Video Visions of the Future
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- Visualizations by:
- Chris Smith
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- Produced by:
- Chris Smith
- View full credits
Inspired by the "Visions of the Future" poster series created by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, this inspirational video imagines a time when space tourists flock to the Moon, vacation in the clouds of Venus, kayak on Saturn’s moon Titan, and visit planets beyond our solar system.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech
Music: "Life Choices" from Universal Production Music
Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.
Complete transcript available.
At NASA, our mission is to explore. We visit destinations in our solar system and study worlds beyond to better understand big questions. How did we get here? Where are we headed? Are we alone?
While our robotic explorers have toured our solar system, the only place beyond Earth where humans have stood is the Moon. That’s also the next place we’ll send astronauts. But not the last! While humans haven’t yet visited Mars, we’re planning to add boot prints to the rover tire tracks there now.
We also dream of traveling to distant worlds, and what they might be like. This video shows fanciful, imagined adventures to real places we’ve studied. Inspired by a series of travel posters produced by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, NASA Goddard video maven Chris Smith employed green screens and computer graphics to bring these scenes to life.
Side-by-side views of the original JPL travel posters and their animated versions.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech
Music: "Luminance" from Universal Production Music
Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.
Complete transcript available.
Behind the scenes views of models shot in the studio and the final effect in the video.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech
Music: "Downloading Landscapes" from Universal Production Music
Watch this video on the NASA Goddard YouTube channel.
Complete transcript available.

A thrill seeker skydives in the atmosphere of HD 40307 g, an exoplanet with 7.1 times Earth's mass, in this illustration.
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech

Suspended by balloons and protected by a clear bubble, tourists observe the seething surface of "lava world" 55 Cancri e in this illustration.
Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (KBRwyle) and NASA/JPL-Caltech
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Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. However, individual items should be credited as indicated above.
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Animator
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
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Science writer
- Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)
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Editor
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Producer
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
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Videographer
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)