Tag Archive | Mars

Filming locations: Wadi Rum

Oct9

Chap and I went to see The Martian in 3D the other day. I’m a sucker for a space movie, and I’m also a sucker for deserts. So a space movie set on a desert planet is right up my street. And I knew from the advance publicity for the movie that large parts of it had been filmed in the Wadi Rum in southern Jordan.

The Martian, filmed in Wadi Rum in Jordan.

The Martian, filmed in Wadi Rum in Jordan.

I have a special spot in my heart for Wadi Rum, which I first visited 30 years ago. Half way through my first archaeological dig in Jordan we had a week-long break, and a group of us took the dig Land Rover and drove all around Jordan (not difficult to do as it’s a small country). We had a ball, visiting the Dead Sea, the desert palaces, driving down the King’s Highway to Kerak, and staying overnight in Petra with a bedouin, Dachlala, and his family (we had special dispensation from the Department of Antiquities – one of the perks of being an archaeologist). After Petra we drove deep into the stunning, massive grandeur of the Wadi Rum and camped there, digging hollows in the orangey red and incredibly soft sand in which to sleep and cooking our food on dried camel shit fires. During the day we went to swim in the coral reefs at Aqaba, and came back to the Wadi to sleep at night. The scale and the beauty of the place, and the absolute isolation, were so remarkable. (Only ten years later, when I last visited the Wadi in 1995, we camped again, but this time we could see the bonfires of other groups all around in the distance).

Location filming in the Wadi Rum for The Martian.

Location filming in the Wadi Rum for The Martian. Photo by Giles Keyte.

The Martian, starring Matt Damon, filmed in Wadi Rum.

The Martian, starring Matt Damon, filmed in Wadi Rum.

Matt Damon in Wadi Rum. The photo hasn't been 'Marsified' as you can see some small camel thorn seedlings.

Matt Damon in Wadi Rum. The photo hasn’t been ‘Marsified’ as you can see some small camel thorn shrubs and seedlings.

Given its striking visual impact, it’s not surprising that Wadi Rum has been used many times in Hollywood film productions. Perhaps the most famous is, of course, David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia (on the way to the Wadi we drove alongside a spur of the abandoned Hejaz Railway that Lawrence and his tribesmen blew up further along the line).

Wadi Rum in Lawrence of Arabia.

Wadi Rum in Lawrence of Arabia.

It has also stood in for Mars in other sci-fi movies, such as Mission to Mars (2000), Red Planet (2000) and The Last Days on Mars (2013). Ridley Scott, the director of The Martian, had previously used Wadi Rum as an alien landscape in his 2012 film, Prometheus.

Wadi Rum, 1985.

Wadi Rum, 1985.

Wadi Rum, 1985.

Wadi Rum, 1985.

Camping out in wadi Rum, 1985.

Camping out in Wadi Rum, 1985. Our second camping spot.

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Morning in Wadi Rum, 1985. In the background our trusty Series 3 long wheel base dig Land Rover.

Hannah (or is it Ug the Cavewoman?) cooking on the camel shit fire, wadi Rum , 1985.

Hannah (or is it Ug the Cavewoman?) starting the fire using camel thorn, Wadi Rum, 1985. Pile of camel shit to the left. Hannah’s hair looking wild due to sea salt, desert wind, dust and smoke.

Waking up in Wadi Rum, 1985.

Waking up in Wadi Rum, 1985. Left to right, Hannah, Mick, Fritdjof, Carenza, Bronwen.

Happy days. I’m very lucky.

11 years on – Beagle 2 has landed!

Jan16

Earlier this week came the news that a joint NASA and UK Space Agency and Leicester University announcement about Beagle 2, the British-led Mars probe, would be made on Friday. I have been twitching all week—hoping so hard that the news would be good. And it is!

At last—Beagle 2 has been found! Such great news, courtesy of NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which sends back images of the planet’s surface from a height of between 250 and 316 km above Mars.

