As I was writing the final chapters of the first edition of The Overview Effect, it became clear to me, from everything the astronauts and cosmonauts had said, that exploring the universe was much too big a job for one space program, one country, or one company.
It also became clear that, while the Overview Effect could function as a unifying force for humanity on Earth, nothing like it existed once we began to migrate out into the rest of the solar ecosystem.
Around the same time, my friend Bruce Shackleton introduced me to the concept of central projects, which were discussed in an article by Willis Harman. Willis had been a colleague of Edgar Mitchell and was deeply involved in creating the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
The article describes central projects as long-term efforts by a society to create something that would have a physical form, but spiritual meaning, using the best energies of that civilization.
Building the pyramids in Egypt and the Gothic cathedrals in Europe represented examples of central projects from the past. The Apollo missions were also cited as a type of central project.
The idea of a central project and a global space program came together for me in the concept of the Human Space Program. In the first edition of the book, I defined it as a project that would last throughout the millennium, from 2000 to 3000, and laid out its mission, vision, goals, and objectives, as well as 20 initial tasks that the HSP could complete.
This basic structure was repeated in subsequent issues of The Overview Effect and was also detailed in The Cosma Hypothesis. I kept hoping that someone would take on this important mission and make it real, but no one did.
Along the way, I was also advocating what I called the Harvard Space Project, which had many of the characteristics of the Human Space Program. However, it would have been uniquely organized around the various Harvard faculties, such as the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Law School, the Divinity School, and so on.
I envisioned that each Faculty or School would take on one of the big challenges facing humanity as we migrated outward into the solar ecosystem. This project made quite a bit of progress, but never became an interfaculty initiative at Harvard.
In the meantime, I met Irene Porro at Framingham State University (FSU), who volunteered to take up the cause at FSU, where she headed the Christa McAuliffe Center.
We launched what we called the Academy in Space Initiative in the spring of 2016, with the intent of going beyond Harvard and Framingham State and involving a multitude of universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher education worldwide.
Not long after that, in May of 2016, I gave a presentation to my reunion class at Harvard about the Human Space Program. That presentation was well received and one of my classmates, Ted Field, said he wanted to help me, but he suggested expanding the idea to include national space programs, businesses, and other institutions.
I agreed and we began to work on this expanded concept. It seemed to me that it was now evolving into something very close to the Human Space Program, so I suggested to Ted that we give it that name. He agreed, and the HSP was born.
Greg Barr, Irene, and I now comprise the board of directors of the Human Space Program, which is incorporated as a nonprofit organization in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. We are grateful to have now obtained our tax exempt, 501(c)3 status from the Internal Revenue Service.
We have been joined by a dedicated team of volunteers working to implement the original vision of the Human Space Program, laid out so many years ago in the first edition of the book.
Since it is a thousand-year project, we can say with some pride that we have completed the first 21 years, and only have 979 to go!
All the best,
Frank
We invite you to help support the Human Space Program Mission.
Frank White
Space Philosopher, author of The Overview Effect
“I hope people will come to understand that space exploration is not about escaping Earth but is about coming to appreciate her more fully.” - Frank White
Frank White’s theory of the Overview Effect has helped provide astronauts with concepts and language to articulate the profound shift in worldview they experience when viewing the Earth from space and in space. Now, much of the world has adopted this framework in describing our innate interconnectedness.
His book, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution, is considered by many to be a seminal work in the field of space exploration, making him one of the most influential space philosophers of our time.
White is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and a Rhodes Scholar. He earned his M.Phil. in Politics from Oxford University.
He has authored or coauthored 14 books on topics ranging from space exploration to climate change. Planetary Collective’s film, “Overview,” based largely on his work, has had nearly 8 million plays on Vimeo.
Frank is co-founder and president of the Human Space Program, a central project to develop a citizen-authored blueprint for conscious space migration and stewardship of the solar ecosystem.
For more about Frank, please visit his website.
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The Human Space Program is a registered US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
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