HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Space enthusiasts don’t want “nothing,” they want this: https://vimeo.com/108650530

⬐ LargoLasskhyfv

Exellent. With the exception of the last few seconds. Somewhere on some body in space, with a furred hoodie? Pelt? Fur? REALLY?

I've seen this before, and couldn't get over it then.

⬐ Robotbeat

It’s not “some body,” it’s actually the cloud layer of Saturn. And yes, you wouldn’t need a pressure suit at that location, just oxygen mask and cold weather gear because the pressure at that point (400 millibar up to 4-10 bar) is Earth-like! The author of that video was, in fact, intentionally using a fur lined coat/hood/hat to underscore the fact that the pressure is Earth-like at the Saturn cloud layer and the coat is not a pressure suit but just insulation.

So it was intentional and accurate (or, rather, a possibility), not an unscientific mistake.

⬐ LargoLasskhyfv

Yes, Yes, I got that. (With the atmosphere etc)

But really.. I'd expect some hightech fleece instead, maybe with a hexagonal weave pattern in it, or such.

⬐ Robotbeat

What do people wear on scientific basis in Antarctica?

⬐ LargoLasskhyfv

Space, the final frontier...

Do you really think they will/should 'ride' there in some rattling rocket, between shaking cargo crates in mesh nets, with clothing from military surplus?

SPACE should look like the highest technology ever. In all aspects PERIOD

⬐ kayfox

It could be synthetic fur works best, after hundreds of years of scientific process we find that just recreating animal fur, which evolved over millions of years, is best.

Or it could be that someone standing on the desk of a dirigible floating in the clouds of another planet chose to wear gear that harkens back to the explorers of yore, like George Mallory.

Or it could be that it was done on a budget and a explorers coat and MSA Millennium mask are what they went for.

This reminds me of Wanderers, by Erik Wernquist. https://vimeo.com/108650530

There's a scene at the end when one of our future generation looks at the surface of Saturn while standing on a station floating atop a Saturnian moon.

Very motivational.

Other videos by Erik Wernquist are motivational too: New Horizons: https://vimeo.com/132183032

⬐ m4rtink

I think that scene is actually situated on an airship floating in the atmosphere of Saturn.

The rings would be much too big to be seen like this from Titan, not to mention the Titan atosphere being pretty hazy.

⬐ LargoLasskhyfv

While the technical quality of these videos is very good, and i really, really like most Sci-Fi, why in hell is she wearing a fur collar on her hoodie over a full face mask, in space?

THAT are things things turning me off, from full hard-on to instantly shrunken balls.

Try this, this is where we are: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCJzUiBZItk

Supersonic passenger flight is happening. Boom Supersonic is building their (crewed) subscale supersonic demonstrator right now. They hope to pick up where Concorde left off (but much more efficient and slightly faster and more granular, enabling more routes).

NASA is building a low-boom civil supersonic demonstrator (also crewed) that will demonstrate sonic-boom-lowering techniques to enable passenger supersonic flight over the continental US.

There's lots of room to improve these things still. And I'm excited still about lithium battery tech. It's the internal combustion engine of our century and its consequences are perhaps even more far-reaching. The theoretical useful energy of the most advanced versions of this, the lithium-air battery, are on par with that of hydrocarbon fuels, so by the middle of the century it's likely we'll have completely clean civil supersonic transport with low acoustic emissions as well.

I think we still have a very long ways to go to advance technology. Vacuum tunnel maglev trains allow higher efficiency than even conventional rail but without an ultimate speed limit. They could operate at hypersonic speeds in 100 or 200 years from now, with the energy recouped regeneratively at the end. That makes efficiency orders of magnitude better than today's passenger air travel with speed increased by an order of magnitude.

I think ultimately in the further future, if you want something exciting it'll be: Further urbanization of everything, so humanity concentrates in opulent metropolises well-connected by ultra-efficient transport. Food production increasingly goes to single celled organisms, freeing up space for rewilding of the Earth and healing of the ravages of industrialization while individual well-being is far greater. Human economic expansion in space is technically unbounded. The solar system allows access to many, many orders of magnitude greater energy supplies without an impact on the Earth's ecosystems. Things that can tolerate latency, like high performance computing will leave the planet to access unlimited energy in space (Moore's Law coming to a slow end will actually enhance this transition as you can afford to amortize the hardware over long enough periods of time for this to make sense).

Musk's spaceship is just a taste of what's possible. Improvements in efficiency in even chemical rockets (by reducing structural weight, fine-tuning Isp over the mission cycle, using hydrolox near stoichiometric to enhance performance) can reduce cost of space travel to about what long-haul passenger travel currently is.

I think things will continue to improve. And these are only the foreseeable things. The actual future will contain many unforeseeable discoveries.

None of this is guaranteed, but it can be ours if we so decide to make it thus.

