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Video: "Wanderers" – A Good Way to Start Your Week

By Keith Cowing
NASA Watch
November 30, 2014
Filed under

NASA Watch founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.

21 responses to “Video: "Wanderers" – A Good Way to Start Your Week”

  1. TheBrett says:
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    My favorite scenes are probably the ones on Europa (especially the one at 2:29) and the final shot in Saturn’s upper atmosphere. Staggeringly beautiful work, even if it’s pretty unlikely that you’d wear a space-suit out in the open on Europa (Jupiter’s radiation belts would kill you in mere minutes).

    Some people are probably going to take that message the wrong way, as if Sagan was saying it was a choice between saving the Earth and exploring space. It’s not, and Sagan certainly didn’t believe that was a choice that had to be made – he was both a strong environmentalist and a staunch supporter of space exploration.

    • Spacetech says:
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      “a choice between saving the Earth and exploring space”
      Unfortunately I feel it would be far easier to explore space than it will be to save this planet. In order for us to get there, a great many problems must first be solved here.
      Space exploration on this level would take planet wide cooperation.

      • Denniswingo says:
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        …Space exploration on this level would take planet wide cooperation…..
        _______________________________________

        No, it would not. What it will take is rejection of the Malthusian neo luddite ethos.

  2. Dr. Malcolm Davis says:
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    I think this is one of the most inspiring films I’ve seen. I’ve watched it several times now, and it beautifully encapsulates my personal dream of how I’d like to see humanity’s future in space unfold over the next 100 years. A true spacefaring civilisation – not just in Low-Earth Orbit, not just on the Moon or near Earth Asteroids, not just on Mars, but across the furthest reaches of our Solar System. Humanity on many worlds, living and working in Space. THAT should be the goal. We have barely begun that journey – we should be further down the path than we are – but providing we stick with it, hopefully this vision will one day be reality.
    When I look at this I think about how nation-states might cooperate on pursuing ‘big ideas’ – the exploration and colonisation of the solar system being one amongst many. There is always going to be interstate competition, and even tensions, but big vision projects such as humanity in space could at least bring states together in a manner that would mitigate the risks. The commercial dimension also needs to play a factor, and once the technology is there, the potential exists for private corporations to make money from space resources, tourism, and more. So I liked the film’s suggestion of space tourism across the solar system.
    The vision presented in ‘Wanderers’ I think is a 100 year vision. We are plodding along too slowly at the moment, and there is great risk of losing direction, focus and energy such that we get diverted off path and go nowhere fast. But this vision for a future in which humanity has expanded across the solar system is a good one and in my view should be our big strategic goal, even above humans on Mars. Mars should just be a stepping stone to going further, just as the Moon and Near Earth Asteroids should be stepping stones to Mars. We may not send crewed spacecraft to the outer planets perhaps until the second half of this century, but we should be thinking about how we might do that much earlier. Our perceptions should not be limited to no further than Mars.

  3. Chris Winter says:
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    Great. Brought back vivid memories of the thrill I felt when, aged 10 or 11, I read the ending of Heinlein’s The Rolling Stones “…outward bound—to the ends of the universe!”

    I could mention a good many other SF titles. But one in particular stands out: Chad Oliver’s Transfusion: “Wait for us. We’ll be back.”

  4. Spacetech says:
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    Really?
    Famine, disease, war, energy, environmental shall I go on. Until major problems and differences are settled here on earth the human race will not become a space fairing species. The U.S. cannot colonize space on its own.
    The colonization of space has always been a romantic notion but I seriously doubt our species will survive itself long enough to do it.

    • Denniswingo says:
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      …The U.S. cannot colonize space on its own…
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      Of course it can, if it prioritizes it. The current dysfunction of government can be traced to the misapplication of the lessons of the Apollo program. It used to be said that “if we can put a man on the Moon, why can’t we do x, y, or z, here on the Earth?” If NASA’s budget, or more correctly, the application of federal spending to implementing the infrastructure necessary to enable the economic development of the solar system, was at the same proportion of the budget as in FY 1966 (4.5% or about $150 billion per year), then I submit that the vast majority of the problems that you list would have already been solved.

      I would add that you cannot solve war with federal expenditures.

  5. Dr. Malcolm Davis says:
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    Agreed – how fantastic would such a series be that focuses on the excitement and thrill of exploring and colonising new worlds. No drippy aliens, no big space battles, no government conspiracies – just human exploration.

  6. aacche051 says:
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    Doesn’t even need a story. Just random videos of spaceship and human floating, drilling, hiking, etc. And I’ll sit in front of the flickering screen all day long.

    • DTARS says:
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      They need stories good positive stories about US. Frontier survival, relationships. Settlement struggles. robot human relationships, Musks struggle to build MCT.

      I’m so tired of horror movies in space! I just rented Last days on Mars. Turned it off after 20 minutes.

      2001 showed us a real possible future. Seems to me that it would be so easy to make films that make people want to live in space and see what it is possible.

      Gravity which so many liked blow all we built up! Who would want live in orbit after seeing that?

      • Odyssey2020 says:
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        It’s not as easy as you might think, you need a lot of talent and a lot of serendipity to make a great space movie. 2010 could have been great but nope, somehow they just made it so-so.

    • DTARS says:
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      Agree with you point the strong part of 2001 was not the story. It was just getting to be in our future for a while. Difference today is no believes it will happen any more. That future has been stolen from me by all the things we talk about here.

      Future lost 🙁

      I wonder what it would be like to live in an ice dome on Mars. A plastic liner bladder to keep the ice from evaporating. Thin enough to let in some light. Would you have glass sky lights? Would the inside of the dome be water? maybe most of your mars structures are ice. If you travel farther out maybe ice is a better building material than concrete?

  7. Paul451 says:
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    We may seem to have an embarrassment of science popularisers today, but damn that man could wax poetic like no-one else.

  8. Spacetech says:
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    Agreed!

  9. Vladislaw says:
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    Get rid of the Outer Space Treaty and promote property rights and land grants… Governments really just have to set the policies and colonization will happen on it’s own.

  10. AstroInMI says:
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    I agree, too. Especially one where the narrator realizes he is not more important than the science.

  11. Odyssey2020 says:
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    Very, very unique and powerful. A video like this simply inspires people to dream what is commonly thought impossible.

    Extra props to Carl Sagan, not only does it sound like he recorded this just yesterday he proves why he is still so popular. I don’t think anybody will ever top him.

  12. Joe Denison says:
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    Simply amazing. Thanks for sharing Keith.

  13. Gerald Cecil says:
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    I recommend the 2004 movie Voyage to the Planets and Beyond.
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/pr
    It’s
    informative, quite inspirational, well paced, and the actors are
    semi-believable although the mission spanning Venus to Pluto is a
    stretch. The ship is fusion powered w/ shield used for aero-capture
    sometimes. Sequences were filmed in Star City including free-fall in
    their version of the Vomit Comet.

  14. Johnhouboltsmyspiritanimal says:
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    a beautiful short that sadly reminds us we have lost our wandering way.