There are 250 billion stars like our sun in our Galaxy — the Milkyway. There are 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. These numbers are very large and that makes for a very big universe. I was always drawn to the stars and was mesmerized by the beauty of the night skies. However when I flew to the International Space Station (ISS) the first thing I turned to was Earth. There, in the deep black canvas of space, was this globe painted with hundreds of shades of blues of our oceans, surrounded by the browns and greens of our forests and in between sometimes a splash of crimson shades of the Saharas. Dancing above it all were white puffs of clouds casting shadows as if they were performing a puppet show for those of us watching this amazing dance of colors from orbit. As I watched this incredible sight, floating from 250 miles above, I realized that, yes, there are many trillions of stars and planets in our universe, but this beautiful planet we call Earth is HOME.
Training for my mission to space and living on the ISS I quickly learned that I am not an independent individual, but rather part of a delicate and interdependent closed ecosystem with my crew and the space station itself. Our livelihood is so undeniably interconnected. I experienced this first hand when the unit that generated oxygen for the station broke and I was lucky to be able to rely on my two Russian crewmates to make the repairs while my German crewmate helped them identify the part that needed to be replaced. This was a small example of many scenarios we had practiced on how to work together to solve problems quickly and collaboratively.
As I look back on my experience now that I am back here on Earth it is more obvious than ever, how we all are interconnected with each other and our home planet. Earth, much like the ISS, is a closed ecosystem, with limited resources, regeneration capabilities and our life and survival is intertwined with the health of this ecosystem. Like astronauts in space, here we have the creative minds and our collective ingenuity to find solutions as problems arise.
Seeing Earth from space makes it obvious that we have been tricked into believing that there are lines dividing us into isolated countries and nations, but that in reality on Earth there are no walls or borders separating us, or isolating us. Borders give us a false sense of security. One does not have to go to space to see this. You can experience it through millions of pictures, videos, even VR that enable you to have that point of view of Earth for yourself. Just looking at our recent experience of COVID-19, we saw how quickly the virus made its way around the globe.
We have been living on our planet much like children without paying attention to how we are impacting our world. Humanity is facing many grave challenges all at the same time, and our way of life is the cause of most of them. Pandemics like the current COVID-19, are just some of the manifestations of the deeper problems we have inflicted on our homeworld. We have melting ice caps that will cause sea levels to rise and destroy towns, and create more migration and disruption. We are experiencing unprecedented droughts, wildfires, and other side effects of global warming that have the potential to cause even greater destruction and suffering. We have a multitude of health issues caused by pollution, inefficient food supply chains, issues with water sanitation. But all of these issues can be fixed. We just need to overcome one issue, we need to come together as one.
At XPRIZE, we know that there are no problems that humanity faces that cannot be solved through the collective ingenuity of the human race. It requires us to focus our attention on the problems and with our creative imagination and our collective will to implement the solutions, we will overcome all adversities.
Everything I felt on the ISS in 2006, my hopes for unity for humanity, the sense of urgency for collaboration to preserve our only home in the universe, have all increased over time. While I see the disparities, I still have hope and I work for that unity every day.
Learn more about what you can do to help humanity face its biggest challenges at xprize.org.
THE AUTHOR
