By 
November 27th, 2018
Credit: Trailer – The Wandering Earth/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Forget about shooting off interstellar probes, chips, plaques and records, or keepsake mementos…whatever.
How about launching the Earth outward?
China’s “The Wandering Earth,” is set to hit Chinese movie screens on February 5 of next year – Chinese New Year in Chinese theaters.
The film is adapted from a same name short story novel in 2000 by Hugo Award winner Liu Cixin.
The movie stars Guangjie Li, Chuxiao Qu, Man Tat Ng, Jinmai Zhao, Jing Wu.
Credit: Trailer – The Wandering Earth/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Centuries-long journey
Liu’s “Wandering Earth” depicts how humans, endangered by a dying and swelling Sun, erect gigantic engines to hurl the planet out of the solar system, setting it on a centuries-long journey in search of a new sun.
Gong Geer, the producer of the film, told Xinhua news agency: “We hope the plot, characters and scenes in the film can impress our audience as being Chinese, as this is a very Chinese story.”
“Westerners may be surprised by the idea of humans leaving with the Earth instead of fleeing in spacecraft,” Gong told Xinhua.”What they may see in this film is the Chineses’ dedication to the land, as nurtured in the country’s long agricultural history.”
Credit: Trailer – The Wandering Earth/Screengrab/Inside Outer Space
Trailers
The official trailers have been released, offering a look at various scenes, including a frozen “2044 Shanghai Olympic Mansion” and a massive “Earth Engine” towering over the Great Wall.
Take a look at these videos at:
Posted in Space News
How will the world survive centuries with no star nearby?
Also, wouldn’t it be much easier just to move to a wider orbit as the Sun expands? As in Larry Niven’s “A World out of Time”.
David: All things to ponder – again, let’s see how science fiction fares versus geoengineering here on Earth concepts. Meanwhile, this sci-fi adventure from China is sure to stir up young people to be more engaged in the country’s space program. Lots to do!
The earliest story I am familiar with about surviving on an Earth without a Sun is “A Pail of Air”, by Fritz Leiber (1951):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Pail_of_Air
A more recent novel about turning the planet into a starship that I thought was pretty good is Sins of the Fathers by Stanley Schmidt (1976):
https://www.fictiondb.com/author/stanley-schmidt~the-sins-of-the-fathers~110577~b.htm