The Kessler syndrome describes a scenario in which the density of space debris and satellites in the Earth’s orbit is numerous enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates more space debris increasing the likelihood of further collisions.
This article describes the situation: “The U.S. Air Force tracks more than 25,000 pieces of space junk larger than 10 centimeters—about the size of a bagel— weighing together some 9,000 metric tons. This dangerous trash zips around Earth at speeds of roughly 10 kilometers per second, or more than 22,000 miles per hour.”
As a side note, I’ve been chuckling at this sentence for the last few days, from the same article: “And a 2022 Nature Astronomy study puts the odds of space junk killing someone on the ground at 10 percent every decade. Needlessly.” Needlessly? When is space junk killing someone on the ground needed?
Anyway, Neil Stephenson, in his Elon Musk/Neil dG Tyson fanfic, Seveneves uses this disaster to drive his tale of survival. The problem of space pollution is also depicted in “Wall-E,” the Pixar classic, and dramatized in the 2013’s Best Film “Gravity.”
Gravity is one of my favorite films (from one of my favorite directors Alfonso Cuaron), but what makes it fun is that it is a sneaky sequel to another film (also directed by Cuaron). Read on to find out more…
In a world where simple stories are needlessly bejazzled and crampacked with gibber it is refreshing to watch a movie that exults in its simplicity. Here is a movie titled Gravity about an astronaut in space named Stone. The narrative is as easy as falling down.
There have been numerous digs at some of the infelicitous dialogue and the scientific inaccuracies (all granted and most excused by all but the most severe pedants), but there is one questionable element that hasn’t been given the notice it deserves. Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson took issue with Stone, a biomedical engineer, servicing the Hubble, but this is not an inert detail. She is there to equip the Hubble to search for a habitable planet. The movie begins with her suspended between worlds, for as we were told at the beginning: “Life in space is impossible”. She is searching for new life for the old world holds nothing for her.
The reason why life is no longer possible for her on earth is given when she tells Kowalski that she lost her daughter to a fall. Something “as stupid as that” she says. Far from being a throwaway detail or a maudlin grab for sympathy, her daughter’s death is mentioned to show that there is nothing on earth for her. Since that time she has been on the move, driving, just driving; between destinations.
A line is drawn between Kowalski and Stone when he mentions that he had a wife, who was lost to him while he was on a mission. Through death and adultery they have been rendered alone yet their perspective of earth (pardon the expression) is different.
In the beginning of the film, having fled earth, she still roils (a detail established in the fifteen minute virtuoso opening shot); green not just to inexperience but also motionsick. Her world spins. This is true well before the shrapnel sends her spinning into the black. For well over half the film she is tugged, pushed, thrown, spun and threatened with motion without rest.
The Names are Significant
Ryan Stone (played by a pitch-perfect Sandra Bullock):
Ryan = “Little King”
Also Ryan Stone is a pun on rhinestone, an imitation stone.
Matthew Kowalski (played by the jocose George Clooney):
Matthew (“Gift of God”, ala Theo from Alfonso Cuarón’s masterpiece Children of Men).
Kowalski = of the Blacksmith
The name on the Russian suit that Stone dons (see above) is Demidov (it bears the number 42, the answer to life: a hat tip to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). This surname comes from a prominent family of blacksmiths (Demid Antufiev, was a free blacksmith from Tula). Demidov means “of Demid”; Demid means “cunning as Zeus” and is derived from Diomedes = “Godlike”.
Aningaaq, the voice on the ham radio, is the name of the moon in Nordic mythology and means “Big Brother of a Girl”. There is a short film of the same title directed by Jonás Cuarón (son of Alfonso and co-writer of Gravity).
What better name for an astronaut than blacksmith? Matthew is the cool thinking mentor that navigates Stone through the perilous events. To survive she must become like him. His character is centered on earth, constantly falling back on stories of life on earth. His other passion is to beat the record for the longest spacewalk, an ironic phrase considering there is only one actual step in the entire movie.
To survive Stone must become like Kowalski, focused on earth.
