The Autonomous Space Agency Network (ASAN), an independent advocate of DIY space exploration, has a message for Donald Trump and they’ve launched a weather balloon into the stratosphere to send it: “@realDonaldTrump LOOK AT THAT, YOU SON OF A BITCH.” It’s honestly not as confrontational as it seems at first glance.
The Overview Effect is a phenomenon that many of the lucky few to visit space have reported feeling. It simply describes a cognitive shift in which the person suddenly felt the enormity of the universe and the silliness of human squabbles. Edgar Mitchell was one of the astronauts who reported this change in his understanding of life. Mitchell was the pilot of Apollo 14 and the sixth person to walk on the Moon. When he came back to Earth he had this to say:
You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, “Look at that, you son of a bitch.”
The beauty of what ASAN is calling the “First Protest in Space” is that it could be referring to any complaint you’d like to lodge about Trump and his “America first” approach to leadership. There are a lot of people on this big blue orb and they’re going to need the planet that the president is so tirelessly working to destroy. Also, he’s a real son of a bitch, so there’s that too.
You can see the full launch of the out of this world tweet below.
[YouTube via Motherboard]