A vision of the future beyond the Earth in the timeframes you mention: https://vimeo.com/108650530

This also looks inspired by the short film Wanderers, about humanity's expansion into the solar system. https://vimeo.com/108650530

Motivational videos by Erik Wernquist: New Horizons (for National Space Society): https://vimeo.com/132183032

Wanderers: https://vimeo.com/108650530

Casino's Grand Finale ( for JPL) : https://vimeo.com/210782375

You're a Human. Terminal wanderlust is a hereditary condition.

https://vimeo.com/108650530

Don't miss this! It's by the creator of the also excellent short film, WANDERERS, narrated by Carl Sagan: https://vimeo.com/108650530

If you haven't already watched the video embedded in the article, I highly recommend doing so. It's beautiful work by Erik Wernquist, who also produced Wanderers, New Horizons, and the first official music video for Jamie xx's Gosh.

https://vimeo.com/108650530

https://vimeo.com/132183032

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjNssEVlB6M

This reminds me of Wanderers by Erik Wernquist [0].

[0] https://vimeo.com/108650530 [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6GY_PfjCQI

Edit: at 2:34, see how Erik imagines people might fly in Methane environments.

Obligatory link to Wanderers with its Sagan voice over:

https://vimeo.com/108650530

This absolutely beautiful inspiring clip "Wanderers" comes to mind: https://vimeo.com/108650530

I red the KSR Mars trilogy and then pretty much developed a love affair with Mars and the idea of colonization - I'm also very fond of "The Case for Mars":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_for_Mars

NB I'm clear this is an emotional thing for me (hence "love affair") but I wonder to what extent all migrations in human history have been driven by a degree of wanderlust rather than cold logic.

Anyway - I'm off to watch Erik Wernquist's Wanderers again:

https://vimeo.com/108650530

⬐ abrichr

This is beautiful.

For me, Carl Sagan's voice is incredibly inspirational. He knows just what to say and how to say it to elicit a beautiful and optimistic feeling of wonderment.

And the visuals were stunning. A tantalizing glimpse into the next century or two of human exploration and experience.

Thank you for this.

Edit: Reddit thread at http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2nseb3/wanderers...

⬐ arethuza

What a fantastic video.

My favourite part: BASE jumping from Verona Rupes - the tallest known cliff in the Solar System - somewhere from 5km to 20km vertical:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110404.html

By comparison the tallest vertical drop on Earth is on the surreal Mount Thor at 1250m:

http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/mount-thor-greatest-ver...

[Some great details - like the Earth coastlines used in the asteroid interior (mentioned on the film's website) and the Taijitu in the crater at 1:54].

⬐ None

None

⬐ cosmichorizons8

These activities displayed in the video do raise the question - who are these people? As it raises many ethics questions.

Who are these people who can afford this kind of luxurious off planet lifestyle, a cosmic tourism. As this does not seam to be a scientific mission.

⬐ None

None

⬐ evaneykelen

Frustrating to realize that perhaps only 1 or 2 years of Earth's military spending would enable mankind to achieve this (approx $1700 billion/year). Not saying we don't need to spend money on defense, merely taking one the world's expenditures as a yardstick. It would be so great if mankind is able to cooperate in the colonization of our solar system.

⬐ einrealist

It would be even better if we could spend this amount of money to fix the problems we already have on this planet, like global warming, pollution and hunger and stuff.

⬐ kabdib

Explorer to Queen Izzabella (or whomever): "We'd like to sail west and find a shortcut to the Indies."

Queenie: "Sorry. We've got poverty and people who are hungry here, you'll have to wait."

(400 years later)

Descendant of that Explorer: "Can we go now?"

Queenie: "Sorry, still haven't solved that poverty stuff. Go do some farming or something."

----

A lot of the "poverty and hunger stuff" is caused by corruption and unworkable politics and ideologies. Another big factor is simple human nature. "The poor will be with us always." It's a wicked problem that will probably never go away. We shouldn't use it as an excuse. (I would be quite happy trading military and secret-police spending, which is basically out of control).

Oh, we can try to address poverty. But putting everything else on hold doesn't make sense. A rising tide floats all boats; more resources and better technology will help everyone, at least a little.

[I'm actually not a big fan of manned exploration any more; it's expensive, and robots can do way better than we can, for the foreseeable future. Oh, putting men on other planets has undeniable poetry and significance, but if you want to do science or mining or whatever, you're better off with metal than monkeys].

⬐ swagasaurus-rex

A man named Thomas Malthus proposed an explanation why this is and will always be the case, back in the early 1800s.

Populations will always grow, even if there aren't enough resources for the next generation. As a result, some catastrophe must happen to keep the population in check: war, disease or famine.

These days we like to think that we've escaped the malthusian limit, as first world nations tend to have a naturally shrinking population.

Of course, we haven't solved any other of our philosophical vices, I'm inclined to think this isn't any different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malthusian_catastrophe

⬐ jafaku

> These days we like to think that we've escaped the malthusian limit, as first world nations tend to have a naturally shrinking population

Ugh, that's not how we escaped Malthus' predictions. We escaped precisely thanks to scientific discoveries and technological advancements.

⬐ rbanffy

Plain and simple, either our species spreads or we die.

We die not only because we can't seem to solve our immediate problems (I bet global temperatures will cross the +6 Celsius in this century) but we die the next big space rock hits Earth or the next time Yellowstone erupts, or the next time some weird highly energetic phenomenon we are absolutely clueless about roasts our high atmosphere just enough it starts letting the sun's UV through.

