We went to the Moon … and discovered the Earth
There is no better place than space to realise the inherent unity and oneness of everything on the planet and the irreplaceable value it has for all of us.
On July 20th of 1969, Commander Neil Armstrong descended from the lunar module to become the first human to ever step on the surface of the Moon: one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.
We can only wonder about how such an impossible looking task was achieved. Fifty years on, the next Moon landings are being prepared and will land the first woman on the Moon by 2024.
This shows that we are still equally as intrinsically curious and eager to explore the unknown and grasp the mysteries of the vast, wonderful universe. But space exploration also puts the value of planet Earth — our only home — in perspective, encouraging us to appreciate its beauty and importance.
An awe-inspiring achievement
In September 1962, John F. Kennedy delivered a breakthrough speech in which he defined space as the new frontier and successfully invoked the pioneer spirit in the name of humanity and peace. His “We choose to go to the Moon” speech inspired many, however, the pessimists were shaking their heads, claiming it would be a nearly impossible task.
After all, we didn’t have the tools to undertake such a task back then. But in the following years, NASA and its 400,000 employees worked tirelessly to introduce inventions like spacesuits and landing modules from scratch. Actually, the Apollo flight computer design was the driving force behind early research into microchips, leading to the development of computers and sparking the digital revolution in which we live today!
Despite the technical limitations of the era, some 600 million people (an estimated one fifth of the world population back then!) watched the historical broadcast of the first Moon landing seven years after Kennedy’s promise, proving to humanity the incredible goals achievable by collective collaboration.
Kickstarting environmentalism
Although many think the main outcome of space exploration are the inventions of velcro and non-sticking pans, or the dreams of holidaying on Mars one day, it has by far more important effects.
First, it allows us to observe and understand both, our origins and the principles of physics, energy, matter, and time itself. Second, it advances the development of technologies and strategies that can help humanity thrive. But it also has a third consequence that was not foreseen by scientists and engineers: It widens our cosmic perspective, confronting us with the vastness of the universe. It offers a unique point of view to reflect about our home, about humanity and its endeavours, a point of view that significantly defined the environmentalist movement.
The Apollo program has been called the greatest technological achievement in human history. But less remembered is how it affected environmental activism in the 1970s. The photos of Earth taken by the astronauts, the most well known being Earthrise and The Blue Marble (the most reproduced photograph in history) became an emblem that perfectly depicted Earth’s fragility, vulnerability, and isolation amid the vast expanse of space.
It’s no coincidence that Earth Day was stipulated only 15 months after the publication of Earthrise. The pacifist and activist John McConnell made flags with the iconic photograph and gave them to the people at the Moon watch of the Apollo 11 landing in 1969. He then had the idea of celebrating the Earth Day, the first environmental festival. One year later, Earth Day was officially accepted and has been in our calendars since.
These new views of the Earth from space were an unforeseen revelation. The first missions to other worlds inspired interest in ecology and the protection of the Earth’s environment. At the same time, scientific advances led us to a greater understanding of the threat our impacts have on the planet. For the first time, many realized, we had the potential to disrupt or even destroy the planet’s life-support systems. The sense of environmental crisis was intensified by the social and political turmoil of the period. The challenge of sustaining civilization gave birth to a shelf-full of influential books still remarkably relevant today.
Spaceship Earth: Seeing the bigger picture
In 1969, the inventor and futurist Buckminster Fuller published a striking metaphor for a new ideal of planetary management in a book entitled Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. Fuller famously proclaimed “we are all astronauts” and argued that techniques developed for managing life in space should be transferred and applied to globally scaled environmental problems on Earth. “We are not going to be able to operate our Spaceship Earth successfully nor for much longer unless we see it as a whole spaceship and our fate as common. It has to be everybody or nobody.”
More books like “The Closing Circle” (1971) in which Barry Commoner declared his famous four ecological laws, “The Limits to Growth” (1972) or “Only One Earth: The Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet” (1972) followed to tackle the big question of what would be required for humanity to continue to thrive.
James Lovelock, a former NASA employee, and the biologist Lynn Margulis released the “Gaia Hypothesis” in 1974, a piece that propose to look at the planet Earth as a living organism, an integrated entity where geological and biological processes are interlinked. Despite the initial resistance from the scientific community, the Gaia hypothesis generated many thought-provoking questions and helped to stimulate a holistic approach to studying Earth.
The authors of the pionieering books on sustainability were all big-picture, interdisciplinary thinkers. They offered already 50 years ago a path-breaking analysis of the problem and demonstrated how building a sustainable civilization was no easy task, it sweeps everything in: science and technology, politics, economics, social relationships and ethics. We need to approach the goal from many directions, with flexibility and tenacity.
