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OverviewUsing interviews with and writings by 29 astronauts and cosmonauts, Frank White shows how experiences such as circling the Earth every 90 minutes and viewing it from the moon have profoundly affected our space travellers' perceptions of themselves, their world and the future. He shows how the rest of us, who have participated in these great adventures, have also been affected psychologically by them. He provides a rationale for space exploration and settlement, describing them as the inevitable next steps in the evolution of human society and human consciousness, as the activities most likely to bring a new perspective to the problems of life on Earth. This text considers the possible consequences of a human presence in space, both for the pioneers who settle there and for those who remain on Earth. White imagines how having a permanent perspective from outer space will affect our politics, our religion, our social relations, our psychology, our economics and our hard sciences. He confronts the possibility of rebellion by a space colony and of contact with extraterrestrial beings.And, finally, he makes it clear that our fate is in our own hands, that we will shape our future in space effectively only by fashioning a human space programme, free of excessive nationalism and dedicated to the peaceful exploration of the space frontier. Full Product DetailsAuthor: Frank WhitePublisher: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics Imprint: American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics Edition: 2nd Revised edition Dimensions: Width: 15.40cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 23.00cm Weight: 0.458kg ISBN: 9781563472602ISBN 10: 1563472600 Pages: 326 Publication Date: 30 September 1998 Audience: General/trade , College/higher education , General , Undergraduate Format: Hardback Publisher's Status: Out of Print Availability: In Print  Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock. Table of Contents"Part 1 The Overview Effect: The Overview Project; The Explorer Fish; An Overview of the Space Flight Experience; The Early Orbital Missions; Later Orbital and Lunar Missions; After Apollo; Individual and Cultural Variations; The Technological Overview; Disseminating the Overview; Space Exploration and Human Purpose; The Old Space Programme and the New Space Programme; Visions of the New Civilizations. Part 2 The New Civilizations: An Overview of the New Civilizations; Milestones and Turning Points; The Psychology of the New Civilizations; Terra; Solarius; Galaxia; Creating the Future; The New Civilizations and You. Part 3 The Experiences of the Astronauts and Cosmonauts: Yuri Alexeyevich Gagarin; Alan B. Shepard, Jr.; John H. Glenn, Jr.; Malcolm Scott Carpenter; Russell L. Schweickart; Michael Collins; Edgar D. Mitchell; Edward P. Carr; Valentin Lebedev; Joseph P. Allen; Byron K. Lichtenberg; Ronald E. McNair; Charles D. Walker; Marc Garneau; Jeffrey A. Hoffman; Edwin (""""Jake"""") Garn; Don L. Lind; Sultan Bin Salman al-Saud; Loren W. Acton; Bill Nelson; Albert Sacco; Bonnie Dunbar; Tami Jernigan; Susan Still; Janice Voss; Mary Ellen Weber; Appendices."ReviewsTwo books in one: first, an inflated, new-agey perspective on space exploration; second, an anthology of comments by 24 astronauts and cosmonauts about their off-Earth experiences. As a partisan of space flight, White has few peers. Exploration of the solar system and beyond, he trumpets, will result in a fundamental transformation of the human species, an evolutionary step unprecedented in human history. How so? White's answer mires him in space-age jargon: Spaceflight is so salutary because it produces the Overview Effect, in which the Earth is seen as a unified whole in context with the solar system and the universe. And what will this new understanding lead to? Nothing less than three new civilizations, which White dubs Terra, Solarius, and Galaxia - the last two populated by homo spaciens (!), the successor to poor earth-bound homo sapiens. Clearly there's a powerful idea here (that spaceflight is transformative), but White acts like a running back who carries the ball through the goal posts - and right out of the stadium. At least his approach is attractively eclectic, as he draws on evolutionary theory, space technology, and numerous other disciplines to buttress his optimistic, wildly speculative scheme. Ironically, the remarks by spaceflight veterans provide a down-to-earth counterweight to White's flight of fancy. Some of the astronauts echo White's enthusiams, while others toe a skeptical line. But there's uniform enchantment in hearing these firsthand accounts of a wondrous experience that just about none of us will ever enjoy, if White had contented himself with a succinct preface to these words from space, his appealing vision might gather more converts. (Kirkus Reviews) Author InformationTab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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