Jennifer K. Levasseur
Department of Space History at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Washington, D.C.[21/05/2022]
An Astronaut-Eye View of Changing Urban Development
The sublimity of looking at Earth from space, often called the “overview effect,” shapes the impressions and words of astronauts. The evidence of what they see, in the form of photographs and videos, changes how the Earth-bound understand our impact on the globe. Given an astronaut’s opportunity to float above the Earth from as close as 100km or as far as the orbit of the Moon (377,000km), urbanism moves in and out of focus. High-powered camera equipment clarifies and obscures evidence of human activity, how both natural and political boundaries are overcome or pushed against. This presentation focuses on the changing view of that landscape over the age of human spaceflight. Using urban examples from around the globe, change over time is clear from the astronaut-eye view. Those who serve as our surrogates in space exploration provide visual and impressionistic points of view, evidence of how we have literally and figuratively reshaped the planet.
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