Wanderers
Title card
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	October 11, 2014 (2014-10-11)
Running time	3:50 minutes
Country	Sweden
Language	English

Wanderers is a 2014 Swedishscience fictionshort film created by the digital artist and animatorErik Wernquist.^[2] The film depicts actual locations in theSolar System being investigated byhuman explorers, aided by hypotheticalspace technology. Of the film's fifteen scenes,^[3] Wernquist created some using solelycomputer graphics, but most are based on actual photographs taken byrobotic spacecraft orrovers combined with additional computer-generated elements.

Wanderers is narrated by astronomerCarl Sagan, reading from his 1994 bookPale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.^[4][5]

The film begins with a group of nomads around10,000 BC, travelling through the Middle East on Earth. Shining clearly above them in the darkening twilight sky arethe 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 largeinterplanetary spacecraft leaving Earth'sorbit, carryingspace colonists on their way to anotherplanet ormoon.^[7]

Other thanEarth's Moon,^[8][9][10] no other body in the Solar System has beenexplored^[11] and examined forpossible future human colonization more intently thanMars.^[12][13][14] InWanderers, Wernquist starts withNASA photographs and crafts three scenes showing the possible Martian future: in the first, the cabin of a theorizedspace elevator descends down its cable, transporting supplies to a Mars colony below,^[15] in the second, workers inspace suits wait near the edge ofVictoria Crater for approachingdirigibles,^[16] and in the third, a group of hikers (who are presumably accustomed to watching redsunsets 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 theNASA /ESACassini–Huygens mission:^[18] one third of its scenes depict eitherSaturn or one ofits moons. One scene gives an extreme close-up view ofSaturn's rings - the perspective is frominside 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 moonTitan 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-efficientthermal insulating material, humans fly above the moon's liquid methane seaLigeia Mare using wings that are approximately the same size - relative to their bodies - asbird wings.^[23] The view of a spacecraft moving through the salt water crystals ejected from geysers on Saturn's moonEnceladus^[24] is a reminder that a liquid ocean beneath its icy surfacecould potentially provide an environment capable of sustaining some form of life.^[25] A chain of human settlements on Saturn's moonIapetus are portrayed on the peaks ofits equatorial ridge, each covered with an enormous and (apparently) transparent dome that does not obstruct the view of Saturn and its rings. (Sincethe 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-sponsoredastronauts,cosmonauts, ortaikonauts, if they are alternatelycommercial astronauts,space flight participants, or solelyspace tourists.^[27] Wernquist calls them simply "passengers", "people," and "hikers," and none of the spacecraft transporting them carry the insignia of aspace agency or aprivately funded space enterprise.^[28][29] Regardless of their official designation, the people shown in the twoJupiter scenes and the one scene showcasingUranus and its moonMiranda must be referred to as "adventurers."

In a scene shown fromorbit above Jupiter, a spacecraft's cargo bay doors open to reveal a tethered adventurer beginning aspacewalk, with theGreat Red Spot visible below.^[30] We also see adventurers walking across the surface ice on Jupiter's moonEuropa,^[31] and who, in so doing, might also be walking aboveextraterrestrial microbes. (Like Saturn's moon Enceladus,astrobiologists are very focused onthe possibility that Europa could harbor life.^[32]) Another group of adventurersBASE jump off of a cliff on Miranda, the smallestgravitationally-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 possiblein situ resource utilization: it depicts a hollowed-outMain Beltasteroid which could serve as ahabitat for colonists and aspace 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-containedecosystem, complete withpressurized,breathableair,land andsoil,bodies of water, andclouds rotating around a periodic source ofartificial sunlight.^[35]

Wernquist concedes that his depiction of aterraformed 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 byKim Stanley Robinson in hishard science fiction novel2312.

On Saturn, human-made airships are shown in the distant clouds, somewhat similar tothe HAVOC crewed airships contemplated by NASA for a possible mission toVenus. 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 aprotective 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 byNASA.^[5][40] The visuals are inspired by the works of science fiction writersArthur C. Clarke andKim Stanley Robinson, as well as illustratorChesley Bonestell.^[39]

With the permission ofAnn Druyan, the wife of astronomer Carl Sagan, Wernquist added excerpts of Sagan's narration of his bookPale Blue Dot throughout the film.^[39]

The film was released on the video-sharing websiteVimeo on October 11, 2014, and was officially uploaded toYouTube on August 4, 2015.

The short film has received extremely positive reviews since its release. Leonard David, a columnist onSpace.com, called it a "marvelous production".^[4] Amy Shira Teitel of the websiteNerdist said the film was "brilliantly realistic" and that it "might even be better thanInterstellar."^[2] Dante D'Orazio ofThe 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]

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