Arindam Ganguly, OP
Bhubaneswar: The historic moon landing by astronaut Neil Armstrong is still fresh in the mind people born post 1970s. An American astronaut and aeronautical engineer, Armstrong landed on the moon travelling by Apollo 11 spacecraft July 20 1969. And the image of the first man on the moon has inspired many to believe that nothing is impossible for humans.
Now, a movie based on the historic event is ready and it will tell the riveting story of NASA’s mission to land a man on the moon. The story of the film revolves around the life of Armstrong. The movie titled First Man stars Ryan Gosling in the title character Neil Armstrong. The flick – based on a book of same name – is scheduled for November release.
Orissa POST interacted with local scientists and science fanatics about the adventure shown in the upcoming movie
KSK Bharadwaj, scientists and professor at Ravenshaw University’s Department of Chemistry, said such movies will inspire new and buzzing scientists to aim for glory in their fields. With the success of the ‘Moon Mission,’ Indian science is in a renaissance stage and the series of successful satellite launches by ISRO have set a new benchmark for Indian scientists. The First Man will provide insight into the days when the ‘Moon Mission’ was launched, he opined.
Sudipta Mukherjee of Institute of Physics said, “Armstrong had shown the world that human beings are capable of winning in all situations. Before the Apollo 11 mission none thought or even imagined that a man can live or land on the moon. Now, we are aiming for life in Mars.”
Bishnupriya Hota of Department of Zoology at GM College said that Indian scientists have many achievements to their credit. Scientists like Homi Jehangir Bhabha, known as the “father of the Indian nuclear programme”, CV Raman, who carried out ground-breaking work in the field of light and won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, and Satyendra Nath Bose of Higgs-Boson theory made Indian science a name to reckon, Bishnupriya pointed out.
Swapna Mohnanty of IIT Bhubaneswar asked, “Why should there be a movie on Neil Armstrong, when our filmmakers can make biopics on renowned Indian scientists like APJ Abdul Kalam, Jagadish Chandra Bose, Vikram Sarabhai and Satyendrnath Bose?”