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“If you could see the earth illuminated when you were in a place as dark as night, it would look to you more splendid than the moon.� Galileo Galilei 1632
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Centaurus A Hubble Telescope 13,050,000 ly 5
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From the dawn of humankind to a mere 400 years ago, all that we knew about our universe came through observations with the naked eye. Then Galileo turned his telescope toward the heavens in 1610. The world was in for an awakening.
The beginning Space Race
Cold War x Space Race On the 3rd October 1942, German scientists launched an A-4 rocket, which travelled 118 miles and rose to an altitude of over 50 miles. The A-4 was to become the V2 rocket, armed with a ton of explosive and used against London and Antwerp.
After the Second World War, both the USA and Soviet Union began their own space programmes using the scientists and equipment they had captured from the Germans, and so the space race began.
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Dwight D. Eisenhower
The beginning Space Race
“Never in all their history have men been able truly to conceive of the world as one: a single sphere, a globe, having the qualities of a globe, a round earth in which all the directions eventually meet, in which there is no centre because every point, or none, is centre — an equal earth which all men occupy as equals. The airman’s earth, if free men make it, will be truly round: a globe in practice, not in theory..” Archibald MacLeish 1942
Nikita Khrushchev
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The first manned space-flight; Vostok 1
Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, launched aboard Vostok 1 on the 12th April 1961. The Soviet Union had put the first man into orbit. The USA didn't follow this until the 20th February 1962, with John Glenn aboard the Mercury capsule, Friendship 7. As the 1960s got underway, the Space Race intensified, with the Soviets catching the American lead in satellite technology.
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The mission insignia for Vostok 1
Of more concern to the West was their lead in manned space-flight and the heavy lift capability that implied. The Soviet lead called into question American technological superiority and self-esteem. Consequently, President Kennedy declared that the US would launch a manned mission to the moon before the end of the decade.
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"What beauty. I saw clouds and their light shadows on the distant dear earth.... The water looked like darkish, slightly gleaming spots.... When I watched the horizon, I saw the abrupt, contrasting transition from the earth’s light-colored surface to the absolutely black sky. I enjoyed the rich colour spectrum of the earth. It is surrounded by a light blue aureole that gradually darkens, becoming turquoise, dark blue, violet, and finally coal black." Yuri Gagarin 1961
Soviets Win The Space Race The Soviet Union has beaten the USA in the race to get the first man into space. At just after 0700BST, Major Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin was fired from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan, Soviet central Asia, in the space craft Vostok (East). Major Gagarin orbited the Earth for 108 minutes travelling at more than 17,000 miles per hour (27,000 kilometres per hour) before landing at an undisclosed location.
The first human in space; Yri Gagarin
The Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev has congratulated Major Gagarin on his achievement. He sent the cosmonaut a message from his holiday home on the Black Sea. "The flight made by you opens up a new page in the history of mankind in its conquest of space," Mr Khrushchev said. Radio Moscow then interrupted its schedule to give details to a jubilant nation. Major Gagarin’s safe return has laid to rest worries that space flight would be fatal for humans.
It is also a blow to the Americans who had hoped to be the first to launch a man beyond Earth’s atmosphere. However, President Kennedy has congratulated the Soviets on their achievement. It would be some time before the United States caught up with the Soviets in the fields of rocket boosters, the president added. Rumours that a Soviet launch attempt was imminent began some days ago. It was the culmination of two years of highly secretive training for Yuri Gagarin, 27, who beat off thousands of other hopefuls. The previously obscure army major has returned to earth a national hero. He has already been awarded the title of “Master of Radio Sport of the Soviet Union” and a big reception for him at the Kremlin in Red Square is being planned.
BBC Archive, 12.4.1961
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The crew of the Apollo 8
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A turbulent world looked to the heavens for a unique view of our home planet. This photo of “Earth rise� over the lunar horizon was taken by the Apollo 8 crew in December 1968, showing Earth for the first time as it appears from deep space, cradled amongst the stars, surrounded by darkness. Having a profound impact on human understanding and perspective. Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders had become the first humans to leave Earth orbit, entering lunar orbit on Christmas Eve.
