  Ecosphere REVIEW 2018 celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the iconic photograph Earthrise taken from Apollo 8 in 1968 by astronaut William Anders. Excerpt from Letter sent to Sister Mary Jucunda dated May 6, 1970 by Dr. Ernst Stuhlinger -from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center- in response to the question "Why Explore Space?"/LETTERS OF NOTE, An Eclectic Collection of Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience Compiled by Shaun Usher/2013 "The photograph which I enclose with this Letter shows a view of our Earth as seen from Apollo 8 when it orbited the moon at Christmas 1968. Of all the many wonderful results of the space program so far, this picture may be the most important one. It opened our eyes to the fact that our Earth is a beautiful and most precious island in an unlimited void, and that there is no other place for us to live but the thin surface layer of our planet, bordered by the bleak nothingness of space. Never before did so many people recognize how limited our Earth really is, and how perilous it would be to tamper with its ecological balance. Ever since this picture was first published, voices have become louder and louder warning of the grave problems that confront man in our times: pollution, hunger, poverty, urban living, food production, water control, overpopulation. It is certainly not by accident that we begin to see the tremendous tasks waiting for us at a time when the young space age provided us the first good look at our own planet..." Ernst Stuhlinger, Associate Director for Science/May 6, 1970 |
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