The Real Stories and Real Science Behind "Gravity"

When you take a science geek to a science-fiction film, no good deed goes unpunished. Throw together a bunch of narrative nonsense linked by sheds of technobabble and the boffins will enjoy your movie as high camp (see The Core, Armageddon) or indulge it as well-meaning drama (I'm looking at you, Prometheus). Try to be realistic, like Gravity, and pretty soon everyone from Neil DeGrasse Tyson to Time magazine (with spoilers galore) is fact-checking you for little slip-ups. Let me start by