March 26, 2012
Oh we know, believe me we know, that day that bastard Cameron destroyed one of the most cherished memes of the SMDB, we we’ll never forget when he went down in the Marianas Trench, for more than 30 minutes, and most definitively not on the 1960s…
:mad::mad::mad::mad:
That’s before I joined the Dope.
Many of Elon Musk’s plans didn’t work out, so don’t count on this one necessarily working out, even if Tom Cruise is really involved:
It’s not really a function of Musk at this point. SpaceX is definitely sending NASA astronauts to space, if not at the end of this month, then soon. The only real question is if Cruise’s backers write the check or not.
What is the plan? Are they thinking of just sending Cruise by himself up there? If so, who is going to film the scenes set aboard the ISS? I think it might be easier to film aboard the vomit comet.
No one knows. My *suspicion *is that they will buy a standalone Crew Dragon launch, packed with Cruise, a small film crew, and whatever equipment they need.
They can negotiate a lower price than NASA, since SpaceX’s incremental cost of a launch is much lower than NASA’s price per seat (the SpaceX bid to NASA included development, among other things).
It’s too bad SpaceX will want their capsule back; I’d prefer to just leave Cruise up there.
But that is typical of Musk. The backers for the film will have to pay for everything related to the film. They’re going to look at the total price of this ISS movie compared with an ordinary Tom Cruise film and say, “The extra cost of this won’t sell enough extra tickets to make it worthwhile to do this film, so let’s forget it.” Or else before the filming starts someone will show Tom Cruise the probability that he will die at some point during the production. He’ll see that he won’t be making a big enough extra paycheck to make it worthwhile, so he’ll drop out of the movie. Musk’s plans involve him making money on each project while sometimes his backers lose money.
You must be thinking of someone else. Early investors in Musk’s companies are very happy right now (Tesla IPOed at $17; they’re currently at $782).
In any case, I’m not sure why you think Musk is driving this. SpaceX is just the taxi service. NASA is the one that announced the project, and they’re the ones that have the final say in whether it happens or not–it’s their space station. SpaceX can give Cruise a ride to orbit, but it’s up to NASA whether they get to visit the ISS. It will be interesting to find out who approached whom, though.
A lot of Musk’s projects have failed, although he’s turned around enough of them that he’s not currently in debt:
If NASA is the one taking the financial risk on this project, I find it even more bothersome.
Nothing so far has implied that NASA, SpaceX, or Elon are taking any financial risk. Where are you getting any of this?
Cruise by himself could easily afford a ride to the ISS. But more likely is that a movie studio will front the money (though the Deadline article says no studio is currently involved).
It’s just a guess, but to me it seems like this probably came from Cruise himself. He likes taking risks and going into actual space would be a logical next step. And he has enough pull to make it happen.
I can’t believe that Cruise would pay for himself to be sent to the ISS and then film a movie there. I don’t see any evidence that he ever pays for that sort of thing himself. Who’s going to pay for this - a film studio, SpaceX, Elon Musk, Cruise, or whoever? Furthermore, it’s going to be relatively dangerous for Cruise and any film crew that goes there with him. 3.2% of everyone who’s gone into space has died there. That’s considerably more dangerous than making most movies:
Tom Cruise is a fool.
Maybe he wants to meet the Scientology space men and get some footage.
Not true (and not what your link says). Most people who have died in space-related accidents did not die in space. Over 500 people have gone to space and only 3 have died there, in 1971.
The two Shuttle accidents comprise most of the in-flight deaths, but neither were in space at the time.
Traveling to or returning from orbit is the most dangerous phase, and capsules like Crew Dragon have a safety advantage in this respect. The Shuttle had no realistic abort system, unlike capsules. And it had an enormous, fragile heat shield–also unlike capsules, with a small shield that’s protected at launch.
Russia’s Soyuz capsule experienced an abort a couple of years ago after a booster failure. The crew was no worse for wear. The Crew Dragon also recently demonstrated a successful abort (unmanned).
Space travel is risky but it’s likely to be <1% chance of death. As for movies, one should probably lump Cruise in with the stuntman rankings since he does some fairly risky stunts himself.
NASA does not own/run the space station on their own. It’s a partnership with Russia, Japan, Euro Space agency and Canada.
International Space Station - Wikipedia
There have been “tourists” who bought flights up there but the last one was in 2009
I think it’s almost certain that the vast majority of this movie will be filmed on the ground. I expect that the total amount of footage from the ISS that makes it into the final movie will be somewhere between 10 seconds and 10 minutes, for which they may well forgo the usual requirements for movie crews (i.e., it might just be filmed from a camera that Cruise fixes in place before swimming out in front of it, or by a regular astronaut spending a few minutes on it). And yes, they could do that much on the Vomit Comet, far more easily. But that wouldn’t have the gimmick value.
Ha, the other morning I vaguely heard out of the corner of my ear a news tease that said"what Hollywood actor might be going into outer space" and I immediately, almost involuntarily said to myself “sounds like a Tom Cruise stunt”.
I guess the novelty of it, which will drive the publicity which will drive people to see it, is worth it in the minds’ of the producers(?) I wonder how much different it will actually look than, say, Gravity.
Maybe he can get Scientology to pay for the trip; the astronauts aboard the ISS are a captive audience for a recruitment session.
O.K., 3.2% of people who have gone up in a rocket have died on the flight, although some of those flights didn’t read the height that’s usually called being in space.
Musk said he is planning on taking tourists to the moon but not land there. If that is still true he might let Cruise on one of those flights.