From the Overview Effect to "One Strange Rock": A Conversation with Leland Melvin

Leland Melvin shows the two sides of his passion, with the wonder of the "overview" showing outside his Shuttle window. [Credit: NASA]It’s hard to think of any modern human activity that has had more of a multiplicative impact on the imagination than space exploration. To date, a grand total of 562 humans have left the Earth—a trivial fraction compared to the 7.6 billion people currently staying put. Yet the images and stories of astronauts voyaging away from their home planet has transformed popular culture, education, even business and politics. Former NASA astronaut Leland Melvin is a lead agent helping to advance that transformation. In a wide range of appearances, he speaks eloquently about the “overview effect,” the life-changing cognitive shift that comes with seeing Earth from the outside. Most recently, he has participated in the new series One Strange Rock, which embraces that effect by examining the marvels of our world from astronauts’ perspectives. If there is anyone who can bring the rewards of the overview effect to a broader audience—and help make our society a little better in the process—it is Melvin, who has proven his populist bona fides not just as a public speaker and educator, but also as a wide receiver for the Richmond Spiders…and as a noted dog lover. I spoke with Melvin about his life in space, his life in sports, and his latest efforts to share the epiphany of space exploration. [For science news with a focus on the human adventure in space, follow me on Twitter: @coreyspowell] Most people will never experience space travel, but you say that space training is a lot like the more familiar process of sports training. How are they similar? Melvin: The training for flying in space and the training for the NFL, they're so similar from a mental standpoint. You are working with a team of people to get a win. For space, getting the win means getting to space safely. In the Space Shuttle, you have four people in the cockpit working together as one unit to make sure that any malfunction that pops up, anything that happens, you can figure it out as a team, you can back each other up, and you can into space safely. When I was a wide receiver there was a similar kind of relationship. On the fly, you have to make contact with the quarterback. A lot of times it’ll be eye contact because the screaming from the crowd can be so loud that you can't even hear anything. When I think about doing this mind meld between the quarterback and the receiver, to change and to do things on the fly, we do the same thing in the Shuttle. There can be so much chatter going on, we may communicate non-verbally by tapping the checklist or by pointing to a bank of switches. In both situations, there’s that connection. You just know what you’re going to do, you know what you're going to do as team.