When Andie gets ready to leave the shuttle to go to Daedalus, she tells the kids not to talk too much, and soon after, when Rudy is babbling, Kevin admonishes him in a friendly manner that he is using up oxygen. Someone at MovieMistakes pointed out for "Red Planet" that talking actually "forces" you to use less oxygen because when you talk, you breathe out more than you breathe in, and therefore use less oxygen, and that firefighters use this tactic to preserve their oxygen in fires by singing or talking aloud to themselves.
Is the name Daedelus de riguer for space shuttle movies. The gang of four in "Space Cowboys" was also called "Project Daedelus."
Probably because its a name that many people recognize that sounds ancient and has to do with flight.
One of the kids was played by Leaf Phoenix, who now goes by the name Joaquin.
Yeah, I remember when I found out that Joaquin was Max. I couldn't believe it.
Re. firefighters' and others' techniques for economizing oxygen: it sounds like the idea is that even though you're inhaling and exhaling more air, you're exhaling enough oxygen (before you've had a chance to use it) that you're leaving more in the cabin for future use.
Sound about right?
The movie constantly showed footage from Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama, but then the shuttle launch pad is always just a few miles away, even though it is a long way off in Florida. There IS a Space Camp in Titusville, FLA as well, but back then it was just a few small buildings and not anywhere near as impressive as Huntsville, so this was probably unavoidable, but it is still a nit (I attended both when I was younger, and they only recently built a large "habitat" building in Florida, while the Alabama location had two such buildings).
HOW in christ would a bunch of kids be aloud to fool around with a real NASA spaceshuttle in the first place ? And even if they did how could it be accidentally be launched into space. I mean don't you think this is just a little bit preposterous.
Didn't the movie adequately explain it, in your view?
Most of those 80s movies about kids and teens getting to do complicated grown up things were preposterous. You either accept it and enjoy the movie or you don't and don't enjoy the movie.