“Just remember that you’re standing,
on a planet that’s revolving;
revolving at 900 miles an hour.”
– Galaxy Song from Monty Python’s Meaning of Life.
Until the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 we had no perspective on our own planet.
It’s hard for us now to imagine that now. Pictures of our planet are beamed in from satellites every day. Google Earth is available at our fingertips.
But until the crew of Apollo 8 took that photo of the earth from outer space, we had not seen our planet as a whole.
The only context we had for our planet was how cartographers had drawn it – coloured countries, with neatly defined borders.
After this mission into space, and the resulting photographs were shared across the planet, everyone saw the Earth as a whole. A single and spectacular planet.
In this video, a heartfelt plea is made for the continued funding of NASA.
Why? Well, it’s all about perspective.
Only once we were able to think of Earth a whole planet, not just a bunch of countries drawn on paper, did we begin to comprehend the bigger picture, so to speak. This video highlights of the game-changing events that happened after, and as a result of, the Apollo 8 mission.
What can we learn from space exploration?
Firstly, that we need to keep pushing our boundaries, keep exploring. We are all explorers. Space, may indeed be the final frontier.
Secondly, that until we have context and a complete view of a situation, we often lack the insight to make game changing moves.
