They should have just killed Margo off

8/12/2022 10:18:19 AM

Living in Russia is basically the same thing.

8/12/2022 10:54:38 AM

That dopey Haley Joel Osment looking girl is actually Bryan Cranston's daughter, so I learned.

8/12/2022 7:46:58 PM

Margo plot line should be effectively dead, there really isn't a story to tell there.

Molly's ending was fucking dumb the more I think about it. You're telling me no one will object to the blind person going back into the debris filled building?

Danny should die. The Korean ship is apparently magical though.

In retrospect, how was there ZERO development between Karen and Kelly in terms of the baby? Not a single discussion on screen.

The Korean astronaut plotline effectively served no purpose. It would have been far better had he not survived and they found a corpse. THEY DIDN'T EVEN USE THE RADAR.

Kelly strapped to the ship was lulz.

I'm very confused at the lack of security regarding JSC. No one noticed the statue missing? How did the dopey bomber crew make it in with a bomb and rifles.

Jimmy is a moron.


I mean, the show is still interesting, but my god, the writing is getting bad.

8/12/2022 8:16:41 PM

The episode was called "Stranger in a Strange Land". I think this refers both to the Korean and eventually also to Margo and Sergei living in a new and unfamiliar nation.

I thought the whole point with Molly's story at the end was that with the building filled with dust and smoke, she was on equal footing with the sighted, but actually superior footing because she knew the building layout well and had become used to navigating blind. Not clear how she died, though. Did the building collapse, or smoke inhalation? The people were shell-shocked. They're going to be trying to stop a strong-willed blind person instead of just worrying about themselves?

Agree Danny should die. They showed him looking at the family photo like the Korean guy just before he was about to kill himself. There should be a reason the buried gun was marked with a tire iron. If it turns out to be so that Danny can stumble upon it and kill himself, great. He never told Ed he slept with Karen.

8/12/2022 10:03:05 PM

^^

The writing has been a little questionable. Makes no sense they would strap a pregnant woman to the outside of a lander instead of trying to do a midwife birth on mars and transport them later.

I’m fine with the Korean plot line setup so far, despite it being wildly implausible.

The rest was clearly setup to give the actors a way out of the show and just move things along for next season, which is fine.

8/13/2022 1:01:36 AM

Maybe they didn't think they could plausibly age Karen another 8 years for next season. The actress is 37.

8/13/2022 7:30:03 AM

Apparently Margo will continue to be in the story in S4.

8/13/2022 8:07:44 AM

Actress is older and frumpier.

Maybe just there for a portion of next season?

8/13/2022 8:54:10 AM

I watched the final episode a second time.

- I was wrong -- there was some braking on the Korean Soyuz because they said the pilot chutes finally deployed.

- CONFIRMED -- Jimmy said he had to pee and literally walked to the other side of the adjacent blue van before making a panicked phone call.

- I had assumed Ed would die after Danny halfway confessed to him so that Danny could continue to escape any consequences for his actions since no one still alive would know it was him that screwed up on the drilling rig. Glad Karen died instead of Ed, though.

- Will NASA absorb Helios, and what new role will Dev play?

- Danny will definitely find the buried gun, but will he then use it to mercifully (for the audience) kill himself, or will he go even more crazy in isolation and use it to shoot someone else? Danielle should have taken the gun and buried it in an unmarked yet unmistakable place that only she knew.

8/13/2022 4:59:30 PM

The chutes wouldn't have worked very well on Mars

8/13/2022 5:18:41 PM

No, clearly. The co-pilot died. But they have used parachutes on Mars like the supersonic parachute to slow the descent of Mars Pathfinder, and others.

I saw in a YouTube comment that the JSC bombing was the same date as the real life Oklahoma City bombing -- April 19, 1995.

Building facade after bombing certainly gave those vibes.

Will gay President be impeached and removed, or escape conviction like Bill Clinton did? If convicted, what's her next step? Back to NASA? First President of Mars?

8/13/2022 5:32:01 PM

JSC was clearly reminiscent of OKC

Molly’s story was done…whatever

Danny is clearly going to find the gun and then my guess is that he uses it to commandeer the folks bringing him food every month.

Does everyone think that Margo died at JSC and sober defection is secret, my guess is yes.

A decent finale actually (if you suspend disbelief). Not better than season 2 but decent.

8/13/2022 11:58:04 PM

Okay so I actually do Mars ascent in just about all aspects all day every day as my job. There are SO many things wrong with strapping a person on top like that. She would have been roasted alive among other things.

8/14/2022 10:59:15 PM

Mark Watney did it.

8/15/2022 9:19:20 AM

Yeah and that was based on a true story

8/15/2022 9:26:48 AM

Watney had a cloth cover thing over it (which has its own issues that wouldn’t work), but that at least gave him some space between the “tip” and his body. In this case, however, Kelly (and her protruding pregnant belly) is essentially the nosecone for this thing haha.

8/15/2022 10:36:04 AM

Apparently the USSR will be the focus of S4...I'm probably going to check out

8/15/2022 10:52:36 AM

I'm going to check IT out!

Regarding Mars ascent, who are you going to believe? American hero Ed Baldwin, or some real life NASA nerd?

Numerous recent world events point to the obvious answer to that query.

8/15/2022 11:13:58 AM

No you're not

8/15/2022 11:15:10 AM

Oh, yes I am!

