{"id":594355,"date":"2026-04-08T22:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594355\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T22:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T22:56:10","slug":"overview-effect-artemis-ii-crew-may-have-had-a-perspective-shift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/594355\/","title":{"rendered":"Overview effect: Artemis II crew may have had a perspective shift"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n As the Artemis II astronauts hurtled around the moon during their historic flyby<\/a>, basking in unprecedented views of the illuminated lunar far side, pilot Victor Glover described the visuals as \u201csci-fi.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou can actually see a majority of the moon,\u201d he gushed as the crew watched meteors strike the moon\u2019s surface. \u201cIt is the strangest looking thing that you can see so much on the surface.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That experience \u2014 viewing such an alien terrain at close range as the sun gleamed over the horizon, highlighting the troughs and peaks of a foreign land \u2014 brought home for the crew how unique our home planet is.\n <\/p>\n

\n As the crew regained contact with Earth and locked on with the glowing blue marble once again, Christina Koch marveled at lunar flyby experience but paid special homage to the comforts awaiting back home.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe will explore. We will build ships. We will visit again. We will construct science outposts,\u201d Koch said. \u201cWe will inspire \u2014 but ultimately, we will always choose Earth. We will always choose each other.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The astronauts\u2019 expressions of admiration and longing for Earth echo a long history of space explorers gaining new appreciation for their home planet.\n <\/p>\n

\n It\u2019s called the \u201coverview effect,\u201d a term coined by science author and philosopher Frank White in 1987. It refers to a shift in perspective that occurs when humans are given the chance to view Earth in the context of its cosmic backdrop \u2014 driving home how perfectly suited the planet is for our habitation and how unforgiving the great beyond appears.\n <\/p>\n

\n Koch described the phenomenon from her experience aboard the International Space Station, which orbits much closer to home than the moon at just about 200 miles (about 320 kilometers) high.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat you realize is every single person that you know is sustained\u201d by the thin band of atmosphere, which is visible in its entirety from space,\u201d Koch previously said<\/a> of her experience at the space station. \u201cEverything else outside of it is completely inhospitable. You don\u2019t see borders, you don\u2019t see religious lines, you don\u2019t see political boundaries. All you see is Earth and you see that we are way more alike than we are different.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The sensation has been reported by astronauts through generations.\n <\/p>\n

\n Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a veteran of four spaceflights from his time as an astronaut, said that Koch\u2019s words during Artemis II resonated with him.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI did hear the emotion \u2014 and she\u2019s right,\u201d Kelly said on CNN\u2019s Erin Burnett OutFront. \u201cWe will always choose Earth and we have to. The Earth is an island in our solar system, and there is no place else for us to go.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who is experiencing his first spaceflight aboard Artemis II, delivered similar remarks noting the awe Monday\u2019s lunar flyby inspired.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou know from your experience of seeing the Earth from space how it just seems different,\u201d said Hansen while speaking with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen we were on the far side of the moon, looking back at Earth, you really felt like you weren\u2019t in a capsule. You\u2019d been transported to the far side of the moon. And it really just bent your mind. It was an extraordinary human experience. We\u2019re so grateful for it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n White told NASA on a podcast<\/a> in 2019 that he began to conceptualize the overview effect even before speaking to astronauts about the phenomenon, as he imagined what it would be like to peer back at the fragile Earth from the vacuum of space.\n <\/p>\n

\n Space enthusiasts often pitch our future in outer space as an inevitability \u2014 the result of an innate human drive to explore and pursue new frontiers. But White makes the case for deeper questioning.\n <\/p>\n

\"As<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe explore outer space to benefit ourselves as humans,\u201d White told NASA\u2019s Gary Jordan. \u201cIs there some larger purpose we\u2019re fulfilling? And I asked myself, are we doing anything to benefit the universe?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat can we do to justify our existence, other than helping ourselves?\u201d White had wondered. \u201cSo that was the beginning of my quest for a broader understanding of human space exploration.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

No borders and a thin blue line<\/p>\n

\n Viewing the Earth from space, White highlights, drives home that the borders that mark our maps are largely imaginary.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat the astronauts were telling me was, \u2018I knew before I went into orbit, or went to the moon, that there weren\u2019t any little dotted lines,\u2019\u201d White said. \u201cBut it\u2019s knowing intellectually versus experiencing it. And so, there\u2019s also the striking thinness of the atmosphere, something that they see.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cStar Trek\u201d actor William Shatner, who took a brief trip to suborbital space in 2021, had a visceral reaction to seeing the small blue blanket of air from the vantage point of space.\n <\/p>\n

\n In an interview with CNN, Shatner said that when he witnessed \u201cthe blackness of space. There were no dazzling lights. It was just palpable blackness. I believed I saw death.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Like Kelly, he said the visual gave him a strong sense that humans should be better stewards of our home planet.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI thought about how we\u2019re killing everything,\u201d he said. \u201cI felt this overwhelming sadness for the Earth.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Before the Artemis II mission, Glover, who has also ventured to the ISS on previous missions, said that returning to Earth after such an experience leaves astronauts with a choice.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAre you going to try to live your life a little differently?\u201d Glover told NASA<\/a>. \u201cAre you going to really choose to be a member of this community of Earth?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n NASA\u2019s Artemis program is sending humans into deep space for the first time in more than five decades. Sign up for Countdown newsletter<\/a> and get updates from CNN Science on out-of-this-world expeditions as they unfold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the Artemis II astronauts hurtled around the moon during their historic flyby, basking in unprecedented views of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[64,63,128,285],"class_list":{"0":"post-594355","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}