New far-out NASA 'travel' video: kayaking on Titan, skydiving on exoplanet

NASA knows people can't travel to exoplanets light-years away, but the space agency hopes a new, highly fictionalized video will inspire dreams of such far-off travel.

The video depicts wild, even wacky, scenes of people kayaking in deadly methane lakes on Saturn's moon Titan, skydiving on exoplanet HD 40307-g, which is 42 light-years away, and watching twin suns on Kepler-16b -- 200 light-years away.

NASA released the whimsical video, which is just over a minute long, last week. It can be seen on YouTube, where it had over 40,000 views in just a few days. The scenes are borrowed from the space agency's popular poster series called Visions of the Future that began in 2015.

Those posters have been downloaded millions of times, and are among the most popular features on NASA's website, Thalia Khan, a communications specialist, said in an interview.

"We wanted to depict places people would potentially want to go to," Khan said, quickly adding, "Of course, they can never actually go to them because they're too far, but we wanted to get people excited about what exists out in the universe."

Destinations in the video include some places people may visit in the not-too-distant future, like Mars. NASA plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet in the 2030s.

But exoplanets that circle stars light-years away will have to wait, since NASA still has no way to travel even close to the speed of light. Travelers would spend most of their lives just getting to such destinations -- even if light-speed travel becomes a reality, Khan said.

"Some of these destinations have captured the public imagination, such as Kepler-16b," she said. "When that was discovered in 2011, it was nicknamed Tatooine" after the double-sun world in the original Star Wars movie.

The activities depicted in the video may be impossible, but creative teams worked to ensure the planetary conditions portrayed represent real science, said Chris Smith, who produced the video.

"There is a ton of work that goes into working directly with the scientists to make sure ... we are representing science accurately," Smith said.

He said the video was created in-house by NASA employees who worked on it when they had a chance over a period of months, using existing equipment and props.

"We started with the concepts in the posters and asked ourselves how we could portray that in a video," Smith said. "The few actors we used were all volunteers."

He noted the vast majority of reaction so far is positive.

"My favorite comments are when people say, 'I really would love to go there, this is really exciting!'" Smith said. "That's what NASA is all about."

The first three posters released in 2015, which are free to download on NASA's website, weren't even meant for public viewing, NASA artist Joby Harris said in an interview.

"We made them to decorate a new office set up for scientists studying exoplanets," Harris recalled. "Then there was so much interest we put them online for downloading, and it took off from there."

He said many tech and space accomplishments started out with crazy ideas and dreams of writers like Jules Verne and Isaac Asimov.

"I think NASA has been blown away seeing how people love the wonder, the mystery of how we might explore space someday, and that helps prompt innovation."

Related Links
Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tweet

Thanks for being there;
We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter
$5+ Billed Monthly

paypal only

SpaceDaily Contributor
$5 Billed Once

credit card or paypal

Bezos' Blue Origin announces plans for private space station
Washington (AFP) Oct 25, 2021
Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin on Monday announced it wants to launch a space station that will house up to 10 people in the second half of the decade, as the race to commercialize the cosmos heats up. "Orbital Reef," described in a press statement as a mixed-use business park in space that will support microgravity research and manufacturing, is a joint venture with commercial space company Sierra Space and has the support of Boeing and Arizona State University. "For over sixty years, NASA and other s ... read more