James Cameron’s return to space appears well set to win its crazy bet whilst dealing with several ethical questions directly linked to astronavigation.
In Avatar, mankind masters space travel to other worlds around other suns, but only in the Earth’s inner suburbs, in this instance the Alpha Centauri system, a little more than 4 light years away from the Earth. Credit: Fox
Particularly interested in exploration in general and more specifically in the exploration of space, which at one time made him an advisor to NASA (see this Enjoy Space article), James Cameron is currently offering earthlings the chance to do what only their descendants might possibly do in a few centuries: visit another planet! All this by means of an inspired artistic direction and special effects which will go down in the history of the cinema. Furthermore, the director deals with several fundamental questions regarding the limits of mankind for exploring other worlds.
James Cameron on the Avatar film set (with Sigourney Weaver); once a member of NASA’s Advisory Council, the Canadian director has always been fascinated by space exploration. Credit: Fox
Off to a good start Twelve years after Titanic, which had been announced as a future flop due to its production costs, the Canadian director with his character of tempered steel* appears, once again, set to turn the established rules of the cinema screen business upside down as the excellent world box-office figures show even though Avatar has only just been released. For instance, in the United States, this Sci-fi film took a total of 77 million dollars in its first week-end of showing and is only 200,000 dollars behind the previous record set by I am a Legend with Will Smith. Some observers point out that the bad weather currently experienced by North America might well have diminished the film’s initial results and that the success should grow; the film having the benefit of a highly positive word of mouth, notably because of its particularly effective 3D technology, masterly used by James Cameron for the requirements of his story. The producers can reasonably hope to make a profit despite a budget estimated at 250 million dollars (preview trailer below).
A “plausible” space epic In Avatar, mankind covets Pandora, a gaseous giant’s moon in the Alpha Centauri system. It is worthy of note that the scenario chooses an immediately plausible story as current research relating to exoplanets (worlds which turn around stars other than our Sun) has shown that numerous gaseous giants are orbiting close to their sun, contrary to our system where, like Jupiter or Saturn, they are relegated outside of the famous habitable zone; a zone where the star provides enough energy to procure a temperate climate and not a furnace or an icebox! That a moon of such a gaseous giant can have favourable living conditions has already been envisaged by astronomers: Avatar is therefore above average in plausibility in this domain.
In Avatar, mankind masters space travel to other worlds around other suns, but only in the Earth’s inner suburbs, in this instance the Alpha Centauri system, a little more than 4 light years away from the Earth. Credit: Fox
To tell the full story, we would point out that, by their very nature, gaseous giants generate intense magnetic fields. As the resulting radiation is considered to be lethal, it would therefore oppose the emergence of living beings. But a film has the right to poetic licence, especially as we have no idea what surprises the Universe holds for us... Lastly, Alpha Centauri is a system very close to the Earth (about 4 light years away) and although it is out of reach of our current technology, it provides a semblance of additional credibility as a potential destination for a film set in the future. We would highlight that the highly esteemed Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has even agreed to issue a press release specifying that, and we cite “Avatar’s moon Pandora could be real”. Astronomer, Lisa Kaltenegger, also explains that the future American-European JWST (James Webb Space Telescope) will be in a position to detect such a world and to characterise the composition of its atmosphere.
Exploration limits Avatar is, however, an entertaining story and not a scientific documentary and it is quite possible to identify its flagrant scientific inaccuracies such as this mysterious, superconductive ore which stirs up the earthlings appetite to the point that some are ready to exploit Pandora with no regard for the balance of its ecosystem and its inhabitants; the Na’vis, have blue skin, are ten feet tall and are fearsome warriors. A moral interrogation which corresponds to our own present day concerns. However, the film also goes beyond this ecological fable and poses two ethical questions that the astronavigation world is very familiar with. First of all, the most obvious, dealt with many a time by Star Trek: do we have the right to settle in an already inhabited world? No, would seem to be the order of the day and can go much further. Numerous scientists believe that if we one day discover life on Mars, even in a very simple bacterial form, we would then be under a moral duty not to visit this planet any more so as not to interfere with a possible process of evolution capable of leading to the emergence of an intelligent life force... Others put forward the idea that exchanges between worlds take place naturally (we have found meteorites on Earth that are pieces which have come from Mars) and that therefore there is no need to slow the momentum of mankind for such reasons. The question regarding an intelligent life force, however, will be asked later. And lastly, Avatar evokes the actual limit of our species for exploring other worlds since human beings cannot breathe Pandora’s atmosphere. They use oxygen masks or, to be more efficient, avatars (after which the film is named), that is artificial creatures which are a mixture of human DNA and that of the natives and which are remote controlled by men and women wanting to study this world... or infiltrate the locals in order to be able to get the better of them and steal their natural riches, which does not fail to provoke a serious conflict for the main character, Jake Sully. Below is an extract where the latter, in his Na’vi-avatar form, is initiated in the breaking in of winged animals on Pandora.
The idea developed here is that human beings could perhaps become another species, a “Homo Spatialus” who would take its evolution in hand and be transformed into an inhabitant, not only of the Earth, but of other worlds. After all, Robert Goddard (1882-1945), American rocket pioneer wrote: “It is difficult to say what is impossible, for the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow”.
(*) Those who work with him often wear a T-shirt proclaiming “You can’t scare me, I work for James Cameron”!
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