Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin' 60s - Volume 8: Way Out Worlds- by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

MISSION PLAN

• Target area: Oceanus Procellarum, the Sea of Storms. • Shelter capsule launched from the Cape 6 days & 14 hours. • Pilgrim launch 6 days later.

• Lunar approach just prior to lunar sunrise to aid sighting of shelter beacon. • Failure scenario: orbits the moon & return into the gravitational influence of the Earth for re-entry.

• Success scenario: activation of shelter containing micro meteoroid protection & life-support systems to maintain the astronaut for two months. • Additional supplies sent periodically for up to one year or until Apollo lunar landing is ready.

At the briefing at which the mission plan is outlined, Gus Ehrman as part of the team and who holds a naval commission and has a medical degree, is incensed at not having been informed and raises objections to the plan that will involve an astronaut having to make a manual landing after enduring a three day trip while being weightless, soaking wet and suffering from bilateral conjunctivitis from oxygen bathing his eyes. While in this state, he will be required to locate a shelter beacon and upon braking will suffer being “slammed in the chest with twice his Earth weight.”

As Gus storms out in disgust at an obvious failure in communication and what this might entail for the success or otherwise of the mission, we might recall some the lyrics from the song at the party just prior to Chiz and Lee’s confrontation:

♪♪ The moon is gonna be the death of me mama darling,

The moon is gonna be the death of me ♪♪

“Stop making friends”

Gus is cautioned to “make no noise” but despite holding a naval commission, he sees his medical role and his friend’s health as being a priority rather than helping to “feed this boy into a sausage machine and tell him that it doesn't hurt.” Nevertheless, Gus is threatened into submission with the prospect of court-martial if he speaks out.

After a test flight, Lee’s demeanor and speech patterns suggest a great deal of inner doubt, uncertainty and insecurity as to his ability to be adequately prepared in time for the Lunar mission.

Hopping around like a little over-exuberant puppy dog seeking approval he appeals to Chiz, “Chiz, tell him how I did, huh?” This is followed by his observations about the capsule as being small but that he is “getting the feel of it” and that despite it having been “a little rough at first…. you get used to it.” His conclusion: “The, the capsule, real secure.”

Despite Lee’s stammered assessment of his ability to operate the capsule, as well as his promise to his wife that “if anything doesn't look right to me, I'd get out,” it is hard for a man to argue with his sense of pride and need to succeed. To accept anything less would be admitting failure, weakness and a diminished sense of self-worth.

The next step in Lee’s training for Lunar conditions is the Pilgrim shelter activation test A9-35. Under the scrutiny of surveillance cameras, Lee is hooked up to a harness to simulate 1/6th gravity and his “first big problem” when he lands on the moon’s surface will be to find the survival shelter.

With the temperature at about 250 below, chamber pressure down to ten to the minus eight and with two hours of oxygen in his bio-pack, Lee runs into a bit of trouble using his “Peter Pan ring” or harness to gain entry to the shelter.

On the verge of having the test aborted, Chez intervenes in order to get Lee to figure out for himself how to get out of this fix he’s found himself in. After all, once on the moon “he'll be alone up there.”

Suddenly, an air supply hose on Lee’s suit becomes disconnected resulting in his body heat rate increasing, a heart rate of 120 along with his suit pressure down to 3.5 PSI.

“Full safety. Problem's cleared”

With Ninety seconds of emergency O2 remaining and suit pressure down to 3.3 PSI, Chiz is all for allowing Lee to work the problem out and make it back to the shell himself. In the end, Chiz is “vetoed” and he pointedly and rhetorically asks, “who'll be there to help him on the moon?” The ending of the test answers that question – “not a soul” but Lee himself.

Excerpt from,

The Miami News

Miami, Fla., Wednesday Afternoon, July 16, 196_

Metropolitan Edition 10¢

HOWDY PILGRIM!