It's stupid to colonize other worlds and ignore our current problems because they'll kill us before we get there, but it's equally stupid to ignore the long-term problems of putting all our eggs on a single planetary basket around a single star. While I'm quite sure the Sun will not blow up on the next quarter or before the next couple elections, I'm quite sure it'll not last forever and really think it'll eventually misbehave in some deadly fashion. There are several mass extinctions in fossil record and I'd much prefer our species would not end up as a museum curiosity for the following civilisation.

⬐ waterlesscloud

It's like the entire point of this video just whooshed right over your head.

⬐ rasz_pl

You seem to not realize those are problems for us, human virus, and not the planet problems. Those so called problems are natures way of trying to balance things. If you cut hunger and make a breakthrough in healthcare you will immediately accelerate population growth, and in effect accelerate pollution and energy use.

Earth is unsustainable in the long run. No one is willing to accept euthanasia, birth limits, basically efforts to maintain population caps. People might say its a good idea others should implement, not them personally :)

⬐ eivarv

While I somewhat share your misanthropy, "nature" isn't really an entity and doesn't really have a goal in mind. So it's not so much an external agent responding to our behavior as our behavior being poorly though out. Also, these problems does not necessarily only affect us; some of them might result in irreparable damage to the ecosystem.

Pedantry aside, factors that contribute to Terra's apparent lack of long term sustainability are easy to spot, and there are plenty of options to try before having to resort to birth limits, euthanasia etc.

Insufficient reproductive education, lack of birth control, local scarcity through international inequality (i.e. exploitation), patterns of use and consumption, low food production efficiency, pollution from energy usage (non-alternative forms) and population density/distribution are all things that can be altered, upon which the constraints of viability rests.

Of course, none of these would be particularly easy to change, but I suspect many of us would find attempting to do so preferable to the alternatives.

⬐ ChrisGranger

Don't the nations with the best health care also tend to (perhaps not always) have slower population growth?

⬐ eivarv

I think there is a host of factors to keep in mind about the nations in question.

These nations (good health care, slow population growth) [1] tend to be highly developed countries [2], with relatively high average education of its citizens [3] and high life expectancy [4]. Many of them also have high social equality and high cost of living because of higher taxation (e.g. the cost of social programs and universal healthcare) [5].

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population...

[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Human_Deve...

[3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_Index

[4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expec...

[5]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_inequality...

⬐ cosmichorizons8

I would not say that no one is willing to do something.

I think that the preaching of sustainability does focus on the wrong problem, at least on the long run.

Seams that not many people want to spell out where on Earth lies its most imminent problem.

http://www.wrsc.org/sites/default/files/images/2011/populati...

http://prorev.com/808POPGROWTH.JPG

Luckily some projections show that the growth in those problematic areas my stabilize http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_growth

⬐ bjelkeman-again

To learn more about population growth and the many misconceptions around it, I'd recommend watching something from Prof. Hans Rosling. Here are a few things:

http://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts-about-p...

⬐ rasz_pl

I would suggest this too https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY

⬐ ehsanu1

While there are many who people do not understand exponential growth, such as that video's target audience, I'm pretty sure that none of them are population projectionists.

⬐ rasz_pl

Its not that they dont understand, they dont even think about it. Even Hans Rosling from the clip above spends whole 3 seconds on the subject of energy needed to support 20 Billion people living at the same comfortable level as top billion people today in developed countries.

I seem to remember some funny back of envelope calculations that put energy needs of earth in 100 years (assuming current growth) at _full output_ of our sun.

⬐ avz

This is fundamentally a question of the balance between our efforts focused on the long-term vs those focused on the short-term. Space exploration offers significant benefits long-term but generally provides no immediate pay-off next quarter.

I'm personally baffled by the desire to focus all our resources on the short-term. The questions of the long-term future of humankind and our place in the universe, make the immediate issues like pollution and disease look petty and irrelevant by comparison.

Also, from the practical angle, we're already spending a huge amount of money on solving our local, short-term problems here on Earth. Adding ~$2 trillion would be an increase, but not a game-changer. OTOH, humanity spends under $50 billion/year on space [1]. Adding $2 trillion would constitute 4000% increase! This might be enough to transform humanity from a precarious single-planet species into an interplanetary civilization in a few generations.

Another important point is that a lot of our problems here on Earth are entirely self-inflicted (e.g. inequality, pollution, global warming) and so they can't simply be fixed by throwing money at them: they need political transformation.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_government_space_agenci...

⬐ coryt

>Space exploration offers significant benefits long-term but generally provides no immediate pay-off next quarter.

Really? What about all the inventions discovered during the space race...The biggest impact inventions being integrated circuits, satellite communications and GPS, but there were so many others like Corningware[1], Tempur foam [2], LEDs, Freeze Drying Technology, etc [3] that one could argue provided many short term benefits and enabled discoveries of countless others.

