Showcasing the Lunar dream
The news this week has focused on the Moon what with NASA announcing that it intends to send men back to the moon by 2018. For kids though, the huge news has been the release of Magnificent Desolation: Walking on the Moon in 3D. IMAX has brought out this 40-minute film, produced and narrated by Tom Hanks, the star of Saving Private Ryan.
The film basically focuses on the technology needed for lunar ventures and highlights the Apollo trips to the moon. "Once humankind has been some place and found it entrancing, they always go back," says Tom Hanks. "I think in the history of the human race, the moon has been the first place we've gone to and said, 'OK, we don't need to go back there again.'" Hanks has blended in the original Apollo pictures with state of the art 3D technology to let people experience what only a dozen men has; the feel of walking on the Moon.
President Bush's 2004 "Vision for Space Exploration" speech has reignited the Lunar dream in millions of minds and NASA would welcome this film with open arms for teaching the basics of what exactly is required for the journey. "And it is meant to make people think, 'How in the world did we do that? And isn't it a marvelous thing that we did,'" Hanks explained the mission of the film.
The film also has the testimony of the fortunate dozen who stepped on where no man has ventured since 1969. Eugene Cernan, who flew on Apollo 10 and 17 summed up the dream by saying, "It's our destiny to explore. It's our destiny to be a space-faring nation."
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