Reports have been circulating that “McDonnell Aircraft just delivered a modified Gemini capsule to the Cape” and that “it's going on a booster”…...It is also rumored that “the next manned shot is scheduled in two months…...”

An unnamed source within NASA has been quoted as saying that the United States is “sending a guy to the Moon in a Gemini” He then went on to say, “Look, I can give you the names of those who've, uh suddenly dropped out of Apollo routine. I can tell you the name of the program. It's Pilgrim…..”

If this report is true, the question remains: WHY? Does it have something to do with the Russians who it has been speculated are………..

By F. Seidel

“He'll either panic or dump the mission”

During another test simulation, (the third in two days) it becomes apparent that Lee is struggling to cope with the pressure as one malfunction and failure scenario after another is thrown at him. At one point he blurts out over the radio, “Hey, I don't know what you're throwing at me, CAPCOM!”

After the abort Lee tries to justify his performance on the grounds that he had been thrown too many problems and that he had control. It has become obvious that Lee has to be taken off the program.

“Who's the better man?”

Chiz is for having Lee scrubbed from the Pilgrim program and having himself reinstated. Ross questions whether Chiz is motivated more by his own ego rather than questions over Lee’s preparedness and safety considerations. He tells Chiz that he would not be put in Lee’s place and that the program will just have to be shut down. Lee himself declares that he can be ready in time to undertake the mission and complete safely.

“I don't know how it got out, but it leaked.”

The Houston News

US To Put Man On Moon

Modified Gemini Capsule To Carry Astronaut

Lee Stegler To Moon Shelter

Realising the futility of having the press sworn to secrecy and concealing from the public the existence of such a large project, it is decided that Lee will leave for the Cape the next day as planned and that the day after “the shelter goes.” Five days after that, Lee flies.

In Chiz and Lee’s line of work and in the context of competition within such a program as Pilgrim, personal ego and vaulting ambition cannot be avoided. To be the first man on the moon! Who wouldn’t want that honor? Hence the rift developing between friends and the doors being slammed in faces. Lee tells Chiz that he could not make the mission on the grounds that, “you got the guts, but you haven't got the brains.”

As if they enjoy dumping bad news on the heads of the Americans, it turns out that the Russians have launched a week early. It seems that they’ll be getting to the moon first and “you know there can only be one first man on the Moon.”

A rift in another relationship is about to develop, this time between Lee and Gus. Gus points out the dangers involved in such a hastily put together mission as Pilgrim from getting hit by a meteor, being blasted by radiation, Lee falling on his back and not being able to get back up, through to being “hit in the left eyeball by a dust-sized particle or a rock going 70,000 miles an hour.”

Listening to this is Lee’s wife who feels that she has been lied to by her husband if he did in fact know of such dangers involved with the mission.

Worse still for Lee is the sense of betrayal at discovering that his friend Gus had spoken to his wife hoping to stop Lee from jumping in over his head into the mission. Lee tells Gus, “you know, Chiz, Chiz at least was honest” while Gus replies, “I want you to survive. I value you.”

The anger and stress felt by Lee has reached boiling point and he responds in an uncharacteristically savage manner toward his wife as he tells her to just smile, “if it kills you, you just smile.”

Mickey is not yet aware that her husband truly believes that he will come back alive and well after completing the mission and that he has “never had a thought of not coming back” as he’s “the guy that's gonna do it.” The mission is tied up with who he believes he is and that if he didn’t make this trip then he’d always be left asking himself the question, “who the hell am I?” A question in these times many a man has had to ask himself!

The problem for Mickey Stegler is that her smile will have to conceal the fact that she will feel that she’ll have “no place to go,” not even to the pool without reporters with microphones in hand asking her the one question she does not want to contemplate, "Do you really think he'll come back, Mrs. Stegler?" The smile will also have to hide her feelings at having every aspect of her life being placed under close scrutiny, evaluation and comment such as “having a mother who was divorced and a father who drank too much,” not to mention herself being a blonde! A fate many women in the public eye have had to face.