[1] http://www.corning.com/about_us/inside_corning/did_you_know/...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempur-Pedic

[3] http://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2008/tech_benefits.html

⬐ avz

These short-term benefits are minuscule compared to both the costs and the long-term benefits. There are more cost-effective ways of developing better frying pans, pillows and small blinking lights than running a space exploration program. OTOH, there is no other way to ensure long term survival of human civilization than diversifying our real estate away from one planet.

The only reliable way to argue for space exploration is by explaining how important the long-term benefits are.

⬐ einrealist

> The only reliable way to argue for space exploration is by explaining how important the long-term benefits are.

It is a gamble. Gambling is nice as long we have the resources. Global warming can eat those easily.

⬐ revscat

> Another important point is that a lot of our problems here on Earth are entirely self-inflicted (e.g. inequality, pollution, global warming) and so they can't simply be fixed by throwing money at them: they need political transformation.

Yes, but so long as global warming is a threat then the notion of humanity expanding to the stars is a pipe-dream. If the planet becomes incapable of supporting advanced social structures -- or, worse, complex lifeforms whatsoever -- then no one is going to be going anywhere: there will be no one left to travel.

⬐ onewaystreet

None of that is going to happen anytime soon. Market forces (oil prices are down now, but in the long term they will go back up forcing us to move to cleaner alternatives) as well as the beginning effects of global warming (flooding) will force us to change long before the planet becomes uninhabitable.

⬐ einrealist

I hope so. But honestly, I think we will not be able to stop it. There is too much traction from behaviors that will prevent us from actually doing anything. Preventing it would require us to give up many luxuries and things we call a standard. Greed is too strong. Earth will probably end up like Venus because of us.

⬐ manu3000

IPCC says +5 deg at end of this century... isn't that soon ? Last time this happened (250 millions years ago) 95% of existing species were wiped out (http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/27714-are-humans-going-ex...)

⬐ einrealist

I would agree, if space exploration was initiated under better terms than the Cold War. We started to send rockets into space in order to become better with annihilation of the opponent. We were really lucky that it turned into something we have today. But that will not last. Privatization of space travel is already underway. That bears the question: Who benefits?

I am afraid that if we invest in space exploration and colonization, we would shift priorities from saving this world to escaping it. Only a few would be able to escape it - those who have the resources.

(It is kind of what the movie Interstellar is about.)

We need to save this world first, before we can allow ourself to "infect" other worlds. If we cannot sustain on this planet, e.g. stop global warming in the next years, we are doomed and it becomes impossible to even think about shooting a single human into space again. If we need to test things in space for that, I'm fine with that. But lets not lose track of our short term problems.

⬐ increment_i

I imagine this cooperation will happen, probably towards the middle of this century, as resources become ever more scarce and general ignorance of the population at large decreases.

⬐ JetSpiegel

> general ignorance of the population at large decreases

I like sci-fi, but this is the real world we're talking about here.

⬐ yc1010

If our history is anything to go by, then lack of resources and competition for what remains wont lead to "co-operation" but will lead to war.

⬐ hiphopyo

https://www.youtube.com/user/criminalisewar

⬐ grondilu

> It would be so great if mankind is able to cooperate in the colonization of our solar system.

We already collaborate for the exploration of the solar system, via robotic probes and giant telescopes. That's good enough. Colonization is an all different matter, and a weird one if you ask me. Earth is the largest place with a solid ground in the Solar system, and it's by far the most hospitable. Settling on an other planet like mars would cost an insane amount of money[1] and would at best double the available real estate for our species. It's not so sure it would be worth it, especially considering that a lot of people would end up having contributed for something that other people will benefit from.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YDnGHaXdxw

⬐ Steuard

The history of the human race is a long succession of people contributing for something that other people will benefit from. Sometimes just knowing that you're enabling the dream is enough.

⬐ grondilu

> The history of the human race is a long succession of people contributing for something that other people will benefit from.

I hope you will acknowledge that this applies to some of the most sinister parts of this history, though.

⬐ fit2rule

It will be worth it when we build space-ship building robot factories, which can also build robots, and send them to an asteroid or so .. and in return get ourselves a fleet of robots in space ships to do other things with. There is no need for us to actually go there; we can do all the building from here. Vote for me and I will vow to make the space-ships, with robots, show up!

⬐ rbanffy

> Settling on an other planet like mars would cost an insane amount of money[1] and would at best double the available real estate for our species.

Not quite. Having the technology to live on Mars or on the Moon would enable us to settle pretty much anywhere in the habitable zone of the system. Just imagine how much real estate can be built in the form of rings or tubes with materials mined from the Moon or the asteroid belt.

Planets are nice for mining, but going up and down deep gravity wells is not something an interplanetary species would want to do regularly.

Also, keep in mind there are a lot of global catastrophes that could easily wipe out our civilisation.

⬐ grondilu

> Having the technology to live on Mars or on the Moon would enable us to settle pretty much anywhere in the habitable zone of the system. Just imagine how much real estate can be built in the form of rings or tubes with materials mined from the Moon or the asteroid belt.

