But NASA is showing its puerile side by offering so little response to the multitudes who must be wishing they could do the same as him. For now we will have to satisfy ourselves with imagining how it would be. If you've ever traveled on a jet and weren't afraid to take a window seat, you'll know the world looks a lot different from high above. I've flown over familiar cities and not been able to identify anything that I saw. We're used to navigating in three dimensions, not seeing the places where we lived laid out like a map.
Bodies of water lose their liquid appearance.
Bereft by distance of their familiar qualities of movement, lakes look solid, even hard. The view from above Astronauts report that from a great distance, say from the surface of the moon, the earth looks fragile. We are so used to it surrounding and embracing us, that to see it as a discrete thing, far away, changes the awareness, inspires appreciation and respect. Life is a delicate process churning across a thin, miraculous film of air and light, enveloping a massive sphere of lifeless rock. I would love the chance to see the world that way, to discover how it would touch me.