airlock and it remained depressured while he removed his spacesuit, the hydrazine would not evaporate and the spacecraft's interior would not be contaminated.

Even if James entered the airlock and then pressurized it, and later depressurized it so he could open the airlock to jettison the spacesuit, any contamination would be evacuated with the air during that depressurization.

Thus, the entire sequence is a bogus plight.

Also note that he could have just removed the sleeve (which are usually detachable) instead of the whole spacesuit. In fact, I just looked at that sequence again and you can see that the sleeve is removable.
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[–] age_of_vicarious 11 years ago

They were out for hours. I believe it said 5 or 6 hours remaining at one point, I'd have to re-watch to verify. They were just running out of time by the end. They didn't have enough time to get the chamber pressurized, get Andrei out, someone else suited up, depressurized, and back outside. Especially since he pushed himself out into space. As far as the exposure, maybe they exaggerated the danger to fit the scene, but they were concerned with air contamination.

You're not thinking overly deep or logically for the movie. Get over yourself. You simply created a way in your head to make an alternative scene possible. I could just as easily say that he should've tried Andrei's idea, and make up some thought process that makes it sound probable. He also could've grabbed onto the ship rather than pushing himself out into space, to make a rescue seem more possible. The problem is that you and I simply didn't make the film. They wanted this scene, not your alternative where he lives. Simple as that really.

[–] Pond_Lilian 11 years ago

You are absolutely right and it bothered me as well. In space every crew member is extremely valuable, even if we are to put morals aside. To give up on Sharlto Copley's character like that should have been absolutely unspeakable in the real situation. Just like I wrote in my thread, 20 minutes is a long time (agree with you) and even without oxygen a person can still live a bit on suit air and even after that could be revived for sometime. These 4 losers were just sitting around and rationalizing why they should not move one finger to help him. I really hope NASA and other space agencies have another protocol for cases like that when everything should be tried to save a crew member.