To build something you don't just need raw materials. You need tools, man power, basically you need an industrial complex which currently only exists on Earth. The idea that you can mine raw minerals on an asteroid and somehow turn them into a house with a full life support is not realistic, to put it mildly.

> Also, keep in mind there are a lot of global catastrophes that could easily wipe out our civilization.

If you want to save the scientific and technological knowledge that makes a civilization, there are certainly cheaper and more efficient ways to do it than spending hundreds of billions in order to have a few people living in an hostile environment. It could even be argued that such a boondoggle might trigger the fate you were trying to avoid in the first place.

⬐ m_mueller

> You need tools, man power, basically you need an industrial complex which currently only exists on Earth. The idea that you can mine raw minerals on an asteroid and somehow turn them into a house with a full life support is not realistic, to put it mildly.

A very good point - which is exactly why we should do it. Depending on our industrial complex on Earth means that in case of a global natural or man-made disaster we could loose everything our civilisation has achieved so far, even if Earth stays perfectly habitable after the dust settles down. Encapsulating and packaging our civilisation also means creating a backup of our knowledge, both in science and arts - something that could become invaluable one day, even back on Earth.

⬐ grondilu

> Encapsulating and packaging our civilisation also means creating a backup of our knowledge,

You don't need to go to space to do that. It is much, much easier to build such "backups" on Earth, in the form of underground bunkers or something. As a matter of fact, such facilities already exist, for instance the Svalbard Global Seed Vault[1], or any of the secret bunkers built during cold war[2]. Survivalism is a terrible reason for colonizing space, for space is a very hostile environment in the first place, so it makes very little sense to consider it as a place to rely on for survival.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

2: http://io9.com/the-secret-world-of-underground-bunkers-51160...

⬐ m_mueller

Coming from an Engineering background we should all know that building something that actually works as a test case is the only way to know for sure for complex systems. Civilisation being the most complex system we have, I don't think that any group of individuals can account for everything that is needed in order to rebuild it. Lots of the underlying problems will only surface once a working 'civilization 2' is being attempted.

⬐ grondilu

All the more reasons not to make things more difficult than necessary by building those things in space.

⬐ blisterpeanuts

Wow; that was incredible. I wish it were three hours long.

That dude floating in that debris belt (ring of Saturn?) -- that looked a bit dangerous. Hopefully he had a force field around him.

There's so much out there, just waiting for us to get off our duffs and explore. We have much of the technology; if we could just stop spending trillions on machines of war and instead spend it on machines of exploration....

⬐ jimbosis

Well, it's not 3 hours (the Wikipedia page lists a 42 minute running time), but you might be interested in In Saturn's Rings, a documentary nearing release made using only photographs from space missions:

http://www.insaturnsrings.com/watch/

http://www.insaturnsrings.com/home/ (with another teaser video not on the "watch" page)

⬐ prbuckley

You should really go see interstellar, I saw it last night and it is probably the closest thing to a 3hr version of that short video that exists. They are both really fantastic films. I would also add that interstellar is worth seeing in IMAX if you can.

⬐ andy_ppp

Well, Interstellar would be okay if you removed the plot. Unfortunately all the SciFi bits and special effects were ruined by Hollywood schmaltz.

----- arguably the movie is already spoilt, but spoilers -----

And seriously, NASA couldn't find astronauts apart from a farmer?

Someone falls into a black hole and SURVIVES.

Is given the power by 5 dimensional light beings to alter time?

The list could go on.

⬐ npizzolato

If this is the top of your list of what's wrong with the plot of Interstellar, it feels like you're really nitpicking.

1. It was clearly established he was an ex-pilot for NASA. To describe Coop as just a farmer is horribly misleading.

2. We don't actually know what happens in a black hole. There was certainly some questionable science in the movie, but given that they gave an explanation for what happened in the black hole, and we don't know what really happens to contradict the movie's explanation, this seems like a valid use of artistic license.

3. I'm not even sure what this means.

⬐ a3n

> There's so much out there, just waiting for us to get off our duffs and explore. We have much of the technology; if we could just stop spending trillions on machines of war and instead spend it on machines of exploration....

I agree with this 100%. But while we're moving outward, however slowly, don't forget Sagan's Caveat:

"Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand."

Absolutely, go see what's across the street. But make sure your house is clean and safe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections_by_S...

Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wupToqz1e2g

⬐ jeangenie

> The Earth is the only world known, so far, to harbor life.

I often reflect on this sentiment and have half-convinced myself that the current definition of 'life' we use in this sense to be far too limited to capture the infinite diversity of existence.

In other words, our explorations will never reveal any creature like us (or other known forms of life on Earth) because the life that develops in other environment will be uniquely suited and predicated on existing in that environment exclusively.

I would add to what Sagan said: the whole universe is alive in ways we have not yet even conceived or be capable of conceiving.

⬐ prawn

My reaction to Wanderers was also to consider our own planet. For all the curiosities out there yet to be discovered, Earth is flat-out stunning. I was watching segments from David Attenborough's Africa earlier and thinking that what we have already discovered is incredible, and (in general) we're already doing some excellent work in trying to wreck it.

