Wanderers, a short film by Erik Wernquist, provides a glimpse into humans’ possibilities in space. The science fiction film includes visuals based on ideas and concepts of a future in space for humanity. Each location is a digital recreation of spaces that actually exist in the Solar System, constructed from actual photos and map data when possible.

The film features the voice of Carl Sagan and includes borrowed ideas and concepts from science fiction authors, including Arthur C. Clarke and Kim Stanley Robinson.

The title, Wanderers, in part refers to the original meaning of the word “planet.” Visible planets in the sky were referred to as “aster planetes,” or “wandering star,” in ancient Greece. The other portion of the title refers to humans on Earth, who for hundreds of thousands of years were wandering the planet.

Rather than provide an apparent story, the goal of the film is to give a beautiful and meaningful glimpse of the natural surrounding worlds, which one day might be inhabitable by humans.

Most places portrayed in the film are real and are based on images taken by probes that have visited the destinations or images through telescopes. Examples include the ice fields surrounding Europa, Jupiter’s moon, and the highest known cliffs in the Solar System, which are on Uranus’s moon, Miranda.

One example from erikwernquist.com is a photo of Earth from space with the sun setting over the Pacific Ocean, taken from the International Space Station in July 2003. Wernquist explains, “I mapped the photo on a curved plane and replaced the optical flare from the sun with a digital flare to be able to create some motion.”

Phil Plait concludes on Slate, “…there will come a time when the views of those worlds you see in this video will no longer be science fiction.”