The Movie is Set in the Future
Gravity was released in 2013.
Ryan refers to her mission as STS-157 in one of her transmissions. In real life, the 135th and final Space Shuttle mission was STS-135. It launched on 8 July 2011. Taking the average of manned spaceflights from the 1960s to when Gravity was released, around 30 flights every decade, then mission 157 would hit some time after 2025.
The real-life Chinese Space station, named Tiangong (“Heavenly Palace”), until recently consisted of only one small inhabitable module. The goal of the Tiangong program was to construct a space station much like the one in the film by the year 2022. As of today, two more modules have been added. In Gravity, the space station isn’t brand new so it seems accurate to say that the year in which the film is set several years after 2022.
In Cuarón’s 2006 film The Children of Men (based on the novel of the same name by P.D. James) earth has been struck by infertility for two decades. Society is beginning to collapse. It is set in the year 2027.
It seems likely that Cuaron built his original film off the backbone of his previous film. The key to seeing Gravity as the secret sequel (or, if you prefer, the spiritual sequel) is picking up on the themes that both of the movies deal with, particularly regarding life. But before we conclude with my thoughts on the ending of Gravity (SPOILERS), let me make a brief digression.
A Digression on St. Christopher
According to the legendary account of his life Christopher was a Canaanite 7.5 feet tall. While serving the king of Canaan, he took it into his head to go and serve “the greatest king there was”. He went to the king who was reputed to be the greatest, but one day he saw the king cross himself at the mention of the devil. On thus learning that the king feared the devil, he departed to look for the devil. He came across a band of marauders, one of whom declared himself to be the devil, so Christopher decided to serve him. But when he saw his new master avoid a wayside cross and found out that the devil feared Christ, he left him and inquired from people where to find Christ. He met a hermit who instructed him in the Christian faith. Christopher asked him how he could serve Christ. When the hermit suggested fasting and prayer, Christopher replied that he was unable to perform that service. The hermit then suggested that because of his size and strength Christopher could serve Christ by assisting people to cross a dangerous river, where they were perishing in the attempt. The hermit promised that this service would be pleasing to Christ.
After Christopher had performed this service for some time, a little child asked him to take him across the river. During the crossing, the river became swollen and the child seemed as heavy as lead, so much that Christopher could scarcely carry him and found himself in great difficulty. When he finally reached the other side, he said to the child: “You have put me in the greatest danger. I do not think the whole world could have been as heavy on my shoulders as you were.” The child replied: “You had on your shoulders not only the whole world but Him who made it. I am Christ your king, whom you are serving by this work.” The child then vanished.
The icon of St. Christopher is on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft...
When Ryan Stone turns back to earth she is embracing life in a place that, for her, has no life. She is therefore embracing the hope for new life. The world is dead to her, but harkening to the voice of the faithful blacksmith she becomes not a fake rhinestone, but a true rock, with faith that she will be fashioned into a jewel. Crawling out of the water she mutters a terse “thank you”. She is reborn, passing through the human stages of conception, through the travail of birth (despite the abortive efforts of space), in order to emerge from the amnion to stand much more than homo erectus, but as homo spes, hopeful man.
For More Fun
Check out the 251 words you can spell with a calculator.
That’s all for this month. I’ll be back on the first Friday of July. I’m working on a short story that fits into “my other universe.” My primary universe is the Nasostorto system, which is where my Unique Miranda Trilogy is set (along with the novella Kill Ship). But the other universe is Yangala, where I set my vulgar sf-war novels: Ye Shall Know Them and its follow up We Did Not Reason Why.
I’ve long had an urge to return to Yangala, but I’m just not ready to work on the final volume, but this short story has been moldering for a long time in my head. Things clicked into place when it glommed onto my ★Vulgar and Violent Sci-Fi Military Adventure!★ (as the hype goes).
It follows the first two parts, but it doesn’t stand upon them so you can read them without having enjoyed the previous tales. I’ll talk more about what was going on when I wrote the books and give a section of They That Bite and Devour next time.
Cheers.