A picture that moved the world
When the Earthrise photo was published soon after Christmas Eve in 1968, the first reactions of the press were of celebration and astonishment. “It boggles the mind,” said the Los Angeles Times. “Man, after thousands of years of life on this planet, has broken the chains that bind him to Earth.”
But some criticism also appeared. “Man can leap over the Moon . . . but he can’t find a way to live at peace with his neighbours;” wrote the Chicago Daily News (28 Dec. 1968) and the New York Times (28 Dec. 1968) stated “why cannot the same kind of mobilization of resources be utilised to meet the nation’s real problems here on Earth?” Or as a columnist in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin (26 Dec. 1968) thought “Everything Earth-bound that cannot be done, everything Earth-bound that has not been understood, is made to seem a far greater failure when it is the failure of people who can touch the Moon”.
A change of perspective
As the Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean that walked on the moon November 1969 said: “We all wanted to see what the moon looked like close up. Yet, for most of us, the most memorable sight was not of the moon, but of our beautiful blue and white home, moving majestically around the sun, all alone in infinite black space.”
When seeing the Earth from outer space, we are likely to undergo a cognitive shift that manifests through a sudden realization of a deep connection to our planet. This phenomenon was exhaustively researched by Frank White, which gave it the name of the “Overview Effect” in a book with the same name published in 1987. So far, only 24 humans have had the chance to see the whole Earth with their own eyes as they ventured to deep space. Imagine the impact of seeing our home planet get smaller and smaller, surrounded by the darkness of space, or observing Earth from the Moon and being able to cover the most precious thing to all of us with just your thumb.
“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, the first man on the moon, July 1969
We can wonder why NASA didn’t think of putting a camera on the Moon pointed towards the Earth, taking high-quality pictures or even broadcasting live. But with such a difficult endeavor centered on the Moon, it’s easy to forget to look at the Earth.
Photographs of our planet didn’t appear at all on the official mission plans, they belonged in a miscellaneous category labelled “targets of opportunity” and given the lowest priority. Still, the documentation of the Apollo missions was an important part of it and the astronauts were trained in photography and equipped with the best cameras available. This resulted in high-quality pictures taken on 70mm film which still today count as some of the best shots of our planet from space.
Many others still have spectacular views, especially from the International Space Station (ISS) that orbits the planet at Low Earth Orbit every 90 minutes. They share with us their personal experiences of what it is like to live in microgravity and how it feels to see our planet from space. Also, since 2015 we have daily pictures of the sun lit side of the Earth from EPIC, a satellite positioned between the Sun and the Earth to study both of them.
Still, what’s important is that most astronauts agree that the experience of seeing our planet from space transformed their perspective. As Edgar Mitchell, the crewmember of Apollo 14, noted: “We went to the Moon as technicians, we returned as humanitarians.”
The experience has a profound impact on humanity, helping us to understand our place in the universe, giving us a cosmic perspective. Most of us can only imagine what that’s like. But we can simulate this sensation partially through pictures, astronomy apps and virtual reality. Such a deep and humbling human experience should encourage us to value our planet and promote collective solutions for its protection. As we learn more about Earth and space in general, we become more aware of how precious our planet is.
What we can achieve together
If we are able to go to the Moon and are actually planning to live on Mars, we should be able to fix the world’s problems. It’s time for humanity to unite with the purpose of finding solutions to climate change and poverty. Leaving business and pride behind, we need to focus on improving our own habitat that we share with all living beings on the Earth.
Let’s face it: we may be living in an age of mass extinction. This doesn’t necessarily mean the extinction of the human race, but at the end of a million species of both fauna and flora and the demise of whole ecosystems, including coral reefs, kelp forests, and lakes. And added to that, scientists are predicting scarcity of food and water and waves of refugees due to global warming. This will affect humanity drastically, and a lack of resources is likely to generate future conflicts.
We shouldn’t forget that we live in our own inventions. Humans created economy, politics, and industry, so it would be ironic if those inventions would end up destroying our home. So let us rethink and reinvent the game. Some propose a resource-based economy, the United Nations works tirelessly on achieving the global goals, others plant as many trees as they can and for sure we need to protect the biospheres and the indigenous people.
The missions to the Moon demonstrated what we can achieve working together. These endeavors also changed the way we view our life on Earth by expanding our cosmic perspective, making us rethink who really are; to reconsider our relationship with ourselves, each other and the world around us. Our big mission right now is to create a harmonious and sustainable life on our home planet.
The images of Earth from space have a humbling effect. During a time where global warming and inequality calls for global actions, these photographs compels us to reflect on Earth as a shared home, reminds and inspires us to come together to face the threats against humanity and our planet.
Although we have a history in seeing ourselves separated by cultural differences and national interests, sooner or later we will end up understanding and accepting that after all, we are one, a single species on a planet with a common destiny.
Eduardo Besai Santana
artist and co-founder of the cosmic-watch