Overview

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Author:   Frank White
Publisher:   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:  

9781563472602

ISBN 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."

Reviews

Two 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)

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