\u201cI\u2019ll tell you,\u201d said astronaut Harrison Schmitt as the Apollo 17 hurtled towards the Moon, \u201cif there ever was a fragile-appearing piece of blue in space, it\u2019s the Earth right now\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was Thursday 7 December 1972, that humanity got its first look at our planet as a whole. In that moment, the photograph \u201cThe Blue Marble\u201d was taken \u2013 one which changed the way we saw our world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can see the lights of southern California, Bob,\u201d said Schmitt to ground control about one and a half hours into the flight. \u201cMan\u2019s field of stars on the Earth is competing with the heavens.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The crew of the Apollo 17 \u2013 commander Eugene Cernan, command module pilot Ronald Evans and lunar module pilot Harrison \u201cJack\u201d Schmitt \u2013 were watching their home recede into the distance as they journeyed into space for the last manned mission to the Moon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking back towards the Earth, Cernan commented: \u201cthe clouds seem to be very artistic, very picturesque. Some in clockwise rotating fashion\u2026 but appear to be\u2026 very thin where you can\u2026 see through those clouds to the blue water below.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is an enduring image of the beauty but also the vulnerability of our planet \u2013 adrift as it is in the vastness of the Universe, which hosts no other signs of life that we have been able to detect to date. But ours is also a planet of great change. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tectonic movements that shift the landmasses move too slow for our eyes to notice. Yet another force \u2013 humanity itself \u2013 has been reshaping our planet at a pace that we can see. Urbanisation, deforestation, pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are altering the way the Earth looks. So how, over the 50 years since that iconic image was taken, has the Blue Marble changed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those first images of the Blue Marble were taken by the crew, who passed the onboard camera \u2013 a hand-held analogue Hasselblad 500 EL loaded with 70mm Kodak film \u2013 between them, captivated by the sight of the Earth from space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAll the images captured with Hasselblads are spectacularly clear and bright,\u201d says Jennifer Levasseur, curator at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC.
The camera was specially modified for use in space, she adds. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Glues, lubricants, moving parts and batteries could all cause problems or fail when exposed to the extremes of hot and cold in space. It was also given a large square shutter-release button so the crew could use it while wearing their cumbersome spacesuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe other major modification, was the removal of the viewing screen \u2013 because it\u2019s extra glass,\u201d Levasseur says, The astronauts, \u201chad to learn how to take pictures without being able to see anything\u201d, she says. \u201cWithout a viewfinder, you can\u2019t see what you\u2019re taking.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taking photos, says Levasseur, was planned meticulously and written into the mission plan. \u201cThey had known previous launches wouldn\u2019t give them whole Earth, but on this one the whole Earth would be entirely illuminated by the light of the Sun.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was around five hours and 20 minutes into the flight that the crew got their first glimpse of the entire planet. The crew were starting to get ready for bed, zipping into their sleeping bags. It was their first moment of downtime since the launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI suppose we\u2019re seeing as 100% full Earth as we\u2019ll ever see,\u201d said Cernan. \u201cBob, it\u2019s these kind of views that stick with you forever\u2026 There\u2019s no strings holding it up either. It\u2019s out there all by itself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Blue Marble image was captured at around 29,000km (18,000 miles) from Earth, as the Sun lit up the globe from behind the Apollo 17.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Almost six hours into the flight, Schmitt laughed. \u201cThe problem with looking at the Earth, particularly Antarctica, is it\u2019s too bright,\u201d he said, \u201cAnd so I\u2019m using my sunglasses through the monocular\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back home, it was nearing 05:00 at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and ground control was quiet. \u201cI\u2019m not keeping you awake, am I, Bob?\u201d asked Schmitt. \u201cJust keep talking. We\u2019re listening,\u201d came the voice from the capsule communicator. And so the conversation continued long into the flight, the crew describing the clouds drifting over the ocean and the continents of home. (BBC)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cI\u2019ll tell you,\u201d said astronaut Harrison Schmitt as the Apollo 17 hurtled towards the Moon, \u201cif there ever was a fragile-appearing piece of blue in space, it\u2019s the Earth right now\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":483602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[688],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-483599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-infotainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}