
Wanderers: a short film of humanity's expansion into the Solar System [video] - Thevet
http://vimeo.com/108650530
======
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](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet)

------
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...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Futurology/comments/2nseb3/wanderers_why_we_leave_earth_one_of_the_best/)

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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](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...](http://www.amusingplanet.com/2013/03/mount-thor-greatest-vertical-
drop-on.html)

[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].

------
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.

~~~
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
:)

~~~
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...](http://www.gapminder.org/videos/dont-panic-the-facts-about-
population/)

~~~
rasz_pl
I would suggest this too
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY](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.

------
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....

~~~
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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot#Reflections_by_Sagan)

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

~~~
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](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).

~~~
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.

~~~
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...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_rover#mediaviewer/File:MarsSunset.jpg)

See also gallery here:
[http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/gallery.html](http://www.erikwernquist.com/wanderers/gallery.html)

~~~
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...](http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1598)

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

~~~
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)](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...](http://www.wondermondo.com/Countries/An/Antarctica/Antarctica/Airdevronsix.htm)

------
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...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Io_\(moon\)#mediaviewer/File:Tvashtarvideo.gif)

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...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oY59wZdCDo0&index=1&list=PLF17F07CFC3208E29)

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...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dADUBcoEEHw&index=1&list=PLBA8DC67D52968201)

~~~
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!

------
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](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.

~~~
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](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

------
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.

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

------
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](http://imgur.com/a/Ur5dP)

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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)

~~~
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?

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dojo999
Beautiful short film, excellent effects and voice-over. Like.

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molmalo
I loved it, thanks!

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

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urza
I'll just leave this here:
[http://youtu.be/FbpIwT9nV3Y?t=7m7s](http://youtu.be/FbpIwT9nV3Y?t=7m7s)

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spiritplumber
Very uplifting.

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tbolse
Waiting.