“Everything that could go wrong has”

While everything has been going well with the Russian mission, the problems with the radar beacon on the Pilgrim mission’s shelter “substantially reduces our probability of success.” The beacon is still up but there’s a guidance problem and if “the Surveyor can't find it, we don't have a shelter.”

Despite the problems with the mission, Lee is strongly in favor of proceeding seeing that everything else seems to be functioning and that they know approximately where the shelter is: “it's up there, it's warm, it's working. We're ready.”

Television News Broadcast:

“'The three-man Russian ship is expected to land tomorrow morning and as usual Moscow has released no information.

'Even though the Russians will be the first on the Moon, Washington has made the decision to go ahead with project Pilgrim.

'So Lee Stegler will launch tomorrow morning as scheduled.

'This the latest news from Washington.'”

“Don't get any cute ideas”

Having “been ordered not to land unless you see the shelter,” the next day Lee prepares to blast off for the moon. After Lee is inserted into the capsule and the hatch is closed, Lee grips Chiz’s hand with both of his gloved hands. In that action a bond has been re-established between the two men and it seems as if Lee doesn’t want to let go of Chiz’s hand as if he is reluctant to let go of an important link or anchor and that to do so will find him well and truly cast adrift and on his own.

With the shelter pod having already been launched and successfully landed, Lee too is finally launched on schedule. Everything initially appears to be going well and he’s “right on the button.”

Meanwhile Chiz and his team have left to catch their plane bound for Houston mission control from where they will take over Lee’s flight. At the moment all they have to contend with is just a bit of air turbulence.

“He's in one hell of a spot”

Lee is soon required to perform a mid-course correction in which the “cryogenic fuelled landing engine will push the capsule into a slightly changed path…..to minimise the air and get the astronaut the best possible view of the area where the shelter would be found.” Lee radios back that he has no light and that he can feel the thrust but that his engine fire indicator isn’t on. Back at mission control, however they have confirmed firing.

It isn’t long before a power drain malfunction is discovered in Lee’s capsule which interrupts radio contact and causes heat loss.

With the loss of electrical power there's no way to repair without a risk of the retros firing and sending Lee out of trajectory with the result that he would never get back. Lee is therefore instructed to cut off as many electrical systems as he can and then go on to suit pressure and heat and let the cabin temperature go down. Finally he is to cut off his radio transmitter and go into sleep mode for four hours before resuming contact.

This situation is a real test for Lee as he now must contend with his own fears: fear of having his only lifeline to Earth cut off, fear that “these controls might freak out when the temperature drops,” and fear of confronting his own mortality alone.

Back at Mission Control, Mickey Stegler has a medical readout of Lee’s vital life signs – respiration, heart beat, blood pressure, temperature - as the only link to her husband’s essence. He may be “functioning beautifully, but everything’s all wrong.”

Not as far as the public are concerned as public relations spin seeks to manage and massage information”:

“Pilgrim control now reports that Astronaut Lee Stegler having successfully completed his mid-course maneuver, he's now observing a period of radio silence.” With a nice bit of deflection, the assembled news reporters’ attention is swiftly directed to the situation of the three man Russian Voskhod ship. It seems that they have also lost contact with their team:

“They should have landed on the Moon twelve to fourteen hours ago. But up to now, no word has been received.”

Finally, it is time to end the press briefing on a positive note about the plan of the Pilgrim Project:

“When Lee Stegler lands on the Moon he'll immediately make his way to this survival shelter which contains all the necessary life support systems. He'll find it by means of this rotating beacon. Once inside the shelter he'll remain there until we send up another survival shelter or until the Apollo team goes up to get him. The telemetry aboard the shelter will notify us immediately the minute he's safely inside.”

On their way out there’s a free-for-all for freebies of copies and photographs of the shelter along with other “paraphernalia” they might need.

