Today on Far Future Horizons we explore the very limits of science and the possible. Many of the technologies we take for granted today, such as space travel, transcontinental passenger aircraft, submarines and almost instantaneous global communication, once existed in the realm of speculative fiction. How many of the technologies which exist only in the realm of our best loved Sci-Fi television series will eventually become the reality of tomorrow?
The world of tomorrow is quickly becoming the futuristic world of today. While you may not be "beaming" to your next appointment, researchers are preparing for the first tests of a transporter. And while scientists have long mocked Hollywood's visions of warp speed a new generation of physicists continue to rewrite the fundamental rules of the universe. Is there a way around the cosmic speed limit – the speed of light?
Today on Far Future Horizons we take an imaginary voyage to the world of Pandora depicted in the motion picture Avatar and look at the possibility of humanity one day taking a very real interstellar odyssey to worlds beyond our solar system.
The setting of the movie Avatar takes place in the year 2154 on the terrestrial like moon of Pandora.
Pandora is a lush, Earth-like moon of the planet Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system. Pandora is inhabited by the Na'vi, a ten-foot-tall blue-skinned species of sapient humanoids, who live in harmony with nature, worshiping a mother goddess called Eywa.
Its location is a real place - Alpha Centauri, the nearest star to our Sun and the most likely destination for our first journey beyond the solar system.
Remarkably, it is anti-matter, the science fiction fuel of choice that could take us there. Normally, it's only created in powerful jets that roar out of black holes. We can now produce small quantities in Earth-bound particle colliders. Will we journey out only to plunder other worlds? Or will we come in peace? The answer may depend on how we view our home world, the Earth, at that time in the distant future.
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