Wanderers | |
---|---|
Directed by | Erik Wernquist |
Written by | Carl Sagan |
Based on | Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space |
Produced by | Erik Wernquist |
Starring | Anna Nerman Camilla Hammarström Hanna Mellin |
Narrated by | Carl Sagan |
Edited by | Erik Wernquist |
Music by | Cristian Sandquist [1] |
Release date |
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Running time | 3:50 minutes |
Country | Sweden |
Language | English |
Wanderers is a 2014 Swedish science fiction short film created by the digital artist and animator Erik Wernquist. [2] The film depicts actual locations in the Solar System being investigated by human explorers, aided by hypothetical space technology. Of the film's fifteen scenes, [3] Wernquist created some using solely computer graphics, but most are based on actual photographs taken by robotic spacecraft or rovers combined with additional computer-generated elements.
Wanderers is narrated by astronomer Carl Sagan, reading from his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space . [4] [5]
The film begins with a group of nomads around 10,000 BC, travelling through the Middle East on Earth. Shining clearly above them in the darkening twilight sky are the five naked eye "wandering stars" in the Solar System which might be visited some day by descendants of the human wanderers. [6] The film then cuts to the future and shows a large interplanetary spacecraft leaving Earth's orbit, carrying space colonists on their way to another planet or moon. [7]
Other than Earth's Moon, [8] [9] [10] no other body in the Solar System has been explored [11] and examined for possible future human colonization more intently than Mars. [12] [13] [14] In Wanderers, Wernquist starts with NASA photographs and crafts three scenes showing the possible Martian future: in the first, the cabin of a theorized space elevator descends down its cable, transporting supplies to a Mars colony below, [15] in the second, workers in space suits wait near the edge of Victoria Crater for approaching dirigibles, [16] and in the third, a group of hikers (who are presumably accustomed to watching red sunsets on Earth) enjoy the sight of the Martian sky glowing blue around the setting Sun. [17]
Wanderers makes good use of the wealth of information and images returned by the NASA / ESA Cassini–Huygens mission: [18] one third of its scenes depict either Saturn or one of its moons. One scene gives an extreme close-up view of Saturn's rings - the perspective is from inside the plane of the rings, looking up from within the jumble of water ice chunks that compose the rings to a person floating just above the plane. [19] The final scene (discussed in more detail below) shows the rings at a distance, lit up by the Sun behind them, casting a luminous glow on Saturn's nighttime cloud tops that Wernquist refers to as "ringshine." [20]
In a scene on Saturn's moon Titan which is only made imaginable by Titan's relatively low levels of gravity, [21] its thick, hazy atmosphere, [22] and a not-yet-discovered hyper-efficient thermal insulating material, humans fly above the moon's liquid methane sea Ligeia Mare using wings that are approximately the same size - relative to their bodies - as bird wings. [23] The view of a spacecraft moving through the salt water crystals ejected from geysers on Saturn's moon Enceladus [24] is a reminder that a liquid ocean beneath its icy surface could potentially provide an environment capable of sustaining some form of life. [25] A chain of human settlements on Saturn's moon Iapetus are portrayed on the peaks of its equatorial ridge, each covered with an enormous and (apparently) transparent dome that does not obstruct the view of Saturn and its rings. (Since the orbit of Iapetus is more inclined relative to the rings than any of Saturn's other major moons, Wernquist helpfully adds that the beautiful view "would make for some highly valuable real estate.") [26]
Wanderers does not specify whether any of the space explorers it depicts are governmentally-sponsored astronauts, cosmonauts, or taikonauts, if they are alternately commercial astronauts, space flight participants, or solely space tourists. [27] Wernquist calls them simply "passengers", "people," and "hikers," and none of the spacecraft transporting them carry the insignia of a space agency or a privately funded space enterprise. [28] [29] Regardless of their official designation, the people shown in the two Jupiter scenes and the one scene showcasing Uranus and its moon Miranda must be referred to as "adventurers."
