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One Giant Leap!!
Written on October 24, 2019

One Giant Leap!!

Jane and I recently attended Purdue University’s 150 year birthday celebration.  One of the weekend’s highlights was a luncheon with 13 of Purdue’s 25 astronaut alumni.  These remarkable men and women shared their space experiences including preparation, space module conditions, future exploration opportunities and benefits, and in a somber moment, their personal losses following the Challenger accident.

Many of the astronauts commented about viewing earth from space.  Here are a few of those comments.

Credit NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Image by Reto Stöckli (land surface, shallow water, clouds). Enhancements by Robert Simmon (ocean color, compositing, 3D globes, animation). Data and technical support: MODIS Land Group; MODIS Science Data Support Team; MODIS Atmosphere Group; MODIS Ocean Group Additional data: USGS EROS Data Center (topography); USGS Terrestrial Remote Sensing Flagstaff Field Center (Antarctica); Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (city lights). This spectacular “blue marble” image is the most detailed true-color image of the entire Earth to date. Using a collection of satellite-based observations, scientists and visualizers stitched together months of observations of the land surface, oceans, sea ice, and clouds into a seamless, true-color mosaic of every square kilometer (.386 square mile) of our planet. These images are freely available to educators, scientists, museums, and the public. This record includes preview images and links to full resolution versions up to 21,600 pixels across. Much of the information contained in this image came from a single remote-sensing device-NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS. Flying over 700 km above the Earth onboard the Terra satellite, MODIS provides an integrated tool for observing a variety of terrestrial, oceanic, and atmospheric features of the Earth. The land and coastal ocean portions of these images are based on surface observations collected from June through September 2001 and combined, or composited, every eight days to compensate for clouds that might block the sensor’s view of the surface on any single day. Two different types of ocean data were used in these images: shallow water true color data, and global ocean color (or chlorophyll) data. Topographic shading is based on the GTOPO 30 elevation dataset compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey’s EROS Data Center. MODIS observations of polar sea ice were combined with observations of Antarctica made by the Nat

“Seeing earth from space is transformative.”

 – Beth Moses                   


“I was looking at the home of all of humanity, a fragile, beautiful planet that we need to protect.”

 – Mark Polansky                


“The sunrises and sunsets reveal the earth’s atmosphere – a very thin layer that protects us.”

– Gary Payton                     

I had a wonderful one-on-one conversation with Gary Payton during which I mentioned our firm’s commitment to sustainable investing.  The sharing of his space experience and observation has further solidified that commitment.

- Sam

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