not just through the direct scientific discoveries, but more broadly through an effect on global culture, and our perception of our human relation to the cosmos. In this sense, cosmic exploration addresses issues that have perplexed us for 10,000 years.
As I recall from personal observation at the time, the first eyewitness photographs of Earth as a distant sphere – made by Apollo astronauts on their way to the moon – mesmerized the public. Posters of those images were everywhere. The concept of Earth Day and the mushrooming of modern global environmental consciousness followed within a few years. The Copernican revolution -- that 500 year explosion of human consciousness -- was extended. We are not the lords of the universe ruling from a central, imperial capital, but are more like partners of a larger, dynamic, cosmic system! Earth is a finite, fragile place, and human through the next few generations will depend on how we treat it.
People who didn't "get it" are still fighting wars based on medieval fundamentalist paradigms about dominance -- economic, religious, environmental. People who do "get it" are fostering awareness of the inter-dependency of our lives, umbilically connected to our parent planet.
Either way, through ignorance or consciousness, planetary exploration has forced us to recognize the challenge of how we will balance population, fossil resources, sustainable resources, and consumerist economies over the next 50 and 100 years, and through what socioeconomic frameworks we will eventually expand our culture beyond Earth.
Dr.
William
K.
Hartmann
Researcher / Author / artist
The Planetary Science Institute
http://www.psi.edu/hartmann/
Professional Category:
Physical Sciences
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