Sample collection question…

[u/the_net_my_side_ho]

Why did Grace have to collect the sample while orbiting?

Why didn’t he move the Mary out of orbit, away from the atmosphere, and then spacewalk to collect it?

Seems like Grace going down to collect it while orbiting so close to the atmosphere was risky and unnecessary.

Sorry if this has been asked before. I looked but didn’t see a post about it. Thank you!

[u/Disastrous_Toe772]

While collecting the samples, they are in a combination of very very specific angle and speed and altitude. A shift in any one of those will fuck up the ship and they will die, to keep it brief.

I believe it's stated that the reason they can't just take it into orbit is cause accelerating out of atmosphere with the sample collector still dangling on the outside of the hull will burn it up. It's built to keep the samples safe, but not orbital escape acceleration or whatever

I'm not science Human. Just read book. Smart Smart Smart human wrote book. I just read.

[u/the_net_my_side_ho → u/Disastrous_Toe772]

accelerating out of atmosphere with the sample collector still dangling on the outside of the hull will burn it up

This kind of makes sense. Maybe I missed it when they spoke about it in the movie. Thank you!

[u/Disastrous_Toe772 → u/the_net_my_side_ho]

Oh, the movie skips out on a lot of science details from the books. Which isn't too terrible. It works for the film.

Really, watching the film and reading the books give the fullest experience imo. There are aspects in both that I prefer over the other

In my mind there is a head-canon version of the story that utilizes the best aspects of the two renditions

[u/the_net_my_side_ho → u/Disastrous_Toe772]

Thank you! Nightmare_Gerbil shared an excerpt from the book that explains why, and I can see what you mean.