Apollo 8 mission badge
"That one picture exploded in the consciousness of humankind. It led to dramatic changes. Within 18 months of this picture being taken the modern environmental movement had begun." Al Gore 2006, An Inconvenient Truth
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Earth seen from the window of Apollo 11 just after leaving Earth’s orbit
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The moment Apollo 11 descended on to the lunar surface , Earth in the background
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MOON LANDING
1969
On July 20th, 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped out of the Apollo 11 lunar module becoming the first man to walk upon the surface on the moon. The primary objective of Apollo 11 was to complete a national goal set by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and perform a crewed lunar landing and return to Earth, This effectively ended the Space Race. An estimated 530 million people watched the first colour TV transmission of Armstrong’s televised image beamed from Apollo 11 back to Earth. The world was presented with high quality images gazing back towards our world. 16
"It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small." Neil Armstrong 1969
Man Takes First Steps on the Moon American Neil Armstrong has become the first man to walk on the Moon. The astronaut stepped onto the Moon’s surface, in the Sea of Tranquillity, at 0256 GMT, nearly 20 minutes after first opening the hatch on the Eagle landing craft.
The first human on the moon; Neil Armstrong
Armstrong had earlier reported the lunar module’s safe landing at 2017 GMT with the words: “Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed.” As he put his left foot down first Armstrong declared: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” He described the surface as being like powdered charcoal and the landing craft left a crater about a foot deep. The historic moments were captured on television cameras installed on the Eagle and turned on by Armstrong. Armstrong spent his first few minutes on the Moon taking photographs and soil samples in case the mission had to be aborted suddenly. He was joined by colleague Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin at 0315 GMT and the two collected data and performed various exercises - including jumping across the landscape - before planting the Stars and Stripes flag at 0341 GMT. They also unveiled a plaque bearing President Nixon’s signature and an inscription reading: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind.” After filming their experience with a portable television camera the astronauts received a message from the US President. President Nixon, in the White House, spoke of the pride of the American people and said: “This certainly has to be the most historic telephone call ever made.” Many other nations - including the UK - sent messages of congratulation. Moscow Radio announced the news solemnly in its 1030 GMT broadcast.
BBC Archive, 21.13.1969
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As Aldrin and Armstrong collected samples, Michael Collins told mission control in Houston he had successfully orbited the Moon in the mother ship Columbia, and take-off was on schedule for 1750 GMT this evening.
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Earth seen from the surface of the moon by Apollo 11
“Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.� Carl Sagan 1994
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The Overview Effect
ISS
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International Space Station with Shuttle Endeavour, 2011
The Overview Effect
The Effect of an Overview Only 500 Humans have ever left this planet.
“I spent half of 2011 living and working on-board the International Space Station. And while onboard, I spent most of any available free time I had with my face plastered to a window, gazing back at our Earth. As I watched our beautiful planet, I wondered what the world would be like in the next 50 years, and I pondered a question that gnawed at me constantly: If we have the resources and the technology to solve the challenges we face, why do they still persist?”
Since human beings first left the Earth in 1961, astronauts and cosmonauts have been talking about their experiences of seeing the home planet from space and in space. They say that there are no borders or boundaries on the Earth, except those that we create in our own minds or those that we mark on the ground with fences and barriers. Many cosmonauts describe the Earth to be like a beautiful, fragile oasis tucked amongst the vast darkness of the universe. The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.
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Earth and Moon seen from the window of Apollo 12
THE OVERVIEW EFFECT
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VOYAGER 1 Voyager 1 was launched on Sept 5th 1977 to study the outer Solar System and has travelled further into the galaxy than any object ever made by humans to date. The space probe communicates with the Deep Space Network to receive routine commands and relay high quality images and scientific data back to Earth. The space probe has provided some of the furthest images ever to be taken looking back towards earth. It is now in an extended mission to locate and study the regions and boundaries of the outer heliosphere.
