Chirs Hadfield on The Overview Effect

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has flown a space shuttle to Mir and stayed aboard the International Space Station where he created a series of popular YouTube videos, including one in which he sang David Bowie's classic song "Space Oddity." Hadfield is now retired but recently gave an interview to BBC Travel's Jim Benning. The most moving part of the interview was when Benning asked Hadfield if his time in space looking down on the planet has increased his desire to see more of the earth by traveling and visiting far-flung locales. Hadfield's beautiful, heart-felt answer references The Overview Effect, something I have written about several times here on "Oh, By The Way" (most notably here and here).

Astronaut Chris Hadfield conducts a "fit check" inside the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft (Photo credit: NASA/Victor Zelentsov)

"It’s not so much my wanderlust that’s changed, it’s more a respect for the absolute commonality of the human experience. Yes, there’s a strong local influence – our own history and culture and sets of laws – but when you go around the world every 92 minutes, the sameness overwhelms the differences. The repeated pattern of human habitation. How we set up cities. How that pattern looks whether it’s a city in Alberta or Africa or Australia. You’re passing over Canada and in 20 minutes you’re over Africa. You see the commonalities much more strongly than you see the differences.

I think that is actually the reality of the world – the shared common nature of our experience. We tend to exaggerate our differences and become extremely used to our own set of biases. But travel teaches you the shared nature of being human. And it’s extremely important, because so much of our bad decision-making – at personal, business, national and planetary levels – is driven by myopia and a lack of understanding of anything beyond our normal confines. The more people can see of the world, the better their decision-making will be."

Read the entire original interview at:
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20150511-why-i-love-the-world-astronaut-chris-hadfield

The Overview Effect

"I really believe that if the political leaders of the world could see their planet from a distance of 100,000 miles their outlook could be fundamentally changed. That all-important border would be invisible, that noisy argument silenced. The tiny globe would continue to turn, serenely ignoring its subdivisions, presenting a unified façade that would cry out for unified understanding, for homogeneous treatment. The earth must become as it appears: blue and white, not capitalist or Communist; blue and white, not rich or poor; blue and white, not envious or envied."
--Michael Collins, Gemini 10 & Apollo 11 astronaut

This film was taken by the Mercury-bound MESSENGER spacecraft during a gravity assist swingby of its home planet on Aug. 2, 2005. Several hundred images, taken with the wide-angle camera in MESSENGER's Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS), were sequenced into a movie documenting the view from MESSENGER as it departed Earth. Comprising 358 frames taken over 24 hours, the movie follows Earth through one complete rotation. The spacecraft was 40,761 miles (65,598 kilometers) above South America when the camera started rolling on Aug. 2. It was 270,847 miles (435,885 kilometers) away from Earth - farther than the Moon's orbit - when it snapped the last image on Aug. 3.

This film is inspiring and utterly heartbreaking to me on so many levels. Don't make me explain why.

(Read about The Overview Effect here.)

Eyes In Space with José González

José González (previously here and here) has been working on a solo album, "Vestiges & Claws," for the last seven years and it is finally due this February 17th, 2015--I'll be counting the days. And for the song "Every Age" from the album, González collaborated with Eyes In Space and the development team at Assembled In Sweden to create an astounding video.

The Eyes In Space collective is trying to let everyone feel The Overview Effect (I referenced The Overview Effect in my survey of "The Ninth Wave" by the great Kate Bush here).

Eyes In Space says:
"Seven billion people on Planet Earth, of which only 536 are lucky enough to have seen Space. Eyes In Space aspire to change this, taking every one on a personal journey to roam the cosmos. The collective’s maiden voyage allows everyone to wander space freely using immersive 360-film to create an endless, all-sensory experience. The galactic journey is accompanied by José González’ newest release. Eyes In Space is a global collective established to mesh artistic experiment with scientific innovation to open new worlds. Space is the collective’s first destination."

Please do yourself a favor and go to the site Eyes In Space have set up to watch this video in a mind-boggling INTERACTIVE 360° version in which you can turn the camera with your mouse. Look up at space, down at the ground, or gaze at the horizon, the space between us and infinity. It is stunning.

http://www.eyesinspace.com/
http://www.jose-gonzalez.com/

http://www.assembledinsweden.com/

The Overview Effect

A very worthwhile 19 minutes...

From the Planetary Collective description of the film:
"On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.

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.

‘Overview’ is a short film that explores this phenomenon through interviews with five astronauts who have experienced the Overview Effect. The film also features insights from commentators and thinkers on the wider implications and importance of this understanding for society, and our relationship to the environment."

http://www.overviewthemovie.com/
http://www.planetarycollective.com/