"Armageddon" problem?

Question

not the End of the World, silly ... the movie. Bruce Willis and that elf girl?

Why is it harder to teach an astronaut to be an oil-driller, than it is to teach an oil-driller to be an astronaut?

(I always wanted to know this one)

Answer 1

ASTRONAUT to OIL-DRILLER -- astronauts have very analytical minds and so are always curious about things. On an oil rig there's no time to sit and wonder about the layers of Earth the drill is passing through or anything else except the job at hand

OIL-DRILLER to ASTRONAUT -- Most of these people are very independant-minded and would have trouble dealing with the self-discipline and regimens inherent in manned space flight.

Answer 2

I had to think about this one for a minute.  They didn't actually have to learn anything but the space suit and how to function in space.  That was the main thing Harry (Willis)  asked Truman (Thornton) before he agreed to go.  "All they have to do is drill, no space-walking, none of that crazy astronaut stuff?"  "Just Drill", Thornton replied.

They had astronauts to do the "crazy astronaut stuff". so they didn't have to learn that.  In view of that, it seems to me that the part they would have to learn would be somewhat like learning SCUBA diving.

If we expected them to go alone and fly the spaceship, then they would have had to learn to be astronauts.

So you are right.  It would be harder to teach an oil-driller to be an astronaut than vice versa.  However, since it was a movie, and we have the caveat that they didn't have to learn to be astronauts, it was more feasible than the fact that they had only 12 days to do it.

They did have some other inconsistencies, like Ben Affleck, 3 days after he was fired by Willis, had his own company PUMPING oil, not drilling, which are two completely separate operations, and he had an old, rusty sign with his name on it..

And, NASA could never plan and mobilize a mission in 18 days.  They WOULD never ask oil drillers to go.  There are a lot of places where we have suspend our skepticism and just enjoy a fun movie.

Answer 3

I could write a 30-page essay on the scientific inaccuracies in that movie. A texas-sized asteroid that just gets found a month before impact? Give me a break, it would be visible to the naked eye for months before.

Argh, that's what I stopped watching TV. Way too much stupidity.

Answer 4

Actually, there was some debate as to WHO to select for the first astronauts, but President Eisenhower insisted that Military test pilots be used.

Answer 5

Mallard is correct!

Independent risk takers are useless in space. Every detail of actions performed in a spacecraft can kill you quickly if executed incorrectly or just out of sequence. Extreme patience and attention to detail, although tedious, is required at all times.

However, I enjoyed the movie a lot.

Answer 6

It isn't. But the idea in the movie was that the crew needed to be the very best drillers, whereas they didn't need to be particularly good astronauts.