This weekend I was fortunate enough to attend the annual Students for the Exploration and Development of Space (SEDS) conference at Boston University. At the conference, multiple speakers spoke of the future of space travel, living on mars, and a variety of amazing space technologies. But one speaker, Frank White, a storied author and Professor at the Extension School, spoke about his expertise, The Overview Effect. Frank has been working with astronauts for the past 30 years to document and detail the experience of traveling to space and how it changes the psyche.
Known colloquially as the Overview Effect, Professor White describes a cognitive shift in awareness in astronauts who have been beyond the boundaries of Earth and seen our planet from a far, simply a vessel carrying 7 billion people through the vast emptiness of space. This realization that humans are so small, so insignificant in the grand scheme of things, is said to bring on an immense truth and actually some sadness in astronauts. A sadness over the fact that not everyone on the planet has the opportunity to experience the truth and still quarrels over things like borders, religion, and ideology instead of coming together under the ties of humanity.
Luckily, also at this conference were several companies extending the offer to bring everyday humans into low orbit, to look back onto our planet and discover what it is like to escape from the grips of Earth's problems. I hope that one day every human, who chooses to, has the ability to go to space and learn what countless astronauts have felt when looking back on the small blue marble, sitting on the forever expanses of black space.
image:
http://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/55000/55418/AS17-148-22727_lrg.jpg
Cool post, Simon! 5/5
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