Skip to main content

NASA’s take on future space travel is a wild sci-fi ride

Although huge amounts of time and money have been invested in sending humans to space, we’ve so far only gone as far as the moon.

In recent years, there’s been much talk about sending humans to Mars, a far more ambitious mission considering the distance from Earth and the red planet’s harsh conditions.

NASA's Visions of the Future

Looking way, way ahead, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has imagined how crewed trips could one day be more commonplace, taking humans to far-flung places in our solar system, and even beyond.

Recommended Videos

Goddard’s video (hit the player’s “CC” button for information on what you’re looking at) offers a cool look at the kind of wild space adventures that could be taking place many years from now. The team behind the video imagines communities living on the moon and Mars, and wild space tourism rides to places like Enceladus, Saturn’s sixth-largest moon.

Just when you think it couldn’t get any crazier, a “space kayaker” is shown paddling in the oceans of another faraway moon, while a skydiver is seen hurtling toward exoplanet HD 40307 g.

“At NASA, our mission is to explore,” Goddard says in a message accompanying the video. “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?”

Goddard reminds us that while robotic explorers have been touring our solar system for decades, “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.”

Looking into the distant future, Goddard wants us to imagine how life might one day be, though it admits that with the technology currently available, the adventures depicted in its video appear “fanciful.”

Still, hundreds of years ago, anyone who pointed at the moon and said we’d one day walk on its surface would’ve been told to go and have a lie-down. So who knows how far humans will travel from Earth generations from now … not sure about the kayaking though.

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Watch NASA’s trailer for Friday’s crewed launch to the ISS
SpaceX's Crew-7 astronauts.

NASA and SpaceX are pretty much ready for Friday’s launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station.

The space agency posted a video on Monday as part of the build-up for Friday’s launch. You can watch it below.

Read more
Enjoy these amazing space images by NASA’s oldest active astronaut
Don Pettit aboard the space station.

At 67, Don Pettit is NASA’s oldest active astronaut. During three trips to the International Space Station (ISS) -- in 2002, 2008, and 2011 -- Pettit earned a reputation as a highly skilled photographer who created extraordinary images of the ISS, Earth, and beyond.

Pettit, who describes himself as “an engineer by schooling, a scientist by profession, and an explorer by heart,” continues to share his amazing pictures on Twitter and Instagram, wowing his many followers on the social media platforms.

Read more
Enjoy NASA’s ‘best images’ of science on space station in 2022
NASA astronaut Kayla Barron checks plants growing inside the space station's Veggie facility.

It’s been a busy year for the International Space Station (ISS).

Orbiting about 250 miles above Earth, the ISS has welcomed new astronauts and bid farewell to others, conducted 12 spacewalks, hosted NASA’s first paying tourists, dodged hazardous debris, and experienced a serious leak from a docked spacecraft.

Read more