Space and Place in Space—Looking Back at Ourselves

Throughout their careers, astronauts could potentially spend anywhere between six months and two years in space. Leaving the Earth’s atmosphere and venturing into the vast space beyond can have a profound effect on a person. Frank White, author of The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, explores the affects of space exploration and the experiences of astronauts—in space and upon their return.

The Overview Effect
A short documentary based on Frank White's book.

The Overview Effect compiles interviews with astronauts and experts in philosophy and space exploration. It attempts to convey the overwhelming, outstanding and “awe-some” experience of traveling into space. Astronauts explain how “looking back at [yourself]” makes you realize how minor your role is in the greater universe. Astronauts discover that we as a human species are traveling on this “Earth spaceship” through space and time together, yet on the ground we cannot seem to see past our differences. On the ground, we cannot see past the great blue sky above. On the ground, we cannot see that we need to work together to survive.

So it seems that even in space, Hall’s theory that “space is understood as a structuring context for identity negotiation with consequential implications for how culture comes to be constituted and re-constituted” (p. 11) still applies. Astronauts bring to space a socially constructed identity and culture from their country on Earth. And, when they return to Earth, they return with a renegotiation of self and a renegotiation of the human race.

In addition to renegotiating space, astronauts renegotiate place. As scholar Ashcroft explains, “place is never simply a location, nor is it a static cultural memory . . .  like culture itself, place is in a continual and dynamic state of formation, a process intimately bound up with the culture and identity of its inhabitants” (Hall, p. 11). In The Overview Effect, Apollo Astronaut Edgar Mitchell explains his opportunity to reflect on his experience while in flight. Edgar says as he peered out of the shuttle window, he had “a 360 degree panorama of the heavens.” He had a moment to reflect on his studies of astronomy and cosmology. He likened the molecules of his body and that of the space shuttle to stardust. He was trying to make sense of his place in space.

Taking these celestial experiences into consideration, wouldn’t we all benefit from spaceflight? Wouldn’t international relations be substantially altered if we all experienced Earth in this “universal” way?


--- Other Sources ---

http://www.overviewinstitute.org/featured-articles/54-the-overview-effect-astronauts-unique-view-of-the-earth-and-what-we-all-can-learn-from-it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight_records