Beagle 2 on the Martian surface. Photo by Hirise / NASA / Leicester University

Beagle 2 on the Martian surface. Photo by HiRISE / NASA / Leicester University

The MRO scientists have been searching for it for years, and at long last they have found Beagle 2 at its Christmas Day 2003 landing spot at Isisdis Planitia. No message was ever received from the probe, and so it was assumed that it had crashed or somehow been destroyed or rendered unable to send back data. Its fate remained unknown.

Now we can see that Beagle 2 landed intact, and due to some of the solar panel-bearing ‘petals’ failing to unfold, it could not generate the energy needed to send back data.

Beagle 2 on Mars.

Beagle 2 and landing equipment on Mars.

The lead scientist, Professor Colin Pillinger, sadly did not live to see this great day. He died last May, but is immortalised at a topographic feature on the surface of Mars: Pillinger Point.

Professor Colin Pillinger and a model of Beagle 2.

Professor Colin Pillinger and a life-size model of Beagle 2.

I wonder if the landing spot of Beagle 2 will be named after its most recent arrival?

(I should add that I bear no truck with talk of the Beagle 2 mission being a heroic failure. It was an incredibly difficult mission achieved on a miniscule budget, and it should be remembered how challenging a successful landing on Mars is—the success rate is 51%. So to have got so close to achieving the mission goals is to be celebrated. And as Prof. Pillinger himself said, in that wonderful, warm West Country accent of his—there are no failures, just experiences providing valuable data from which to learn and progress.)

Pillinger Point

Jul1
Pillinger Point, overlooking Endeavour Crater, Mars.

Pillinger Point, overlooking Endeavour Crater, Mars.

I look at various NASA websites regularly, and one set of missions on which I’m particularly keen are those currently operating on Mars. Of the two indomitable Mars Exploration Rovers, launched in June and July 2003, and both landed in January 2004, and only supposed to have a mission life of 90 sols (a sol is a Martian day, just a tad longer than ours at 24 hours and 39 minutes), Opportunity is still going. And then of course there’s the amazing Curiosity rover, launched in November 2011 and landed on Mars in August 2012. I got up very early to watch the landing live on the NASA webstream, and it was so exciting, learning that it had landed successfully after the complex landing procedure that involved the never-before used sky crane. My heart was in my mouth for a goodly while—but I bet that was nothing compared to what the project scientists were experiencing. I have also taken part in the citizen science project to classify (tag) images sent back to earth by Opportunity and its now sadly non-operational partner, Spirit.

I think part of the reason I am fascinated by Mars is that it is a desert planet, and I love deserts. Many of the photos in the Tag Mars citizen science project show a beautiful, desolate landscape, though occasionally you can see a dust devil caught as it passed by, or see the ripples of sand cut through by the rovers’ tracks. They could easily be the deserts in which I have worked in the Middle East. So familiar, and yet so other-worldly.

I checked recently on the progress of Curiosity and saw on 24 June it had taken a photo from a spot named Pillinger Point, overlooking Endeavour Crater. The brief text mentioned it was named after Professor Colin Pillinger, who died in May this year.

Professor Colin Pillinger.

Professor Colin Pillinger (9 May 1943—7 May 2014).

Colin Pillinger was a British planetary scientist and one of the driving forces behind the Beagle 2 mission to Mars. Sadly that mission was not a success. Like Spirit, it too was launched in June 2003, but although it was deployed from the ‘mother ship’ for landing on Christmas Day 2003, communication was lost, and with it, the mission. I remember seeing footage of Professor Pillinger announcing that Beagle 2 was lost, and how absolutely destroyed he seemed. All those years of hard work, all that hope, all that potential for science, lost in a few moments.

Today there is a lovely piece on the BBC website about this photo and the naming of a topographic feature on Mars after Prof. Pillinger. It is written by Steve Squyres of NASA, who worked on the Spirit and Opportunity rovers and became a good friend of Prof. Pillinger’s. It’s a very touching tribute.

(Ahoy there mateys: I love too that Beagle 2 was named after the vessel, HMS Beagle, on which Charles Darwin conducted his historic and world-changing research; Endeavour Crater is named after the bark, HMS Endeavour, on which Captain Cook undertook his voyage of discovery to the southern hemisphere.)