Jason Kessler: "The NASA Grand Asteroid Challenge" | NASA Talks at Google – Video

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Jason Kessler: "The NASA Grand Asteroid Challenge" | NASA Talks at Google
Since 1998, NASA #39;s Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program has led the global effort to find potentially hazardous asteroids, and has successfully found...

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Jason Kessler: "The NASA Grand Asteroid Challenge" | NASA Talks at Google - Video

NASA vet weighs in on 'Gravity': 'Spectacular realism'

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Mark Uhran, a 28-year NASA veteran with the International Space Station, outlines his thoughts on "Gravity," the terrifyingly realistic new film about free drifting in space starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

There's a moment, 30 seconds into the original trailer for Alfonso Cuarn's movie "Gravity," when the light piano music sharply drops off and you watch in a mixture of awe and utter terror as Sandra Bullock's character is sent head over heels, away from the image of Earth, strapped to a disintegrating arm of metal and flying toward the blackness of space.

"My first reaction was that the cinematography was of spectacular realism," said Mark Uhran, who retired last year from NASA as a director in the International Space Station (ISS) division with 28 years of experience. "I've never seen that done before."

Uhran, who saw an advance screening of the film earlier this week, joins a growing crowd of space-savvy professionals who have risen up to give "Gravity" a collective helping of praise alongside film critics' rave reviews. Cuarn, who directed "Children of Men" and "Y Tu Mam Tambin," may not have gotten everything right when it comes to some of the technical aspects of floating and traveling in Earth's orbit, but many agree: the cinematography is not only breathtaking and mind-blowing, it's also the most realistic space film to date.

"I saw a great deal of high-res imagery taken of the ISS during its construction and operation. I've never seen a Hollywood filmmaker actually be able to capture that clarity and resolution of the space station and shuttle," Uhran added.

To help capture that realism, Cuarn, who also co-wrote the script, turned to his longtime cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki. The film, which opens Friday nationwide, stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts caught in a tragic, life-threatening situation during what should be routine extravehicular activity, or EVA as it's referred to by NASA, outside their space shuttle.

The film looks stunning and true-to-life, but how likely is its prime scenario and how prepared would NASA be in the case of a crisis of that magnitude?

"That's a scenario that of course has been considered ever since the dawn of science fiction," he said. "I don't know that they train for an event such as a free drift in space; it's highly improbable. But they do train for the EVA activity and a contingency during EVA.

"EVA activity is extremely dangerous. It's one of the most hazardous operations that can be conducted in space which is why the space program tries to minimize the number of EVAs," he added. Uhran noted the event earlier this year when Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, who was performing EVA outside the ISS, encountered a helmet malfunction that caused it to began filling up with water. Parmitano's account of the sheer disorienting effects of such a crisis and trying to stay calm with increasingly reduced visibility inspires enough anxiety as it is, let alone the thought of what a real-life free drift disaster might begin to feel like.

"It's a scenario that of course has been considered ever since the dawn of science fiction."

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NASA vet weighs in on 'Gravity': 'Spectacular realism'

Ohio State’s Dr. Laxmi Mehta, Cardiovascular Medicine and Women’s Health – Video

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Ohio State #39;s Dr. Laxmi Mehta, Cardiovascular Medicine and Women #39;s Health
Laxmi Mehta, MD, is the clinical director of the Women #39;s Cardiovascular Health Program and an assistant professor of clinical medicine at The Ohio State Univ...

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Ohio State's Dr. Laxmi Mehta, Cardiovascular Medicine and Women's Health - Video