Breathtaking "Wanderers" Short Film Uses NASA & ESA Data for Beautiful Look into Our Common Future

Imagine for a moment the year is 2115.

Humans are now exploring some of the most distant parts of our solar system. Worlds once distant and unreachable are being touched and experienced by our descendents.

You see, sometime in our current century the promise of space exploration and space tourism came to fruition. Despite setbacks like the crash of Virgin Galactic's Space Ship Two, space tourism is continuing to be developed in a similar manner to early aviation.

Currently we are in the early post-Wright Brothers equivalent in terms of space travel but just as those early days of flight gave way to airlines and ubiquitous air travel to remote regions of our planet Earth so will future space tourists venture beyond suborbital joy rides.

Sometime in the 2020s-2030s they will first inhabit things like Robert Bigelow and others orbital "space hotels" in Low Earth Orbit. Then beyond that it is likely they will move on to the Moon, Mars, asteroids and moons of the outer planets.

And perhaps eventually, the stars.

Have a look at this breathtakingly beautiful video of what your children or grandchildren or their children may someday experience:



Keep in mind this was all done with data from NASA and ESA Missions. Perhaps you might be interested in helping to start to bring this possible future and audacious vision about a bit closer to our lifetime?

#Penny4NASA

Cool video. I believe one day we will move beyond this planet, but I cant help but think that this planet is something special, to all the other planets out there. Where our pale blue dot lies in space, the amount of atmosphere, minerals, all the elements that make this planet unique for Human life. This planet is perfect for Humans. some argue that this was not our home planet due to the gravity and the way our bodies are set up, it makes no sense why we are tall, and gravity does a number on our bodies. This is homebase, and I believe we will always consider this home, until we reach new stars, with new planets.

Stunning and thought-provoking.

The imagery is fantastic, but the use of Carl Sagan's narration really drives it home. I believe Sagan's narration is taken from his own audiobook reading of his book "Pale Blue Dot".

The film-maker's site, which also explain how he used the original NASA / ESA images: www.erikwernquist.com...

We need more films and film-makers like that. This is truly inspirational and beautiful.

originally posted by: Glassbender777
Cool video. I believe one day we will move beyond this planet, but I cant help but think that this planet is something special, to all the other planets out there. Where our pale blue dot lies in space, the amount of atmosphere, minerals, all the elements that make this planet unique for Human life.

All the elements you see on Earth are out there in space as well.

Water for instance is one of the most common molecules in the universe since it is made up of two of the most common atoms (1 Hydrogen, 2 Oxygen).

In fact by volume, Earth isn't even the world with the most water in our solar system. That would go to Europa and Titan moons of Jupiter and Saturn respectively (and pictured in the video in the OP):

This planet is perfect for Humans. some argue that this was not our home planet due to the gravity and the way our bodies are set up, it makes no sense why we are tall, and gravity does a number on our bodies. This is homebase, and I believe we will always consider this home, until we reach new stars, with new planets.

No doubt. Earth is home. We evolved here but evolution will not end with us nor will our descendants (who may transcend the frailty of the human body through advanced technology such as genetics, or by augmenting it with robotics or machine intelligence) be limited to it.

originally posted by: wildespace
The film-maker's site, which also explain how he used the original NASA / ESA images: www.erikwernquist.com...

We need more films and film-makers like that. This is truly inspirational and beautiful.

NASA / JPL should seriously considering hiring him in the way that ESA did with the group who put together the Ambition short film for the Rosetta/Philae mission.

I love how he used Carl Sagan to narrate it from beyond the grave.

originally posted by: Glassbender777
This planet is perfect for Humans. some argue that this was not our home planet due to the gravity and the way our bodies are set up, it makes no sense why we are tall, and gravity does a number on our bodies...

We may be "tall" (i.e., we stand erect) because maybe it allowed us to see predators earlier than if we walked in all fours, among other possible advantages (such as being able to hold arms-full of food while we walked).

And while it took some years of evolutionary changes to our bodies, our bodies are have been molded by evolution and the environment to be able to stand erect efficiently -- so it is not a huge waste of food energy to do so.

nice video..... spaceships do remind me of the works of Chris Foss drawings

originally posted by: JadeStar
I love how he used Carl Sagan to narrate it from beyond the grave.

Yeah. Carl Sagan had quite the knack for saying things in such a way that could inspire awe.

Nothing against Neil deGrasse Tyson as a scientist, but his version of Cosmos didn't have the same effect on the young minds of the world that Carl Sagan's Cosmos did. I personally remember being enthralled by Sagan's Cosmos -- a show which made him a celebrity and a household name in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

How many children were inspired to take a great interest in science due to Carl Sagan and his poignant-yet-pointed slant on what we know about our universe? Sagan's narration in that video you posted in the OP is the evidence of his genius when it came to his ability to inspire.

a reply to: JadeStar

A wonderful, optimistic OP!

I've no idea why i haven't seen more of your threads, but i'm keeping an eye out for sure from now on

Personally, i kinda hope that there is a galactic, pan-human Culture out there in space, not too far away, just waiting for (more of?) us to be ready for contact, even steering us towards readiness.

I'd totally spend a decade or three in decadent splendour, travelling across some galactic limb and hopping from one GSV to another until i get bored, heavily modify myself and join SC to nefariously meddle in primitive cultures... reject it all and go native for a few centuries. Then maybe i'd become a woman for a while, then turn back to a dude and retire to some Orbital and paint badly, or make obtuse monuments in some unfinished zone.

Trouble is and awful though it sounds, a post-scarcity space faring future may just be way too boring. Isn't that terrible?

a reply to: JadeStar

As always, great content and a well put together OP. Thanks for bringing it here Jade!

I'm gonna plug in one of my processed images from Cassini, because I'd really love to see this scene with my own eyes, from a space cruise ship:

Mimas over Saturn's rings

saturn.jpl.nasa.gov...

"Wanderers" is a film I know I will watch again and again, as it captures my desires and imagination simply and very effectively.

I like the video, it resurfaces those feelings of wonder when I was young and reading picture books of our solar system.

a reply to: JadeStar