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How ‘First Man’ inspires the future of space travel by showing its lesser-known past
What will it be like when it happens again?
People remembered. Moments memorialized. The movies bring us face to face with our past. They make us cry, scream, grip our armrests in suspense. But rarely does a film illuminate our history and stoke the possibility of our future in equal measure. Then again, no other occasion in history has fueled our imaginations and challenged our curiosity for generations like one in particular — man going to the Moon. Nor has a film captured that human experience as grippingly as First Man, in theaters Oct. 12.
First and foremost, First Man, which chronicles the personal story of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) leading up to the first Moon landing, is a reminder that what happened then hasn’t happened since. Director Damien Chazelle (La La Land), presents Armstrong’s experience in a way that is so visceral, it’s impossible not to wonder what it was like to be there, and how it will be when humans get there again — as the promise of modern commercial space travel orbits just out of reach.
What’s changed, and what hasn’t? These experts know what’s ahead for us.
What does it all mean?
If you’re thinking that modern discoveries have cast a shadow over the first moon landing, think again. Dr. Jeffrey Bennett is a prolific author, founder of Big Kid Science, and two-year visiting senior scientist at NASA Headquarters. “In terms of achievements,” he says, “Imagine that you could send a single short message through time to anyone who has ever lived, telling them one modern fact that would give them hope for the future of humanity. I don’t think you could find anything more powerful than this: ‘Human beings have walked on the Moon, and upon first arrival left a plaque that read “We came in peace for all mankind.”’ No other single event in human history would be both so understandable — after all, everyone can see the Moon — and so amazing at the same time.”
Ella Atkins, IEEE Senior Member and Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan, echoes that sentiment, saying: “I was a small child when the moon landing occurred. It captured our imaginations and opened a new frontier in exploration. I would still rank that landing as one of the top 10 historic events of my lifetime.”
So we know the achievement storied in First Man has stood the test of time, but what about the technology?
Where are we today?
It’s hard to imagine being blasted into space the way Armstrong’s character in First Man is. The vivid cinematography gives an unprecedented view of the harsh physical experience of space travel for a human in 1969. So what’s changed? For one, we have more advanced technology in our pockets (yep, our phones) than the U.S. had the first time we went to the Moon. All these decades later, Bennett says, “In terms of technology, the basic rocket technology has not changed, but today’s rockets are much more sophisticated — and safer — than rockets of the past.” And remember, getting a human to the moon is way harder than you might think. “Since the last Apollo mission, no human being has gone beyond low-Earth orbit — and remember that the Moon is about 1,000 times farther away than low-Earth orbit,” says Bennett.
Tess Hatch, an investor in space tech at Bessemer Venture Partners and former mission manager at SpaceX says, “Space travel today consists of astronauts going to and from the International Space Station in low earth orbit (LEO). I hope that within the next generation or two, people will travel to space with the frequency that one now travels in an airplane.” That means, she says, that even more energy and resources must be paid to making getting back to the moon a reality again. But that reality won’t look like Armstrong’s in First Man.
Where are we going? And how soon?
Even though it has taken a long time, experts are sure another human will make it to the Moon, and Mars for that matter. So how will that compare to what’s shown in First Man? Atkins says: “Astronauts will have much more training, comfort, and technology access than in the first flights. Originally there was a real sense that an astronaut might not come home — that some unexpected or failure event would mean the end. Today's launch and crew support systems will have a large number of redundant and resilient systems, including advanced sensors and software, that can enable today's astronaut to remain healthier and be truly informed about all aspects of themselves, the mission, and their vehicle systems.”
Payam Banazadeh, CEO and Co-Founder of Capella Space, a company that provides hourly updated global imagery from space, says: “Arguably, the reason we have such a thriving space program in U.S. today goes all the way back to first moon landing. It inspired a generation….” Right now, he says, we just don't have any rockets with the firepower to match the Saturn V which makes cargo-heavy moon trips a challenge, but more and more private companies are joining the field, none of which existed 40 years ago. He says, “2030 seems to be the ideal date for all of these activities to converge.... We are closer than we have ever been to have a thriving space travel program.” The biggest change in space exploration technology since Apollo, he says, is the personal computer and the Internet. “Information that in the Apollo era either did not exist or existed only in a few people's heads, and took months to process, can now be found in minutes and processed in hours.”
What First Man shows that has been missing from some of our current space conversations is the human element. It shows space travel not as a futuristic idea, but rather as a person’s own experience, tormenting and incredible all at once. “Human spaceflight has, sadly, lacked the excitement of the Moon landings ever since the end of Apollo,” says Bennett. “Robotic missions can be very inspiring, but kids don’t grow up dreaming of becoming robots.”
What’s most inspiring in space travel now is the promise of people. Now is the time to “start the return to the Moon and set the stage for human missions to Mars and beyond,” says Bennett, “Then, every child on Earth would be able to look up at the Moon in the sky and say ‘We are working together up there, so surely we can work together down here.’” First Man, out on Oct. 12, certainly makes that feel possible.
Universal Pictures’ First Man is the riveting story of NASA’s mission to land a man on the moon, focusing on Neil Armstrong and the years 1961-1969. USA TODAY
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