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God's View of Earth
A few men and women have both felt the power of God when viewing the
Earth from afar. The Earth Day facts we as humans learn and participate
in, are multiple manipulative earth science experiments with our only
life giving partner in the universe. Each day, it is as though Earth is
just a tool of the trade of man.
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Astronauts Recall View Before Earth Day
20 April 2007 - By Seth Borenstein, Associated
Press
The rarest view in humanity -- Earth from afar --
moves many of the lucky few observers to tears and gives them a new
appreciation of that blue marble we all call home.
When astronauts return from space, what they talk about isn't the
brute force of the rocket launch or the exhilaration of zero gravity.
It's the view.
Only two dozen men -- those who journeyed to the moon -- have seen the
full Earth view. Most U.S. spaceflight has been in low orbit where
only a piece of the planet can be seen -- a lesser but still
impressive glimpse. Those travelers have seen the curvature of Earth,
its magnificent beauty, its fragility, and its lack of borders.
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Photo Courtesy NASA
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The first full view of Earth came from the moon-bound Apollo 8 during
the waning days of a chaotic 1968. Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders put
it all in perspective in a documentary: "We came all this way to
explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered
the Earth."
Some of the photos Anders took were used on posters and pins on the
first Earth Day in 1970. They've been "an environmental staple of
Earth Days ever since," said Denis Hayes, the first Earth Day
coordinator.
For Earth Day this year -- at a time when perhaps some perspective is
needed -- The Associated Press asked space travelers to recall what
it's like to see Earth from above:
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"It was the only color we could see in the universe. ... "We're living
on a tiny little dust mote in left field on a rather insignificant
galaxy. And basically this it for humans. It strikes me that it's a
shame that we're squabbling over oil and borders."
--Bill Anders, Apollo 8, whose photos of Earth became famous.
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Photo Courtesy NASA
"It's hard to appreciate the Earth when you're down right upon it
because it's so huge.
"It gives you in an instant, just at a position 240,000 miles away
from it, (an idea of) how insignificant we are, how fragile we are,
and how fortunate we are to have a body that will allow us to enjoy
the sky and the trees and the water ... It's something that many
people take for granted when they're born and they grow up within the
environment. But they don't realize what they have. And I didn't till
I left it."
--Jim Lovell, Apollo 8 and 13.
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"The sheer beauty of it just brought tears to my eyes.
"If people can see Earth from up here, see it without those borders,
see it without any differences in race or religion, they would have a
completely different perspective. Because when you see it from that
angle, you cannot think of your home or your country. All you can see
is one Earth...."
--Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American space tourist who flew last year
to the international space station.
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Photo Courtesy NASA
"Up in space when you see a sunset or sunrise, the light is coming to
you from the sun through that little shell of the Earth's atmosphere
and back out to the spacecraft you're in. The atmosphere acts like a
prism. So for a short period of time you see not only the reds,
oranges and yellows, the luminous quality like you see on Earth, but
you see the whole spectrum red-orange-yellow-blue-green-indigo-violet.
"You come back impressed, once you've been up there, with how thin our
little atmosphere is that supports all life here on Earth. So if we
foul it up, there's no coming back from something like that."
--John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth (1962) and former U.S.
senator.
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Photo Courtesy NASA
"I think you can't go to space and not be changed, in many ways ....
"All of the teachings of the Bible that talk about the creator and his
creation take on new meaning when you can view the details of the
Earth from that perspective. So it didn't change my faith per se, the
content of it, but it just enhanced it, it made it even more real."
--Jeff Williams, spent 6 months on the space station and set a record
for most Earth photos taken.
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"Earth has gone through great transitions and volcanic impacts and all
sorts of traumatic things. But it has survived ... I'm not referring
to human conflicts. I'm referring to the physical appearance of the
Earth at a great distance. That it generally is mostly very peaceful
(when) looked at from a distance."
--Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon.
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Photo Courtesy NASA
"I see the deep black of space and this just brilliantly gorgeous blue
and white arc of the earth and totally unconsciously, not at all able
to help myself, I said, 'Wow, look at that.'"
--Kathy Sullivan, first American woman to spacewalk, recalling what
she said when she saw Earth in 1984.
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"...From up there, it looks finite and it looks fragile and it really
looks like just a tiny little place on which we live in a vast expanse
of space. It gave me the feeling of really wanting us all to take care
of the Earth. I got more of a sense of Earth as home, a place where we
live. And of course you want to take care of your home. You want it
clean. You want it safe."
--Winston Scott, two-time shuttle astronaut who wrote a book,
"Reflections From Earth Orbit."
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Photo Courtesy NASA
"You change because you see your life differently than when you live
on the surface everyday. ... We are so involved in our own little
lives and our own little concerns and problems. I don't think the
average person realizes the global environment that we really live in.
I certainly am more aware of how fragile our Earth is, and, frankly, I
think that I care more about our Earth because of the experiences I've
had traveling in space."
--Eileen Collins, first female space shuttle commander.
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"You can see what a small little atmosphere is protecting us.
"You realize there's not much protecting this planet
particularly when you see the view from the side. That's something I'd
like to share with everybody so people would realize we need to
protect it."
--Sunita Williams, who has been living on the international space
station since Dec. 11, 2006.
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Photo Courtesy NASA
"I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take
care of Spaceship Earth."
--Wally Schirra, who flew around Earth on Mercury, Gemini and Apollo
missions in the 1960s.
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EDITOR'S NOTE: AP writers Rasha Madkour in Houston, Mike Schneider in
Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Alicia Chang in Los Angeles contributed to
this report.
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The
The
Labors in the Spirits of
Science
Living on the Lost Planet 
