Wild Wild Space

Wild-Wild-Space
Wild Wild Space

With its unique perspective and engaging storytelling, HBO has certainly won my admiration, especially a show called Wild Wild Space. The doc is about three men trying to extend their monopoly in the monopoly-dominated arena of low Earth Orbit. Directed by Ross Kauffman, who received the Oscar for the documentary Born into Brothels in 2006, the film begins by introducing the Western people, Chris Kemp from Astra, Peter Beck from Rocket Lab, and Will Marshall from Planet Labs. However, they have a prominent business interest in space, so much so that the governments, in this case, the United States, have no means to regulate them, nor do they wish to because they’re the future leaders of space conquest. Such feisty little companies nowadays hijack NASA’s noblest intentions. So much so that the US government has armed them with the resources to launch satellites in their stead. They, of course, come with a host of implications, good and bad, and, quite often, leave quite a bit to be desired.

The Gist: It is said that Kemp was ‘Silicon Valley personified’ which I would take as ‘he is probably Patrick Bateman.’ The first time we see him is when the film team gets into his vehicle and then he states he has no license, no insurance, and the car has not been registered. He says “Most people are confused when you do illegal things.” (This is a good point. Is he such a “Silicon Valley disruptor” an anarchist that he cannot afford the fairly cheap and simple process of driving a car in the right way? We’re left to savior that.) We shall attempt to follow Cem Kemps in the next few years trying to establish a company called Astra, one of his many entrepreneurial ventures, that competes with Space X of Elon Musk in non-governmental space exploration. By the end of the docu, he would be much older and a lot greyer.

Kemp is described as ‘high energy’, stubborn and defeatist, arrogant, and an aggressive capitalist who stands up and shakes hands all the time. All of this Kemp goes through in the film. His rockets keep exploding, and he eventually gets a rocket into space and launches some new ones, they all fail, and then the value of the company shares becomes relatable.

Interestingly, he is great friends with one of his major rivals He and Marshall were introduced to each other at a college party. Kemp is all about success, while Marshall has a philosophy that combines technology and environmental sustainability. To further his aims and that of the delightful nerd Marshall his organization constructed Planet Labs which seeks to collect data on climate change, deforestation, crop production, and other important matters. In quick time, dozens of Planet Labs satellites were put into orbit, all about the size of a loaf of bread, which focused primarily on taking photos of Earth. The data comes in handy for farmers and environmentalists, which is nice! But it poses some practice questions about privacy and Thanatos er when kept in mind these are not pleasant questions at all!

Meanwhile, Beck’s New Zealand-based satellite company Rocket Lab has been hard at work at the other end of the globe. Beck’s life is almost that of a classic movie it’s a rags-to-riches story. He had no formal education, no capital, had to make his own rockets, wore them on his back, and rode into the air lit on rocket bikes and jet packs.

Arriving in the US, first in search of a job and then, when it was quite obvious that they would not get one, they simply went out and did it themselves, launching 43 times out of 47 attempts of good performance where Rocket Lab was able to obtain contracts with NASA and its evaluation stood at several billion. A similar success story had Planet Labs. Compare these with those of Astra, which quickly became known for its fail-meme-worthy character, the sideways rocket; when launch after launch seemed to disappoint, and they finally did manage to get sort of a rocket up for twenty odd seconds before it blew up spectacularly, Kemp was even on the phone effusing on how the launch was spectacular when it was anything but.

At the same Kauffman starts getting into the details of what the cases discussed mean. He engages experts and journalists for interviews: among the former stands out Pete Worden, who was in charge of President Reagan’s “Star Wars” missile-defense program and became a mentor for Kemp and Marshall, and Ashlee Vance, who is known for her book ‘When the Heavens Went on Sale’ which gave birth to this doc, is among the latter.

Eventually, topics of worry arise during the discussion, for example, the way satellites controlled by Musk can impact the conflict between Ukraine and Russia, the current integration of AI into the domain of observational technologies, or the figurative dangers presented by the low Earth orbit which is slowly turning into a junkyard and might even be a battlefield in the future. Isn’t it wonderful the kinds of consequences that follow scientific progress? Performance Worth Watching: Beck’s first rocket launch that is successful has him clad in the stereotypes of true nerds: a white lab coat in a field, meeting the expectation because sheep scatter as the rocket blasts off. He’s far more likable than Kemp who takes great pains trying to entice or shock (or confuse?) people with lead paint on his tongue as if it is the most appetizing thing while showing them the ramshackle magnolia bluff warehouse that has been converted to the Astra facility. Memorable Dialogue: During the interview one of the talking heads addresses the focus of the discussion, which was technological advancement, in this way: “The history of humanity isn’t that impressive. Those problems that headache us here on earth? They’re going to take them to space.” Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Wild Wild Space uses the story of the ‘celestial land grab’ as the starting point to probe into timeless quests and conflicts: where scientific advance clashes with market forces, where well-meaning tools can be turned to evil ends. Kauffman assembles an amusing, quick-paced film that has the present drama in three acts around the history of the space race in the 21st century.

As this repetitive sequence of highly anticipated moments: rocketeers and their teams adorning the sky, voices of glorious victory and disappointment mixed up in fun and despair as every launch descends closer to non-performance feeling a countdown fatigue is evident. This becomes an internal joke through the numerous failures experienced by Astra and we see Kemp’s regimen of being an optimist being pushed to the limits (his graying strands are also noted again). The guy’s presentation is enough to make many people cringe because of his disgusting handlebar mustache and distinctly obsessive-compulsive loyalties to the Aryan type. There’s a desire to support Kemp but, above all, Marshall appears to influence the advancement of tech in this space and seems composed and manager unlike Musk and Space X.

Kauffman’s interview style, in particular, the failure to engage all tetrarchs availed to him, such as the “tech hippie,” Marshall, what does he feel about some of his creations being cared for by a subculture? Or what it’s worth? One billion dollar turnover company. Has that caused any changes in his philosophy? Third-party comments do such blanking of spots badly.

Located in this sub-section is the author’s lens as it relates to the narratives depicted in the selected film. Naturally, the director professes disbelief about technology, business, politics, and human nature, which tends to spoil the optimistic view of the world. However, is that not only fair journalism?

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