⬐ yogrish

Awesome creation. Image Gallery and Explanation: http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP

⬐ agrona

Art and source photos aside, this link is sort of disappointing. For example,

>As Mars' diameter is about half of the Earths, the elevator cable wouldn't have to be as long to reach geostationary orbit and due to the lighter gravitational pull it wouldn't suffer as much stress from its weight.

Mars' diameter has nothing to do with the distance to stationary orbit, which is a result of gravity (and thus its mass).

⬐ pjungwir

I assumed he was thinking of mass as a function of diameter, which for a rocky planet makes sense to me. I thought his comments were pretty amazing myself!

⬐ el_zorro

The diameter actually does have an effect on where geostationary orbit is: it changes how fast the surface is spinning, and hence the orbital speed needed for a stationary orbit.

Mars spins once every 24 hours 37 minutes. If the diameter was twice as large, it would have to be moving twice as fast to maintain that length of day.

Interestingly, since you orbit faster the closer you are to the surface, a decreased diameter actually pushes geosynchronous out away from the planet. This effect is, of course, very much negated by the absence of mass. Still, two equally massive planets with the same rotational period but NOT the same diameter will have different geostationary altitudes.

⬐ thomasfl

I would like to see a full length Wanderers movie. The optimistic feeling of adventure, travel and belief in science, would make it well worth spending a couple of hours watching.

⬐ spiritplumber

It'd make a great sequel to Interstellar actually...

⬐ nkoren

Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy is apparently being made into a TV series now. This guy must work on the visuals for that. He gets it; he really, really gets it.

⬐ None

None

⬐ ews

When I saw the movie I immediately thought of Kim Stanley Robinson's work. I think this short may be heavily inspired by that.

⬐ martythemaniak

I read KSR's Mars Trilogy after hearing about it repeatedly on /r/spacex and I highly recommend it. In fact, given that it is a 20 year old work at this time, I think it has stood the test of time very well.

I'm glad to hear it's being made into a tv series, but I worry that you really need a high budget to make it come alive (like Game of Thrones)

⬐ tobr

Beautiful.

You might be interested to learn that Erik Wernquist is also the person who created Crazy Frog some ten years ago.

⬐ shmerl

Martian sunset at 1:50 is based on an actual photo:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_rover#mediaviewer/File:Ma...

See also gallery here: http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/gallery.html

⬐ Corrado

There is also an outline of each of the shots and images used on Erik's page. Very, very cool indeed!

⬐ rbanffy

I had that picture as my workstation's wallpaper.

People dropped by and asked where I took the picture. I loved to explain to them the picture was taken by a robot on Mars.

There is also another one, with a small Earth shining above the horizon. That too was my wallpaper, and that too caused countless people to be amazed.

Inspiring people is important.

⬐ shmerl

I used it as a wallpaper for a long time too :)

> There is also another one, with a small Earth shining above the horizon.

Do you mean a shot on Mars? Can you link to it please?

⬐ rbanffy

I'm having trouble getting to the files myself (the NSA proxy must be offline), but depending on networking conditions, you may be luckier: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAct...

⬐ shmerl

It worked for me, thanks! Great shot. Here is the actual page for the image: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA17936

⬐ hmottestad

Don't forget that you can download the video using youtube-dl (if you like me, get annoyed that Vimeo doesn't continue buffering when you pause it, and deletes the current buffer if you rewind)

http://rg3.github.io/youtube-dl/

⬐ dredmorbius

Or VLC or XBMC which do a vastly better job of buffering than online players.

Youtube-dl is my first choice though (and is how I viewed this video).

⬐ graycat

Wander? From earth into the rest of the solar system? If we'd grown up anywhere else in this solar system, then the place, the dream destination, in this solar system would be earth.

Since I'm already here, no way do I want to leave!

Send some machines to gather some data and transmit it back to us here on earth? Fine. Maybe terrific. Go there, in person? For me, no way!

⬐ kylegordon

If you'd grown up or evolved elsewhere in the solar system, there's a high chance Earth would be inhospitable to you, just like Mars is to us. Your dream home would be Saturn, or Venus, etc.

The universe has a history of destroying the majority of life on Earth. It would be naive to think that statistics don't apply to the human race.

⬐ interesting_guy

Don't you like visiting exotic places?

⬐ hereonbusiness

If someone offered me the chance to travel the solar system, watch the sun rise on mars, jump off vertical cliffs on a moon, see jupiter and saturn up close, ... I would do it in a heartbeat

Do I think human space travel is feasible or even necessary at least at this point in time? No, not by a long shot. Machines can do a better job and will probably always be able to do it better if technology keeps advancing. Machines don't need air, water, food, living space, and that's some of the stuff needed just to keep us alive in an hostile environment, all resources can be instead focused on the mission itself.

I think that people tend to forget that we don't just happen live on planet Earth, we where born by it, molded by it :)

If we'd evolved anywhere else then that place would probably be by far the best possible habitat for us too.

Although If we could somehow get rid of the human body, just take a brain, equip it with a neural interface of some kind and put it in a water tank ...

⬐ graycat

Other than earth? I might like to visit there, but I don't want to live there!