In a scene shown from orbit above Jupiter, a spacecraft's cargo bay doors open to reveal a tethered adventurer beginning a spacewalk, with the Great Red Spot visible below. [30] We also see adventurers walking across the surface ice on Jupiter's moon Europa, [31] and who, in so doing, might also be walking above extraterrestrial microbes. (Like Saturn's moon Enceladus, astrobiologists are very focused on the possibility that Europa could harbor life. [32] ) Another group of adventurers BASE jump off of a cliff on Miranda, the smallest gravitationally-rounded moon orbiting the planet Uranus. [33] The cliff in question, Verona Rupes, may be 5 - 10 kilometers tall. Combined with Miranda's low gravity, Wernquist estimates the jumpers could enjoy a free fall of perhaps 12 minutes before engaging a small rocket to brake their fall.
The film includes a dramatic illustration of possible in situ resource utilization: it depicts a hollowed-out Main Belt asteroid which could serve as a habitat for colonists and a space station for travelers who venture beyond the orbit of Mars. [34] The interior cavity of the asteroid / habitat / station consists of a human-constructed, self-contained ecosystem, complete with pressurized, breathable air, land and soil, bodies of water, and clouds rotating around a periodic source of artificial sunlight. [35]
Wernquist concedes that his depiction of a terraformed asteroid "is by far the most speculative part of this short film," but also says that he included it "to visualize the possibilities of human engineering and construction." [36] He calls the asteroid a "terrarium," applying the name used by Kim Stanley Robinson in his hard science fiction novel 2312 .
On Saturn, human-made airships are shown in the distant clouds, somewhat similar to the HAVOC crewed airships contemplated by NASA for a possible mission to Venus. The airships are framed by the planet's colossal rings. On one of the ships, a female explorer gazes out into the distance, wearing an insulated jacket, a fur hood, and a protective mask. As the clouds of Saturn cast reflections on her helmet, which conceals her mouth, she smiles in wonder. [37] Carl Sagan's narration concludes as he states:
Maybe it’s a little early. Maybe the time is not quite yet. But those other worlds — promising untold opportunities — beckon. Silently, they orbit the Sun, waiting. [38]
Wanderers is based on the visions of its director, Erik Wernquist, regarding humanity's future explorations of outer space. The film's visuals, animated by Wernquist, are digital recreations of real places in the Solar System; though speculative, the human technology depicted in the film derives from pre-existing scientific concepts and ideas. [2] [39] The film's backgrounds are built from map data and/or from photographs taken by NASA. [5] [40] The visuals are inspired by the works of science fiction writers Arthur C. Clarke and Kim Stanley Robinson, as well as illustrator Chesley Bonestell. [39]
With the permission of Ann Druyan, the wife of astronomer Carl Sagan, Wernquist added excerpts of Sagan's narration of his book Pale Blue Dot throughout the film. [39]
The film was released on the video-sharing website Vimeo on October 11, 2014, and was officially uploaded to YouTube on August 4, 2015.
The short film has received extremely positive reviews since its release. Leonard David, a columnist on Space.com, called it a "marvelous production". [4] Amy Shira Teitel of the website Nerdist said the film was "brilliantly realistic" and that it "might even be better than Interstellar ." [2] Dante D'Orazio of The Verge wrote that the film was a "stunningly beautiful journey across our solar system", and that while it "doesn't have a traditional story, the visuals and score (paired with Sagan's words) will make you, too, dream of the day when we become a multi-planetary species." [5]
Pioneer 11 is a NASA robotic space probe launched on April 5, 1973, to study the asteroid belt, the environment around Jupiter and Saturn, the solar wind, and cosmic rays. It was the first probe to encounter Saturn, the second to fly through the asteroid belt, and the second to fly by Jupiter. Later, Pioneer 11 became the second of five artificial objects to achieve an escape velocity allowing it to leave the Solar System. Due to power constraints and the vast distance to the probe, the last routine contact with the spacecraft was on September 30, 1995, and the last good engineering data was received on November 24, 1995.