As Lee orbits the Moon, he is not able to see the beacon of the shelter. Suddenly Lee exclaims, “Oh my God!” For a moment it is as if he is struck by the enormity of what he is witnessing from his viewing port – the surface of another world. Perhaps he is also struck by the enormity of what he is about to do and whether it is more than one man can cope with.

With not much more than 90 seconds left before he must abort and return to Earth, Lee is instructed by Chiz, “under no circumstances attempt to land unless you have a confirmed sighting.” With mere seconds remaining, Lee suddenly blurts out, “I believe I see it east of Hansteen.” He has in fact lied about seeing the beacon. Mission Control gives permission for Lee’s retro burn and he decelerates as he lands the capsule. As one mission control team member observes, “he cut the cord, he can't come back.”

“Mission control reports that Pilgrim has just landed successfully on

the Moon.”

With all radio contact is lost, Lee exits the Gemini lander and walks on the bleak lunar surface with two hours and forty minutes of oxygen in his suit.

Back at Mission Control, there is no indication received from telemetry that Lee has located the shelter. In fact, Chiz is wise to the fact that Lee hadn’t sighted it as he used the phrase, "Believe I've sighted." Chiz knows this is an old fighter pilot phrase, “what you say when you fire into the dark and hope you hit a target.”

There is speculation as to why Lee would choose to land without being sure. Ultimately it was his decision to make and that the “gravitational pull of the Moon is very strong to the mind with imagination.” With the prospect of a new pristine world before him and Lee having the opportunity to set foot on it,“anybody with the courage to go would have landed” and “that's why Stegler is there.”

After a while and with barely an hour’s worth of oxygen left in his bio-pack, Lee comes across the crashed Russian lander lying on its side with the three dead cosmonauts lying partly within and around it. In tribute to his fellow astronauts, Lee takes the Soviet flag from a dead cosmonaut and lays it on a nearby rock together with his own American flag. This stands as a statement of the fact that the goal of landing on the moon was achieved not just by a particular country but by the skill, will, effort, sacrifice and spirit of human beings.

“Lee Stegler has less than seven minutes of oxygen left”

With little air left and not knowing which direction to take to reach the shelter, Lee resorts to chance and hope by spinning the toy mouse his son gave him to take on the mission. He walks in the direction that the toy mouse ends up pointing in.

With hope ebbing away back on earth, Lee notices that he has mere minutes of air left. Suddenly a red glow on his arm and watch catches his attention. It is the shelter’s locator beacon and our last sight of Lee is of him walking towards the shelter and a renewed hope for his survival.

Points Of Interest

“Countdown” is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Robert Altman, based on the 1964 novel “The Pilgrim Project” by Hank Searls. It was released eighteen months before the first manned mission to the moon in 1969.

The film’s working title was “Moonshot” and production was assisted by cooperation from NASA who lent its facilities at Cocoa Beach, Florida. Filming took place in part at NASA facilities in early 1967, immediately after the January pad fire in Apollo 1 in which the crew perished during a ground test.

Altman was fired as director of the film due to the inclusion of overlapping dialogue. What studio executives mistook for incompetence was really the director's attempt at achieving the illusion of reality. If I recall, this was a technique used in “TheThing From Another World” to very good effect.

Director Altman had previously directed “The Delinquents” (1955) and “The James Dean Story” (1957), as well as directing TV series such as “Combat” over a ten year period.

It now seems a bit quaint and unusual to feature a modified Gemini spacecraft in a lunar landing. In the film, The Pilgrim spacecraft is a hybrid of a complete Gemini spacecraft grafted onto the descent stage of an Apollo lunar module. However, it seems that there had been proposals in the mid 1960s to use modified Gemini craft for lunar orbital and even lunar landings to complement the Apollo flights. One such lunar Gemini program, "Big Gemini" would have accommodated as many as 12 astronauts, but this and other proposals were rejected or never went beyond the concept stage for a variety of reasons.

