Alan Stern & Frank White talk about: Pluto, the Overview Effect, and the Future of Space Exploration
- Iris Fisher
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Frank White wrote a book about the ‘Overview Effect’ in 1987!
In this interview here with Alan Stern, about perseverance (a question asked by a viewer on live YouTube chat), Frank says that when his book was first published, he hoped it would become an instant “revolution on consciousness on planet Earth”.
Then says: “it took 40 years”, laughs a little and adds, “we still have a ways to go”.
Indeed, Frank was ahead of his time.
Although there were many men and women astronauts who had gone to space by the late ‘80s, spaceflight was nothing like what it is today; the cadence of flights, the number of people who get to experience it, especially now with flights with “tourists” on suborbital spaceflights and their vehicles (New Shepard and Unity by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic respectively), did not yet exist when the book was out.
The Overview Effect was a concept that came once to Frank on a regular airliner flight, 30-something-feet in the air, and his realization that astronauts are way higher than that, they get spectacular views of the Earth’s curvature and the blackness of space, and how that must be a feeling of awe like nothing else on Earth.
Yes, astronauts spoke regularly about the beauty of it all quite often, but up until Frank came up with that term, nobody could really name that unique type of awe and life-altering, cognitive shift that came from it.
Alan also responded to that question about perseverance, initially directed at him.
Specifically, the question was:
“What did New Horizons teach you about keeping a long-shot alive that you wish you'd known at the start?”
Alan’s response was the following:
“Dogged persistence is really important.”
“If you think you’re doing something important, don’t let anybody tell you ‘no’.”
He adds that he “just believed in the value of it.”
Of course, it turned out that he was right to keep persisting.
He explains it as such:
“It turned out to be spectacular scientifically. It really changed not just our view of Pluto, but what small planets are all about. It changed our understanding of how active and how the engines of small planets work. And when we thought that they would be dead worlds and Pluto is anything from it.
“More importantly maybe even the science. It turned so many people on to science and exploration when we did that in 2015, and the worldwide acclamation for it and the excitement from people who had never seen anything like it because they were born long after Voyager and all those pioneering first flights to planets.”
Alan ends it with:
“Just stick with it if you believe it. And it will be hard and it may seem almost impossible but if you really believe in it go after your goal. And if you can bring other people in, teamwork’s the recipe for success.”
Those are straight-shooter, pep-talk-like lessons for anyone that needs encouragement, motivation and inspiration to move forward, especially on an ambitious endeavor or venture.
I first learned of those very lessons about the New Horizons’ journey (first on
Earth and then across the Solar System), and on perseverance from Alan’s book: Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic New Mission to Pluto (along his co-writer, David Grinspoon).
The book has inspired me then as I read it and its lessons and story still inspire me today (even though I may seem a bit biased – IYKYK) – I genuinely love the New Horizons mission.
I also love the whole concept of the Overview Effect.
Although it’s “just” a term that Frank White once came up with, the Overviw Effect is a very real phenomenon. And giving it a name, a description, and a book about it that emphasizes on how impactful and unique experience it really is has been groundbreaking – Frank did that.
I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Frank a few years ago and hear a talk he gave on the Overview Effect. It was beautiful, heartfelt and inspiring.
As many astronauts have said something similar on the subject, here’s one specific quote by Jeff Hoffman, former NASA astronaut, who sums it up perfectly.
“You’re out there in a spacecraft; you look through the window and realize that on the other side of the window is a vacuum. And most of the Universe is like that; it’s totally hostile to life.
We never sense that here on Earth. I mean, the Earth is friendly to life. But we take it for granted.
But you go out there and you’re in the middle of this hostile environment, which is almost all of the Universe and then you look down at our planet, and truly appreciate, in a visceral sense, emotionally, how our planet has given birth to life and protects life, and in return, we better protect or planet because right now, it’s all we’ve got!”
This interview, more like a chat between Frank and Alan, is insightful and inspiring.
Just like with the book Chasing New Horizons, with this interview, I highly recommend listening to/watch their conversation, whether knowledgeable or not on the subjects of space exploration, suborbital spaceflights or the Overview Effect, if just for the inspiration on persistence, and lessons learned which can be useful for your every-day life or for your future endeavors or mission.
Comments