couldn't suspend my disbelief

Me too. Just too out there for me.




I asked the doctor to take your picture so I can look at you from inside as well.

Actually it's quite realistic if you accept that someone would climb onto a home-brew rocket and launch himself into space. The only reason it hasn't been done is that the FAA requires certification of all components of a manned rocket and that's very, very expensive. They've also made it quite clear than anyone trying it w/o a flight certificate would be met by US marshals when (if) he landed.

Yes, those of you who disbelieve...you're correct to do so.

I _AM_ a rocket engineer, having built, transported, erected, and launched Atlas rockets, which Farmer's rocket was based upon. The whole "build your own rocket" is absolutely implausible, as it took the might of the entire United States 10 years and billions of dollars to launch an Atlas successfully in the 1950's and 1960's, and in the 1990's, when I helped build and launch them, it took the full force of 40,000 engineers and technicians at General Dynamics and thousands of suppliers to get an Atlas built and launched.

Rocket fuel is a Medium Explosive. The Atlas of that time ran on highly refined kerosine (RP-1) and liquid oxygen (LOX), which are very expensive and hard to handle liquids. Regular people aren't allowe to buy this stuff, let alone could they afford it.

LOX turns anything burnable into a mini-bomb. A hydrocarbon (grease, wood, fuel, etc) soaked in LOX literally explodes if impacted, so all the LOX systems on a rocket must be completely hydrocarbon free during assembly. This means you can't clean it with any normal detergent...all cleaning and lubricating is done with flourocarbon based solvents and greases. It also means that you can't open the pipes any place where debris might enter. A barn is not a rocket assembly area.

The exhaust coming out of the engines is hotter than a blowtorch, and many times larger and more powerful. The concrete and steel of the launch pad are coated in ablative materials designed for the heat and cooled by huge sprays of water like firehoses. Even with those preps, it took 2 months to refurbish a launch pad after a launch due to blast damage.

All the structures within 1/4 mile of the launch in that movie would have been obliterated by the shock wave of sound from the engines. The heat would have scorched everything within a 100 yard radius.

I liked the acting in the movie, and there sure were some stars, but it should be classified as fantasy, because it's all impossible for one person to do.

Read more about my Atlas days here:

http://bob2000.com/rrk1.htm

Gerard Forgnone
San Diego

Well, us techies who have worked around rockets or jet engines and military aircraft and such, really need some sort of mechanism to suspend disbelief before something so tech-oriented as this movie becomes believable. This movie does not provide it. Hey, we all get the 'I have a dream' thing, it's been part of American culture for nearly 50 years now. But if you're going to throw something so seriously implausible as someone launching and building an Atlas rocket from their barn at us, at least come up with some angle that anchors us to the story!

I'll give you an example: the first Matrix movie. It took a wildly implausible scenario and made it believeable, even to a techie. Hey Hollywood, throw us a bone here.

No astronautical engineer is an expert in every discipline necessary to build a rocket like that. Those are hugely complex beasts with hundreds of highly complex systems, requiring clean rooms to build, and facilities to test. The parts and supplies are highly-engineered and cannot be made in a back yard or barn. You can't just make the heat shields for re-entry. The engines require an entirely-dedicated discipline, as do the navigational electronics and life support, etc., etc..

As a previous commenter said, give us a surplus rocket or something. Give us a more legitimate launch facility. Give us something. Heck, they didn't even bother trying to dive into the 'FAA Flight Plan' scenario. There are thousands of objects whizzing around in space and you have to know exactly where they all are at every second and avoid them. You can't just say you're going to orbit the Earth one time and land. You have to plot your exact location down to the millimeter at every microsecond.

This is really just a 'Dream' movie that took on an implausible scenario, more slated for a young impressionable audience than an intelligent adult audience. Any adult that thinks this was a good movie must be lost in wonderland.

Come see a fat old man sometime!

I bet they loved that vampire movie though!

Laugh.

I accepted that he was able to build the rocket in the first place because I assumed it took him decades to get to that point. I accepted that his first launch failed because it was a homemade rocket, so of course it failed. Where I lost it is that he was able to rebuild his smashed up rocket in a month and successfully launch it into space.

[deleted]

I'm not quite sure why people are so upset .. the film didn't claim to be based on fact or anything of the like .. TV Guide describes this film as an "uplifting and whimsical fable", that was clearly never meant to be taken as a serious based on reality movie .. for me, who grew up with the NASA spaceflight programs, it was a pure joy to watch..
~every saint has a past .. every sinner has a future~