Thirtieth anniversary of The Overview Effect's publication

April 22, 2017 at 10:11 am by Frank White

This is a pretty big year for anniversaries!

In a personal vein, I am pleased to be celebrating the 30th anniversary of the publishing of The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution. In addition, it is the 60th anniversary of the launching of Sputnik, the first human-made object to travel into orbit around the Earth. Moreover, it is the 330th anniversary of the publication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principia, which first enunciated the Laws of Gravity.

I don't mean to compare my book with the technological achievement of Sputnik, or the intellectual accomplishment of Principia, but I am happy to celebrate all three events this year.

I was really happy when The Overview Effect came out because I had been working for many years to have one of my books published. However, I also had very high expectations for sales and hoped to begin a revolution in how people viewed spaceflight with its publication.

It now appears that the revolution might indeed take place, but 30 years after the hoped-for event.

I was probably naive to think that the shift would happen overnight, and there is still a long way to go. However, the most important thing is that it happen before we irretrievably damage our planet and ourselves, and make the same mistakes as we move out into the solar system.

(To be continued)


Copyright, Frank White, 2017, All Rights Reserved

The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution is available at aiaa.org and amazon.com 

The New Camelot: the Quest for the Overview Effect is available at Apogee Prime

http://www.cgpublishing.com/prime/bookpages/9781926837383.html