As well as being a bold effort on their part I find watching this both fascinating and humbling. Not just because of the vast vistas of space and time shown on the screen but because of two facts. First, the Moon, all of the planets, asteroids and comets have all been visited by us since the making of this film. Second, I predate this by just one year. So, an awful lot has been achieved by us in, cosmically speaking, in the mere blink of an eye.
Of course scientific advances have the effect of overturning previously held ideas and so here’s a quick list of some of the items mentioned in Universe that we now know are false.
One side of the planet Mercury does not perpetually face the Sun. The colour changes on the surface of Mars are not due to vegetation. Jupiter has many more than just 12 moons and Saturn has many more than just 9. Pluto is no longer considered to be a planet. It’s new status is a dwarf planet. Finally, galaxies do not slip through each other undisturbed. The massive gravitational influence of galaxies disrupts their shapes when they encounter each other, often leading to mergers.
But, besides these updates, I believe that this short film is excellent thing. Not just for the beautiful images and impressive music, but also to help us realize our place in the cosmos.
For what its worth, it would have been a wonderful opportunity if Mercury had been tidally locked and always presented one side to the Sun.
That way a permanent base could have been established just out of the Sun’s direct glare, say, behind a ridge or under the rim of a crater. With the Sun fixed in the sky there would be no danger and the temperatures would remain permanently stable. Continuous and reliable electrical energy could be provided by solar panels placed above the shadow line and in the path of the Sun’s rays.
Another advantage would have been access to ice. We know that craters at the Moon’s poles that are permanently in darkness are likely to have deposits of ancient ice that has never been evaporated by the Sun. A similar situation might exist on Mercury. Craters at its North and South poles could well have ice in their shadowed depths. But with a non-rotating Mercury the entire dark side could have had large deposits of ice because the temperatures there would stay far, far below freezing point effectively forever.
So, with unlimited and free energy and access to ice a base on Mercury could use that energy to melt the ice for drinking water, washing water and hydroponic water. Water could also be broken down by electrolysis to liberate oxygen for breathing and hydrogen as a fuel source. No need to expensively transport these material in bulk from Earth.
Eventually a ring of permanent bases could have been established, circling Mercury’s terminator (the astronomical term for the line of shadow around a planet) with all of them enjoying the resources already mentioned.
Alas, this was not to be. Mercury does rotate on its axis, albeit slowly, taking 59 Earth days to do so.