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Voyager 1
Photograph taken by Voyager 1; ‘The Pale Blue Dot’
The Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken in 1990 by the Voyager 1 from a record distance of about 3.7 billion miles from Earth. It is shown as a fraction of a pixel (0.12 pixel in size) against the vast backdrop of space.
Cassini–Huygens On July 19, 2013, the probe Cassini-Huygens was pointed towards Earth to capture an image of the Earth and the Moon at a distance of 746 million miles. It was a multi-image portrait of the entire Saturn system. The imaging team said they wanted people to smile and wave to the skies, with Cassini scientist, the moment was described as a chance to celebrate life on the Pale Blue Dot. 24
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Photograph taken by Cassini; ‘The Day the Earth Smiled’
It’s All About Perspective “There is this very poetic concept that a lot of people express, that there are no boundaries in space. Unfortunately that is not true, you do see boundaries in space, they are mostly the result of human impact, you can see erosion, clear cutting of florists it’s a long litany of environmental impact that we’ve had on our planet and that;s something that when you see if from the cosmic perspective it makes you really appreciate the concept of space ship earth and that were all here together.” Jeff Hoffman
Buckminster Fuller pictured on the right coined the term “Spaceship Earth”, He was concerned about sustainability and about human survival under the existing socioeconomic system.
When we went to the moon in 1968, our total focus was on going to the moon. We weren’t thinking about looking back towards the earth, but this was the first time in the history we had seen the earth from the cosmos and that change in self awareness may well have transpired to being the single most important reason that we went.
Spaceship Earth
Since 1968 we have been developing vastly more sophisticated imaging technologies in tandem with better space craft and combined with ever greater understandings of the universe. Our planet has only ever been photographed three times from the outer reaches of our solar system. As we explore further into our solar system, our perspective of the universe is constantly expanding. We are constantly reminded of how minutiae as well as precious our own ‘Pale blue dot” is. Astronauts who have seen the Earth from space have often described the ‘overview effect’ as an experience that has transformed their perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it, and enabled them to perceive it as our shared home, without boundaries between nations or species. 25
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We live at a critical moment in human history. The challenges of climate change, food, water and energy shortages as well as the increasing disparity between the developed and developing nations are testing our will to unite, while differences in religions, cultures, and politics continue to keep us apart. The creation of a “global village” through satellite TV and the Internet is still struggling to connect the world into one community. At this critical moment, our greatest need is for a global vision of planetary unity and purpose for humanity as a whole. For more than four decades, astronauts from many cultures and backgrounds have
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This is only the beginning of the historic human evolution into space, and the resulting transformations of human culture and consciousness as we become a space-faring culture.
been telling us that, from the perspective of Earth orbit and the Moon, they have gained such a vision. Earth in space, which is immediately understood to be a tiny, fragile ball of life, hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paperthin atmosphere. From space, the astronauts tell us, national boundaries vanish, the conflicts that divide us become less important and the need to create a planetary society with the united will to protect this “pale blue dot” becomes both obvious and imperative. Even more so, many of them tell us that from the Overview perspective, all of this seems imminently achievable.
So far, this Overview Effect has been experienced by only a handful of space explorers, some 500 to date during the past 50 years, an average of 10 per year. Recent advances in cognitive science strongly suggest that these difficulties are directly related to the limitations of conventional media in communicating the rich and perspective altering experience of space. The reality, significance, and relevance of the Overview Effect to the current problems facing humanity is seldom mentioned, and its potential contribution is largely underestimated and seldom promoted.
We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. The earth pictured at night from an orbiting satellite
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This book was directly influenced by the Overview Institute. For more information: overviewinstitute.org
“We are in space already, it’s just we haven’t brought that into our perspective yet.” David Beaver
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“We went to the Moon as technicians; we returned as humanitarians.” Edgar Mitchell
vimeo.com/60234866
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The Crab Nebula Hubble Telescope 6,523 ly 31
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All images provided by NASAŠ
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www.joshhd.co.uk
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