Pioneer 10 is a NASA space probe launched in 1972 that completed the first mission to the planet Jupiter. Pioneer 10 became the first of five planetary probes and 11 artificial objects to achieve the escape velocity needed to leave the Solar System. This space exploration project was conducted by the NASA Ames Research Center in California. The space probe was manufactured by TRW Inc.
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine-and-a-half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 times more massive. Even though Saturn is nearly the size of Jupiter, Saturn has less than one-third of Jupiter's mass. Saturn orbits the Sun at a distance of 9.59 AU (1,434 million km) with an orbital period of 29.45 years.
A natural satellite is, in the most common usage, an astronomical body that orbits a planet, dwarf planet, or small Solar System body. Natural satellites are colloquially referred to as moons, a derivation from the Moon of Earth.
Cassini–Huygens, commonly called Cassini, was a space-research mission by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Italian Space Agency (ASI) to send a space probe to study the planet Saturn and its system, including its rings and natural satellites. The Flagship-class robotic spacecraft comprised both NASA's Cassini space probe and ESA's Huygens lander, which landed on Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Cassini was the fourth space probe to visit Saturn and the first to enter its orbit, where it stayed from 2004 to 2017. The two craft took their names from the astronomers Giovanni Cassini and Christiaan Huygens.
Iapetus is the outermost of Saturn's large moons. With an estimated diameter of 1,469 km (913 mi), it is the third-largest moon of Saturn and the eleventh-largest in the Solar System. Named after the Titan Iapetus, the moon was discovered in 1671 by Giovanni Domenico Cassini.
Phoebe is the most massive irregular satellite of Saturn with a mean diameter of 213 km (132 mi). It was discovered by William Henry Pickering on 18 March 1899 from photographic plates that had been taken by DeLisle Stewart starting on 16 August 1898 at the Boyden Station of the Carmen Alto Observatory near Arequipa, Peru. It was the first natural satellite to be discovered photographically.
The moons of Saturn are numerous and diverse, ranging from tiny moonlets only tens of meters across to the enormous Titan, which is larger than the planet Mercury. There are 146 moons with confirmed orbits, the most of any planet in the solar system. This number does not include the many thousands of moonlets embedded within Saturn's dense rings, nor hundreds of possible kilometer-sized distant moons that were seen through telescopes but not recaptured. Seven Saturnian moons are large enough to have collapsed into a relaxed, ellipsoidal shape, though only one or two of those, Titan and possibly Rhea, are currently in hydrostatic equilibrium. Three moons are particularly notable. Titan is the second-largest moon in the Solar System, with a nitrogen-rich Earth-like atmosphere and a landscape featuring river networks and hydrocarbon lakes. Enceladus emits jets of ice from its south-polar region and is covered in a deep layer of snow. Iapetus has contrasting black and white hemispheres as well as an extensive ridge of equatorial mountains among the tallest in the solar system.
The naming of moons has been the responsibility of the International Astronomical Union's committee for Planetary System Nomenclature since 1973. That committee is known today as the Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature (WGPSN).
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The Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL) is a research center for planetary science located in Tucson, Arizona. It is also a graduate school, constituting the Department of Planetary Sciences at the University of Arizona. LPL is one of the world's largest programs dedicated exclusively to planetary science in a university setting. The Lunar and Planetary Lab collection is held at the University of Arizona Special Collections Library.
The exploration of Saturn has been solely performed by crewless probes. Three missions were flybys, which formed an extended foundation of knowledge about the system. The Cassini–Huygens spacecraft, launched in 1997, was in orbit from 2004 to 2017.
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space is a 1994 book by the astronomer Carl Sagan. It is the sequel to Sagan's 1980 book Cosmos and was inspired by the famous 1990 Pale Blue Dot photograph, for which Sagan provides a poignant description. In the book, Sagan mixes philosophy about the human place in the universe with a description of the current knowledge about the Solar System. He also details a human vision for the future.
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A subsatellite, also known as a submoon or a moonmoon, is a "moon of a moon" or a hypothetical natural satellite that orbits the moon of a planet.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to the Solar System:
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