"Gagarin's Breakfast." Image: Alex Akindinov
In order to bring the Overview Effect down to Earth, so to speak, researchers must first understand the psychological and neurological forces at play when astronauts experience it.Fortunately, there appear to be a lot of overlapping elements to the experience of having one's brain doped up on Earth's beauty. Broadly speaking, space travelers report feelings of transcendence, spiritual awakening, euphoria, and epiphanic oneness with the planet and its inhabitants. Many cite the mesmerizing richness of Earth's lush colors, or the obvious lack of artificial national borders. Astronauts may feel permanently changed by the Overview Effect, enacting lifelong modifications to their habits and outlook when they return to the planet.The 2012 short film "Overview," released in tandem with the 40th anniversary of Apollo 17's iconic "Blue Marble" picture, delves into some of these accounts in more detail. Video: The Planetary Collective/VIMEO
Yaden thinks these positive mental health benefits should play a role in optimizing astronaut well-being as humans push farther into space. He is also interested in experimenting with simulating some of the effect's revelatory impact to people on Earth, through immersive technologies."Our first studies on the Overview Effect will use existing VR platforms, but we are looking to partner with space tourism companies, virtual reality program developers, and even planetariums to expand the contexts in which we can evoke and measure the effects of awe experiences like those reported by astronauts," he told me.Entrepreneurs are also interested in relaying versions of the Overview Effect to a global audience. Last year, I talked to the founders of SpaceVR, a startup that is shooting to send VR cameras to orbit in 2017. Appropriately enough, the company's flagship model is named Overview 1."Since Yuri Gagarin, we've had 540 people experience the Earth from space," SpaceVR CTO Isaac DeSouza told me then (at the time of this reporting, the number is 549). "Five-hundred forty people experiencing space is a novelty. One million people experiencing it is a movement. One billion people, and we've revolutionized how the planet thinks of the Earth."For their part, astronauts are also eager to popularize the space-down view of Earth. Take the work of recent ISS crews, who filmed dozens of hours of high-definition digital footage from the station for the IMAX film A Beautiful Planet released this past April."We think that the Overview Effect triggers awe through both conceptual and perceptual vastness."
"Earthrise," taken on December 24, 1968. Image: NASA/Bill Anders
"I've talked about [the Overview Effect] being a message from the universe to humanity, in the sense that it is a fundamental shift in our understanding of who and where we are," White said. "The more people involved in grasping it and understanding it, the better."Luckily, more people do seem to be grasping it. The Overview Effect is by no means a household term, though it is definitely trending in the zeitgeist. On October 5, for example, the musician Regina Spektor referenced the phenomenon in a Reddit AMA in response to a question about her upbringing in the former Soviet Union: "I [sic] have a lot of feelings on Russia and America at the moment, and i think we all need to think of ourselves as Planet Earth more than separate countries right now," Spektor wrote. "I met some astronauts recently and they spoke of the 'overview effect'… we all need to come together ASAP."The vicarious view of Earth from space has become one of the most viral memes in history.

It's difficult to predict how accessible space tourism will become to the public over the coming decades. But hypothetically, if this dream of popular space exploration comes to fruition and humans mobilize off Earth in large numbers, the Overview Effect may begin to lose some of its connective power.After all, would the view of Earth still resonate for people who have never been to its surface, or perhaps couldn't even survive the gravity of it? Will the first children of Mars experience a Martian version of the Overview Effect when looking down at their planet from orbit? And how will this transformative experience evolve as Earth grows ever more distant in the rear window of its offspring?
Concept art illustrating the potential terraforming of Mars. Image: Daein Ballard
I'm not passing judgment on human space colonization as an avenue for wealth generation, human perfection, religious salvation, or any other speculative justification. I'm not even discounting arguments against off-Earth exploration, many of which question whether a species that has failed to take proper care of its home world and inhabitants has earned any right to expand to other frontiers. But given the kaleidoscopic range of views on human space exploration, it would be prudent to develop a common game plan for our potential future as Homo spaciens instead of stumbling into it blindly."Before considering the challenges for the development of off-Earth colonies, it is necessary to examine some of the most important motivations that might drive humans to colonize space and other planets," Gifra told me. He outlined five major examples: Basic survival of our species, the pursuit of wealth and power, the search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence, scientific advancement and pure exploration, and on a more transcendent note, the quest for God or the Divine.From Gifra's perspective, the motivation to pursue wealth and power has typically been the primary driver of human expansion to new frontiers, and history is filled with cautionary tales about the inherent capriciousness of this approach."Given the current state of our planet—with diminishing natural resources, a growing population, loss of biodiversity, and of course, climate change—it would be a big mistake to ignore these lessons from past," he said. "And, in fact, the pursuit of colonizing space is not only an imperative in the face of our global challenges, but also our next 'growth' engine. The sooner we switch into an off-Earth economy, the faster we will tap into the unlimited resources of space for the benefit of all humankind. Upon us depends the way in which humanity faces its reality, imagines its future, and takes its next evolutionary leap forward.""Almost all justifications for space exploration to date involve how it benefits human beings. But how do we benefit the universe?"
Concept art of an O'Neill cylinder space habitat. Image: Rick Guidice/NASA Ames Research Center