But with the realities, as you outlined, of visiting, really I wouldn't want to do that, either.

Mars? Okay, send a lot of robots. Let the robots get a good base going. Let the robots mine Mars to get fuel for return trips. Let the robots come and go until it all seems highly reliable. Go to the trouble to get enough mass for cosmic ray protection. Let some high risk takers go and return. Then, maybe, maybe, maybe I'd consider a visit! But that whole scenario is not nearly realistic at all soon.

⬐ hiphopyo

Crazy how one man can do something that normally would take hundreds of people to accomplish.

Wouldn't it be nice if Erik Wernquist was in charge of the filmatization of "2312" (the novel that inspired his "Iapetus Ridge" scene).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2312_(novel)

⬐ pmr_

I was immediately reminded of Robinson's work a few seconds in. There is so much to discover out there and the extremes of physical state and sheer size make it so hard to imagine it all. His writing offer a window into that world and this short was a great visualization of it.

⬐ arethuza

Robinson is a fantastic author at conveying "a sense of place" - particularly Mars, of course. I fell in love with Mars because of Robinson, unrequited love of course - Blues for the Red Planet indeed....

Also, I also loved his book Antarctica which is effectively "White Mars" - at least there is a chance of visiting incredible places like the Airdevronsix icefall - arguably the largest waterfall on this planet (5km wide and 400m high):

http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/An/Antarctica/Antarctic...

⬐ Osmium

As a first step, I wonder how feasible it would be to have a constant presence around these planets and moons? A 'standard' orbiter, mass produced? I was reading about the Jupiter Icy Moon Explorer mission, and it's incredibly exciting, but it won't get there until the 2030s, and even then it'll be a temporary presence.

The reason I think of this is that I recently came across this animation from New Horizons showing a 330km-high eruption that recently happened on Io:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_(moon)#mediaviewer/File:Tvas...

It's utterly captivating, at least to me, and I can't help but wonder what effect it would have on the public's imaginations to be able to see images like that every day, in high definition, from all over our solar system.

⬐ frinxor

Check out Reid Gower's videos as well, the Sagan Series, a collection of videos he did that also used Carl Sagan's voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0&index=1&list=PLF...

And of course, Cosmos, which is where all the audio is from in all these videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dADUBcoEEHw&index=1&list=PLB...

⬐ hysan

Episode 2 of the Cosmos series playlist gives me this:

> This video contains content from eOne, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.

⬐ ogig

All these visuals made by just one guy? I'm impressed. It has higher quality than many hollywood fx products.

⬐ dmix

> It has higher quality than many hollywood fx products.

Seriously. How are Hollywood CGI films so poorly made when this is possible?

⬐ prawn

Because they're trying to do a lot more.

⬐ ijk

Plus a film production is often trying to balance things like being able to make changes if the director requests a tweak. Much faster to do when the director is the VFX artist!

⬐ erjiang

hollywood blockbusters have many shots that are very labor intensive, and they can be pretty cavalier about throwing money at a problem. For example, films with a lot of mixed live action and CGI can take a lot of manual frame by frame work, and anything involving realistic character animation is a huge time sink. Not to mention huge server farms.

It looks like this film uses a limited number of shots (no cutting rapidly like action films), takes advantage of a lot of nasa and other imagery/data (no army of matte painters), limits characters to simple walking movements (no Pixar gesticulating), and probably keeps the particle effects and physics sims minimal (no computational fluids sims for glorious explosions).

⬐ airlocksoftware

In the same genre, I watch this when I need a touch of inspiration. They're quotations from The Pale Blue Dot, again with the Sagan voiceover.

http://vimeo.com/2822787

Often we forget how far we've come, and how far we have to go. It's easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of regular life. When I listen to Carl Sagan sometimes I feel like I've glimpsed a bigger perspective.

⬐ Ygg2

Amazing video.

I especially like the world play here. Latin Planetes (as in planets) means wanderer. The name of this film can be understood as Planets.

⬐ mturmon

Nice observation. They got that name, of course, because the stars are fixed but the planets "wander" among them.

⬐ tomr_stargazer

Ancient Greek actually – apologies for being nitpicky.

'A planet (from Ancient Greek ἀστὴρ πλανήτης (astēr planētēs), meaning "wandering star")' > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet

⬐ Ygg2

Yeah, but judging from Google's etymology of the word it seemed to suggest plananan as greek word for planet, and not planetes.

I went for the more similar sounding one.

⬐ anw

Videos like this make me truly yearn for our civilization to expand off of our home planet.

I've finally gotten into some of Philip K Dick's works, as well as adventuring in the game Eve Online.

Both make me question how far we could be in technology, medicine, civilization, if we all could work together and not have schisms divide us.

I suppose it's the same as wishing for a utopia, though.

⬐ ijk

What makes it for me is that every place depicted in here actually exists, right here in our solar system.

⬐ T-A

Except for the O'Neill cylinder, I guess? :)

⬐ rbanffy

I never thought I'd use this quote here, but:

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.”

― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

⬐ None

None

⬐ dmix

"As for me, I am tormented with an everlasting itch for things remote. I love to sail forbidden seas, and land on barbarous coasts." - Herman Melville

Wonderful quote by Sagan.

