This week the local theater will offer a showing of the soon to be released space travel movie, “The Martian.”
For those of you who have read my previous columns, you know space is one of my many interests.
Humans are the only life forms on this planet capable of coming to some sort of understanding of life, how it is created, and how our solar system and universe work.
While there’s certainly still much to learn, I feel releasing movies like these are crucial to our future. Let me explain.
First, our ability to take what knowledge we have and put it into a movie format not only helps spread the data collected so far, but also entices our younger generation to seek careers in the fields that will help expand that knowledge.
With so many opportunities for our children to learn about space in a more hands on way, such as Stennis Space Center, who will be hosting some astronauts at the screening on Oct. 3, and the INFINITY Science Center, there is a plethora of information available to today’s children.
For instance, for those children lucky enough to attend the viewing this weekend, they will have a chance to speak to an astronaut face to face.
By telling stories of survival in less-than-ideal situations through movies, children can see there is a lot of work to do before we can actually send another person to Mars, much less any other planet.
It will be these children who will pick up where so many others left off and fill in the gaps that will eventually enable us to make the plot of “The Martian” much more than a fictional movie, but turn those events into the next lunar landing.
But hopefully the future television coverage will not entail an astronaut being left behind.