Lee’s landing site is the "Sea of Storms" or “Oceanus Procellarum / Ocean of Storms and it is where Apollo 12's lunar module "Intrepid" landed on 19 November 1969. The film’s moon landing sequence was simulated in the Mojave Desert.

“Countdown” is a film of its time featuring a Space Race within the context of the Cold War between the USA and the Soviet Union. NASA was charged with the seemingly impossible task of fulfilling President Kennedy's challenge of "sending a man to the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the decade. The point of this enterprise was not necessarliy to expand the humanity’s frontiers and scientific knowledge but was instead aimed at getting a man on the moon and safely back before the Russians did.

Interestingly enough, even today, almost 60 years year later we still talk in terms of a space race when referring to upcoming lunar and Mars missions even though the old Cold War is over. A race with whom and to what end? It seems that the quest for human knowledge, expanded horizons and sheer wonder is instead being replaced by the need to corporatize, extract, consume, obtain profit and gain strategic advantage from our endeavours in space. Technology has certainly progressed but the same cannot be said for our mentality. Our space junk and refuse has certainly increased exponentially.

The idea of sending a craft with an astronaut to another world and allowing him to stay there, kept alive by an environment habitat provisioned with supplies and the sending of further supplies via unmanned rockets seems like a scaled-down version of similar earlier scenarios envisioned for future Mars missions. Of course, on Mars and even on the moon we will have to come up with ways of becoming self-sustaining using the available resources of the new worlds we’ll inhabit.

Overall, the film is rather flat and pedestrian, lacking any real tension and suspense like in its contemporary, “Marooned” (1969). The only real exception was the climactic scenes featuring Lee Stegler’s lunar descent and his coming across the dead cosmonauts on the lunar surface.

“Countdown” certainly suffered from its evident lack of budget. It certainly showed in its depiction of the mission control room and the moon walk sequence which both looked particularly disappointing and lacked realism.

**************

Moon Zero Two (1969)

A sci-fi film that walks a fine line between being an unintentional spoof and a

straightforward space adventure film.

Directed by Roy Ward Baker

Screenplay by Michael Carreras

Story by Martin Davison, Frank Hardman, Gavin Lyall Produced by Michael Carreras

Cinematography: Paul Beeson

Edited by Spencer Reeve

Music by Don Ellis

Production company: Hammer Films

Distributed by Warner-Pathé Warner Bros.

Running time: 100 minutes

Country: United Kingdom

Budget: £500,000

Cast

James Olson as Bill Kemp

Catherina von Schell as Clementine Taplin

Warren Mitchell as J. J. Hubbard

Adrienne Corri as Elizabeth Murphy

Ori Levy as Korminski

Dudley Foster as Whitsun

Bernard Bresslaw as Harry

Neil McCallum as space captain

Joby Blanshard as Smith

Michael Ripper as 1st card player

Robert Tayman as 2nd card player

Sam Kydd as barman

Keith Bonnard as Junior customs officer

Leo Britt as Senior customs officer

Carol Cleveland as hostess

Roy Evans as workman

Tom Kempinski as 2nd officer

Lew Luton as immigration officer

Claire Shenstone as female hotel clerk

Chrissie Shrimpton as boutique attendant

Amber Dean Smith as Hubbard's girlfriend

Simone Silvera as Hubbard's girlfriend

The Go-jos as Hilton bar dancing girls

Earth’s Moon

May 2021

Bill Kemp, former astronaut pilot turned space salvager together with his Russian partner, Korminski become involved in a millionaire criminal space industrialist’s scheme to capture a sapphire asteroid and crash it into the far side of the moon for later recovery. Kemp and his partner are initially unaware of the fact that there is also a link between this job and the salvage team’s agreement to help Clementine Taplin locate her missing brother……..

Spirit of a Space Cowboy

A Memoir by

“Wild” Will Ganymede