⬐ interesting_guy

Wonderfully told by Carl Sagan

⬐ alexbecker

Well, it's not quite fair to call it a "quote by Sagan".

⬐ None

None

⬐ a3n

We went to the Moon, and yet we're still killing each other, or getting rich off of other people's poverty.

Peace on Earth is not going to come from going somewhere else and proclaiming "Look at us!" It's not a side effect.

Or, as the Quakers say, "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."

⬐ spiritplumber

It's possible for someone who was not yet alive when the last man left the Moon, to be a grandparent (in a healthy way, e.g. no teen pregnancies). We're two generations removed from having people on the Moon. That's a problem. What if we forget?

⬐ a3n

If we do forget, maybe that suggests that the Moon wasn't that important in the overall human condition.

⬐ zan2434

That was beautiful. I'd love to read more about how exactly the visuals were generated. This is a lot more than spheres rendered w/ NASA photo textures.

⬐ wcoenen

Definitely check out the imgur gallery[1] with explanations of all the scenes!

http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP

⬐ machinshin_

I want to go to there

⬐ brador

Which planet would allow for the largest/densest brain size in an organism that evolved to maximum size there?

⬐ houseofshards

Wow ! This is beautiful. Stunning graphics + Sagan's legendary voice almost left me in tears.

⬐ devgutt

Todo list: 1- Invent powerful machines for simulations and calculations(ok) 2- Stop with childish religious beliefs altogether (in progress - 5ys) 3- Review completely the social contract (in progress - 50ys) 4- Fix mortality (urgent - 100ys) 5- Explore the universe (2114)

⬐ disputin

5 years? How do you figure that?

⬐ devgutt

I think that we already have all the elements to make this leap. I am not being naive, only optimistic.

⬐ disputin

I'll be one of the first to cheer, but even with the pope and co changing their minds about what god likes and doesn't like every other year, there are billions more.

⬐ twtwtaway

too bad we are not going to be around when mortality will be fixed. out of luck, i guess.

⬐ devgutt

Actually, for Aubrey de Grey, that will be 50 years[1], but I think this is only to get more funds.

[1] http://www.ted.com/talks/aubrey_de_grey_says_we_can_avoid_ag...

⬐ ff10

There is no single social contract, but if there is, it very well has to be reviewed before we "fix" mortality. And who says that the further exploration of the universe (which is happening since a few thousand years anyway) is tempting to a critical mass with an unlimited lifespan where distractions are manifold and any simulation more convenient and less dangerous than the exploration of the universe in person.

⬐ devgutt

> There is no single social contract, but if there is, it very well has to be reviewed before we "fix" mortality.

Just like I said.

>any simulation more convenient and less dangerous than the exploration of the universe in person

We have been risking our lifes to explorer our world for millenniums. Why would it be different for space?

⬐ ff10

Because we have unlimited time and unlimited things to consume on earth. Who'd give a shit about what's behind the horizon?

I'm just saying the audacity to suggest to "fix" mortality is stunning. The implications are unforeseeable, on so many levels. People might not be as idealistic as you make them out to be.

⬐ devgutt

> People might not be as idealistic as you make them out to be.

Well, not everyone needs to be "idealistic". There are a lot of people willing to risk their lifes just to see a little further behind the horizon. You are not one of them. And this is ok.

⬐ eklavya

How I wish I was born in a time when mankind can travel the vast cosmos.

⬐ a3n

Make it happen. We might not go, but our far descendants would.

⬐ twtwtaway

yeah we're out of luck unfortunately

⬐ pkaye

I really loved this. Are there anything else similar elsewhere?

⬐ dojo999

Beautiful short film, excellent effects and voice-over. Like.

⬐ molmalo

I loved it, thanks!

⬐ booleanbetrayal

absolutely stunning. i will feel incredibly deprived if my exhaust without witnessing this sort of endeavor by mankind.

⬐ urza

I'll just leave this here: http://youtu.be/FbpIwT9nV3Y?t=7m7s

⬐ spiritplumber

Very uplifting.

⬐ tbolse

Waiting.

⬐ pond_lilly

Would be more impressive to show the Earth inhabited by humans who finally figured out how not to destroy it. THAT is a real sci-fi, hardcore level. I guess no one is bold enough to tackle this type of visuals and narrative.

What does this video show? Dead worlds, dead rocks with adrenaline, pleasure seeking junkies. Why everyone is so excited about it? Is this a type of nihilistic, pointless existence amidst dead landscape hostile to life itself that excites you?

⬐ interesting_guy

Better visuals than the new cosmos

⬐ Kronopath

I love the details in this film. Things like the winged people flying on Titan, possible due to its dense atmosphere. There are things on these other worlds that we could never experience here.

Even the title has multiple meanings to it:

In ancient times, astronomers noted how certain lights moved across the sky in relation to the other stars. Ancient Greeks called these lights πλάνητες ἀστέρες (planetes asteres, "wandering stars") or simply πλανῆται (planētai, "wanderers"), from which today's word "planet" was derived.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet