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From: dp@astrovax.UUCP (Deborah L. Padgett)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: Arthur C. Clarke's 2010
Message-ID: <330@astrovax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 6-May-84 15:28:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: astrovax.330
Posted: Sun May  6 15:28:19 1984
Date-Received: Mon, 7-May-84 01:09:43 EDT
References: <322@astrovax.UUCP>, <324@astrovax.UUCP> <226@ames-lm.UUCP>
Organization: Princeton Univ. Astrophysics
Lines: 21

I believe that if you check the release dates that you will find that
ALIEN was released the summer of 1979 (which enabled it to steal the
visual effects Oscar from the more deserving ST-TMP). OUTLAND was not
released until 1981 (I think), well after both ALIEN and the Voyager
1 flyby. Although the screenplay was probably written before this event,
I have always suspected that OUTLAND wished to capitalize on NASA's
publicity (not that this was wrong in any sense). I apologize for giving
you the impression that I consider Arthur C. an absolute authority on
human beings in a vacuum; I could look up several reports by NASA and the
Air Force on this subject if you wish (after I finish my senior thesis).
However, I was simply attempting to avoid a discussion on this flaw in
OUTLAND which had already occurred several hundred messages ago (or
was that in net.space?). As an astrophysics major headed for Caltech
next year, I assure you that any science fiction that I accept as gospel
must have significant scientific credentials behind its writing (or be
printed in Astrophysical Journal). I have found that Clarke usually does
his homework, but checking up on him is a favorite pastime of mine. If
you're interested, I refer you to a paper on the habitability of Europa
published in last Nov. issue of ICARUS which cited Clarke as a 
reference; it was written by Reynolds, Squyres, Colburn, and McKay at
(guess where?) Ames Research Center.