Earthrise
- Jesse Allen
- Oct 18, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 14, 2022
Why is it so confronting and somewhat unnerving to see the Earth as it actually is? A blue marble floating aimlessly through space. We so typically view Earth as being this uniquely grounded object, with everything else being celestial in nature. But this image reminds us, we are just as much a part of space as the Moon, the planets and the stars in the night sky. This photograph was taken over 50 years ago, during the first crewed orbit of the Moon. While the world was following the voyage of Apollo 8 to the Moon, the crew were looking back towards their home planet, following the voyage of spaceship Earth around the Sun.
The magnificent desolation of the lifeless grey Moon in the foreground, brings emphasis to the wonderful colours of our own world; most clearly, the deep blue hue of the vast global oceans, flooding the surface of Earth with the solvent of life, water. The atmosphere, while essentially unnoticeable, is visible only from the thin blanket of white swirling clouds, a reminder that local weather events are all part of a much larger global ecosystem. The pitch black colour of the night-time Earth blends seamlessly into the void of space, accentuating our absolute dependence on the Sun, the only thing keeping us from complete and utter darkness. From this distance, there are no signs of life on this little terraqueous globe that we call home and certainly no evidence that an intelligent species has ever existed. No country lines or borders, the self-imagined boundaries that we have placed for ourselves. Zooming out to such a scale gives the illusion of tranquillity and peace, but we know this isn't so. This blue marble has been the stage of countless atrocities, those wrought by nature and those wrought by it's human inhabitants; anything looks calm from far enough away.
When looking at this view, one can't help but see Earth with the same awe that a prospector might have when gazing upon a golden nugget that they've stumbled upon in the dirt. What a truly unique marvel, how lucky we are to have it, it may be relatively small compared to everything else around, but how valuable it is.
So how did this photograph come to be...
Apollo 8 - Christmas Eve, 1968
Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders had just become the first humans to escape Earth's gravity and were now in orbit around the Moon. A roll manoeuvre being executed by Borman provided an unexpected view through Anders side window:
Anders: Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!
Borman(joking): Hey don't take that, it's not scheduled.
Anders: Haha...
[shutter click]
Despite only having orders to take photos of craters on the lunar surface, the crew of Apollo 8 knew they had stumbled across something truly remarkable. Instantly, their focus shifted from taking pictures of craters to capturing a shot of the Earth rising over the lunar horizon. The camera was initially loaded with black and white film, the following minute resulted in a scramble to located a colour film cartridge and capture the Earthrise photograph before the roll manoeuvre had taken it out of view. The full dialogue and accompanying pictures can be seen in the video below:
This photograph would go on to become the legacy of Apollo 8, and rightly so, this one image contains every single member of humanity, apart from the three on the other side of the lens. Seeing home from such a perspective had a profound impact on the Apollo 8 crew. They set out on their voyage as citizens of the U.S. and had no idea they would be returning as citizens of Earth. This perspective shift seems to be an extremely common experience for returning astronauts and this psychological phenomenon has become known as the "overview effect". The realisation that we are all astronauts on spaceship Earth and just like any other space mission, if we wish to achieve our goals we must co-operate and manage our vital resources. While undoubtedly, nothing can induce this effect as well as actually going to space, it seems that this was humanity's first small collective dose of the overview effect. Earthrise provided the inspiration behind the first ever Earth Day in 1970 and is widely credited for launching the modern environmentalist movement.
Perhaps one of the most eloquent comments about the impact of Earthrise was from Apollo 8 astronaut Frank Borman himself:
"I think it gave a lot of people hope, it transcended national boundaries. Of course, things got back to normal rapidly, but at least for an instant in history, I believe that people looked upon themselves as citizens of the Earth"
Even if the space program bore no other fruits than this moment and this one image, would it still be worth it? Although it is tempting to be bitter and pessimistic at the fact that this moment didn't last, we are only just beginning to dip our toes into space exploration. The commercialisation of space travel is rapidly increasing accessibility and a bright future of space tourism seems to be on the horizon. Perhaps we are on the brink of our next collective dose of the "overview effect", but this time at full strength. Sure the zero gravity will be fun, but we all know that the most exciting part of a Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin or SpaceX trip will be floating over to the window to look down on Earth and to finally be able to understand our place on this planet in a way that countless generations before us have only dreamt of.
The Original Earthrise
Predating the colour "Earthrise" image of Apollo 8 in 1968, is this black and white image from the 1966 Lunar Orbiter 1 mission. The full resolution of this image was not originally retrieved from the mission's data tapes, until the 2008 Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, which restored the bottom image from the only remaining set of tapes. (Image Credit: NASA)
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