Much like you, once I am committed to a show, I watch it until the end, no matter how bad it gets!

8/15/2022 5:33:13 PM

Oh goddammit i was replying to behebe

8/15/2022 6:09:34 PM

You're not great at this whole internet thing

8/15/2022 6:32:09 PM

Well when i typed it he hadn't posted. And then i didn't look at the thread again.

Also i am an Old.

8/15/2022 6:37:13 PM

Danny is mentally unhinged and they decide as punishment...to isolate him?!? No doubt that will work out very very well.

I was wondering about Kelly having issues with the friction of Mars' atmosphere but they did say on the show that it was thin enough to not be an issue. So that's good enough for me

Really wish Margo had died and not Molly. Molly was fucking great, and to have her die off-screen like that was pretty weak IMO.

8/22/2022 2:43:19 PM

Quote :

"it was thin enough to not be an issue"

lol but it is thick enough that when Ed returned to the surface, the vehicle started glowing red from aeroheating almost as soon as it started re-entry.

(sidenote, it isn't friction that causes the heat. It's compression of the atmosphere )

[Edited on August 25, 2022 at 11:42 AM. Reason : ]

8/25/2022 11:42:34 AM

thanks for correction

8/25/2022 2:01:24 PM

Molly's death was so pointless. It still makes me made.

Also, did the Phoenix actually make it home??

8/25/2022 7:26:23 PM

Maybe she’ll come back as a ghost and haunt Margo in the USSR

8/25/2022 11:11:52 PM

Maybe heaven (or hell) has been under the Martian surface all along. Plausible!

8/26/2022 8:25:49 AM

The science checks out!

8/27/2022 11:23:48 AM

Quote :

"lol but it is thick enough that when Ed returned to the surface, the vehicle started glowing red from aeroheating almost as soon as it started re-entry."

Are the powered ascent and gravitational descent necessarily occurring at the same speed? Wouldn't a speed differential affect the amount of atmospheric compression-induced heating that occurs?

8/27/2022 4:52:11 PM

So Ed ascended suborbital into space -- enough to where his altitude was high enough that there was no significant atmospheric density. His vehicle was still traveling very fast though (parallel to the surface), just not enough atmosphere at that point for it to really do anything. After releasing the payload, he started to descend down at a slightly increased speed (due to losing the mass from Kelly and conservation of momentum). He was still going the same speed as he was when he left the atmosphere though and started to experience aeroheating almost immediately.

Quote :

"Molly's death was so pointless. It still makes me made."

Agreed, her character was way more interesting than Karen, Aleida, or Margo. Really enjoyed Wayne's character too -- amongst all the hotshot dick measuring that the astronauts have been doing for the past 30 years, Wayne just doesn't give a fuck.

8/27/2022 5:37:44 PM

I'm not sure why I'm even discussing something as farcical as this, but isn't an important difference that on the powered ascent the speed is least where the atmosphere is densest (near the surface), and that on the descent the speed is greatest where the atmosphere is densest -- leading to differences in heating?

In real life on Earth, heat shields are critical on return, but not so much on departure. Isn't this partially for the same reason (in addition to the shape of the surface presented to the atmosphere)?

8/28/2022 7:34:55 AM

^That's exactly why the vehicles that go up are sharp and pointy (in addition to hypersonic flight stuff that I won't get into), whereas the vehicles that come down are blunt. The sharp pointy vehicles have a very small surface area to create a stagnation point on, so even though that point does get very hot, it is very localized.

You are correct in that it is the most dense closest to the surface, but in this case, the density right before it hit the trajectory peak was the same as it was right when it passed its peak. But there was no aeroheating at all before it hit the peak.

8/29/2022 3:46:51 PM

Right, because of the pregnant belly nose cone, obviously.

8/29/2022 6:25:20 PM

Quote :

"why the vehicles that go up are sharp and pointy"

where's your god now Wraith?

[Edited on August 30, 2022 at 11:43 AM. Reason : a]

8/30/2022 11:43:20 AM

^I'm not really that religious, so in the sky I guess?

8/30/2022 11:47:13 AM

No, he is on mars, and he is pissed.

8/30/2022 11:50:27 AM

LOL at last 3 posts.

8/30/2022 1:11:36 PM

Mars is in the sky!

8/30/2022 2:10:04 PM

Well to people on Mars we are in the sky, so does that make me god?

8/30/2022 10:12:32 PM

^To the people on Mars, yes.

8/31/2022 9:53:40 AM

BOW DOWN BEFORE ME

8/31/2022 1:26:08 PM

But none of us are on Mars

8/31/2022 1:46:39 PM

Ok but hear me out — what if you actually are?

8/31/2022 4:29:29 PM

I need an update on Ed Jr.

bbehe, Daniel Stern is joining the cast for Season 4. Not even a joke. He'll be channeling Phil Brickma from Rookie of the Year.

7/16/2023 4:29:28 PM

Daniel Stern will solve all of NASA's problems with hot ice!

7/19/2023 6:58:52 PM

My favorite part was always when he got stuck in between doors at the hotel. And then they open the doors and his body is still in the same form.

7/19/2023 10:25:27 PM

Yeah, Brickma was a great character!

These are some of my favorites of his:

7/20/2023 7:29:37 AM