Blast DVD Review

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When the sun reaches us its light is already 8 minutes old, so we are seeing “the past” of the sun. Based on this theory, astrophysicists Mark Devlin (an agnostic) and Barth Netterfield (a born-again Christian) collaborated, for five years, in making BLAST – The Balloon-based Large Aperture Sub-millimeter Telescope to travel high above the earth from northern Sweden to Victoria, Canada, to click photos for 12 days of our primordial past and our evolution, we learn in the film Blast, released on DVD on June 28, 2011, by Docurama Films.

A huge NASA high-altitude balloon is set up in the sky, from which dangles the revolutionary telescope and its photo-taking devices. The weather has to be just right to launch it, and Devlin and Netterfield wait for days in anticipation of just the right conditions (which weathermen can’t seem to correctly predict for them). Just as we once thought that the earth was the center of the universe, the analysis of Blast data seeks to debunk other outdated ideas of how it all began, with Devlin and Netterfield philosophizing based on their opposing beliefs. This is “the first telescope designed to look back to observe the birth and evolution of stars and the hidden universe in never-before-seen galaxies.” The NASA Blast helium balloon inflates to the size of a football stadium as it reaches its peak in the skies and floats forward with its detectors, which are later, if all goes well, dropped by parachutes.

Of course, just as in the space shuttles we’ve seen on TV, everything doesn’t always go according to plan. Graduate students work on BLAST to get hands-on experience. Northern Sweden in winter has 24 hours of daylight per day to facilitate the launch. The scientists and their helpers have made many personal sacrifices, including months spent away from home and their families, for the success of this effort, but the large attached mirror becomes damaged and returns out-of-focus images. So everything must be constructed all over again, with hopefully better equipment (a $1,500 custom-made tarp didn’t protect the mirror).

As a child Mark Devlin wanted to be a physicist, as was his father before him (whom he remembers being away on trips for long periods of time, too). Devlin and Netterfield build a new system with the ability to re-focus at the McMurdo Station in Christ Church, New Zealand. Because “the basic nature of 96% of the universe remains a mystery…..for now” their efforts are warranted.

What happens after the second launch? Of course, more problems, but do Devlin and Netterfield meet with success in the end? You’ll have to view Blast to see this extraordinary futuristic endeavor and its outcome. Not just for scientists, but for everyone.

Total Running Time: 74 minutes
Directed by Paul Devlin
With astrophysicists Mark Devlin, Paul Netterfield and their helpers
Extras: Werner Herzog Visits Blast; Sweden Road Trip; Life in Cambridge Baby; Life in McMurdo; Blast Telescope Tour; Blast Trailer/Power Trip Trailer/Slam Nation Trailer

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Posted by Christina Zawadiwsky on Jun 22 2011. Filed under DVD Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry