science

Space Tourists

Space Tourists is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Space Tourists rather than just read about it. In short: Space Tourists is a feature-length documentary of the Swiss director Christian Frei. The film had its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival in 2009 and has won the "World Cinema Directing Award" at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.

Key takeaways

Space Tourists belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Space Tourists to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Space Tourists from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Space Tourists is a feature-length documentary of the Swiss director Christian Frei. The film had its premiere at the Zurich Film Festival in 2009 and has won the "World Cinema Directing Award" at the Sundance Film Festival in 2010.

Plot The documentary juxtaposes the journeys of extremely rich tourists traveling with the astronauts into space with the poor Kazakh metal collectors risking their lives in search for rocket waste fallen down into the plains once the rocket has left. Critics acclaimed this film for its breathtaking imagery and richness of insights. The film accompanies the first female space traveler who was not a space agency employee, Anousheh Ansari, who paid US$20 million for her flight into space. The film shows the poor Kazakh metal collectors risking their lives in search for rocket waste that falls literally from the sky. The film features Magnum photographer Jonas Bendiksen, who has followed these metal collectors for a long time. Charles Simonyi, chief developer of Word and Excel, is seen at his space training and at his tasting of space food. Another protagonist of the film is Dumitru Popescu, CEO of ARCA Space Corporation, an aerospace enthusiast who applied at the Google Lunar X-Prize of the X-Prize Foundation, founded by Anousheh Ansari.

Reception Christopher Campbell wrote on the official bloc of DOC: The Documentary Channel:

Frei’s methods of telling these interconnected stories tied to modern spaceflight is fittingly of a revolving nature, and in the end we’re back to a beginning of sorts with a look at the training ground for the next tourists, in Star City, Russia. There aren’t too many straight interviews in the film nor is there a lot of direct exposition, although Ansari, Bendiksen and Popescu contribute some voiceover narration to their sections. It’s a bumpy and winding trip but worth it every moment. And while you aren’t going to know exactly what it’s like to go to outer space in the end, you’ll have taken a virtual tour through as much of the inner and outer workings of what’s involved in modern space travel as you can possibly get from an entertaining, enlightening documentary film. Brad Balfour of the Huffington Post emphasizes that the film brings together the two sides of the medal:

Frei follows Iranian-American multimillionaire Anousheh Ansari as she undergoes ersatz cosmonaut training en route to becoming the world's first female space tourist. She herself is armed with a camera, and her footage on board the International Space Station is some of the most intimate, breathtaking imagery we will ever see from outer space. As Ansari launches into orbit, Kazakh villagers gather the precious scrap metal from the jettisoned rockets, while a Romanian space enthusiast works on his own low-tech model to launch. The 98-minute chronicle suggests that while the pomp and pageantry of the space program may have died out with the 20th century, the human mysteries have only deepened. Ryan L. Kobrick, author from the magazine The Space Review liked the authenticity of the film:

The documentary follows a group of metal salvagers on their journey to recover falling rocket stages that they fetch to sell the aluminum and titanium to China. This footage is so rare that it makes this movie a must-see for anyone in the space industry and anyone with an interest in cultural and historical impacts of space on small communities. Overall the movie had excellent contrasts between life on the ISS and workers in Kazakhstan and how in some cases they depend on each other in a strange symbiotic relationship. Another movie highlight was the old Russian space folk music used in the background that showed how deep into the culture space had once penetrated. The story did jump around a lot and perhaps stretched out too much in some parts, but getting to see such unique and rare footage was fantastic.

Awards and festivals DOC: The Documentary Channel 2012: Jury Prize «Best of Doc» Cervino Cine Mountain International Mountain Film Festival 2011: Miglior Grand Prix dei Festival 2011 Beldocs Belgrad 2010: Best Photography Award Regio Fun Film Festival Katowice 2010: 2nd Award Documentary Film Competition European Documentary Film Festival Oslo 2010: Eurodok Award Sundance Film Festival Park City 2010: World Cinema Directing Award EBS International Documentary Film Festival Seoul 2010: Special Jury Prize Swiss Film Prize 2010: Nomination for the "Best documentary" International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam IDFA 2009: Official Selection.

References

External links

Official website Space Tourists at IMDb Interview with the director

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Space Tourists

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Space Tourists claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Space Tourists before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Space Tourists ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Space Tourists

In research: Space Tourists appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Space Tourists in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Space Tourists is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2009 Swiss films, 2009 documentary films, 2009 films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Space Tourists outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Space Tourists in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Space Tourists means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Space Tourists out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Space Tourists in simple terms?

Why does Space Tourists matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Space Tourists?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Space Tourists.