NASA and 'The Martian': It Was Written in the Stars
Published on : September 20, 2015
Eight months ago I mashed my boots into 4,000 tons of dirt the color of a pumpkin spice latte. All around me stuff was being blown up, huge Lego-like vehicles teetered, and lights flashed brighter than the Las Vegas Strip.
No, this wasn’t Burning Man. I was on Mars.
From inside a mysterious black tent on my right, a voice boomed in a Yorkshire accent: “Tilt and backwards!” Earthlings in the dirt scrambled. “The tilt is too jerky. There’s a jerk!”
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This Mars was inside a dust-covered studio soundstage just outside Budapest, Hungary. The voice belonged to Ridley Scott, the British director of Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator fame (and Exodus: Gods and Kings infamy). The orange dirt under my boots was the setting for his latest project, The Martian, a Matt Damon vehicle (and his vehicle is a Mars rover) scheduled for theatrical release October 2.
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