Stewart Brand - NASA Image of Earth

NASA Image of Earth

In 1966, Brand campaigned to have NASA release the then-rumored satellite image of the entire Earth as seen from space. He distributed buttons for 25 cents each asking, "Why haven't we seen a photograph of the whole Earth yet?" He thought the image of our planet might be a powerful symbol. In 1968 a NASA astronaut took the photo and in 1970 Earth Day began to be celebrated. During a 2003 interview, Brand explained that the image "gave the sense that Earth’s an island, surrounded by a lot of inhospitable space. And it’s so graphic, this little blue, white, green and brown jewel-like icon amongst a quite featureless black vacuum." During this campaign Brand met Richard Buckminster Fuller, who offered to help him in his projects.

Read more about this topic:  Stewart Brand

Famous quotes containing the words nasa, image and/or earth:

    If we did not have such a thing as an airplane today, we would probably create something the size of NASA to make one.
    H. Ross Perot (b. 1930)

    The places we have known do not only belong to the world of space in which we situate them for the sake of simplicity. They were but a thin slice between contiguous impression which formed our lives back then; the memory of a certain image is but the regret of a certain instant; and the houses, the roads, the avenues are fleeting, alas! as the years.
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)

    Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
    Weep, and you weep alone,
    For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
    But has trouble enough of its own.
    Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919)