Stardust opens Earthbound in beta: bringing the Overview Effect® down to Earth

By Jason Michaud · October 29, 2026 · 4 min read

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, Thursday 29 October 2026. Stardust today opened Stardust Earthbound in beta: a free live map of Earth that anyone can open in a browser at stardustinc.ca/earthbound, and a year-round programme that will grow on it. The map is open to everyone. Putting yourself on it, planting a tree that carries your call sign, logging what you have actually seen from your own window, is being opened a few people at a time, from a list Stardust members can join today. The Overview Effect® is the shift astronauts describe when they look back at the planet and see one place with no borders on it. Frank White named it in 1987, and gave this announcement its words. Stardust has spent years putting space in front of people who were told it was not for them, with 1,167 members in 70 countries and 224 volunteer ambassadors in 49 countries. Earthbound is the view itself, the Station and the sky over any town on one map, and what those people do with it. "At a critical moment in our planet's history, Project Earthbound can play a key role in 'bringing the Overview Effect® down to Earth,' and shifting our paradigm from 'surface thinking' to 'Overview Thinking,'" said Frank White, Author, The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution. The beta opens in stages on purpose. Stardust meets everyone who joins, and a place on the list is given by the team rather than passed between members, because the platform is open to people of every age and that is not a decision a stranger gets to make. The programme will grow in five pillars. The first door, planting a tree, is open to members with a seat today; the rest open through the coming year. Water and restoration. Stardust aims to put clean water and orbital hydrological data in reach of underserved, rural and remote communities, and asks every member to plant a tree. Each tree goes on the Earthbound map with the planter's call sign, so a forest grows one pin at a time. Education and young people in care. Free space courses, mentors from the industry and live mission data for schools in rural, Indigenous and under-resourced regions, and a pathway built with care organisations for foster youth and children in care into education and technology. Membership is free, and where the paid tiers would be a barrier a Stardust scholarship covers them, with no proof of circumstances asked for; anyone can fund a place at stardustinc.ca/sponsor. Frontline relief. Stardust aims to deliver satellite imaging, fire detection and flood routing to emergency responders and local agencies free of charge during disasters, and will put its ambassadors behind local food banks and the organisations that look after people without a home. Indigenous leadership, led by Anangokaa. Stardust has worked with Mattagami First Nation and its company Mattagami Aki, in northeastern Ontario, for years. That work is Anangokaa, and Anangokaa leads this pillar. Communities lead their own part of Earthbound: their land, their water, their data, their call. Mental health and connection. The Overview Effect® is a shift in how a person sees, so Earthbound names it. Stardust does not provide therapy and does not claim to. It will point people to the support networks, agencies and groups where they actually live, in their own country, and to the organisations qualified to help. "I grew up in a small village in northern Ontario where space felt like something that happened to other people. Astronauts come home saying the planet has no borders. Earthbound is our way of handing that view to everyone, starting with the kids who were told it wasn't for them, and then asking what they'll do with it," said Jason Michaud, founder of Stardust. Stardust Earthbound is in beta now at stardustinc.ca/earthbound. Joining Stardust Odyssey is free, at any age, and members can ask for a seat in the beta from inside the platform. More on the programme at Stardust 2026: online from Monday 2 to Thursday 5 November, and in Seattle on Friday 6 November 2026, at stardustinc.ca/stardust-2026. ABOUT STARDUST Stardust Odyssey is a free space education platform. Stardust Inc. is a Canadian company, based in Iroquois Falls, Ontario. Stardust USA LLC is the US entity. Seattle is its official United States home. Stardust also has an office in Dubai, at Ontario Tower in Business Bay. It is not an accrediting body, and no government or agency accredits space education. The Overview Effect is a registered trademark owned by Frank White. MEDIA CONTACT Shifa Zahra Director of Space Biology and Strategic Partnerships, Stardust Inc. shifa.z@stardustinc.ca Jason Michaud Founder, Stardust Inc. jason.m@stardustinc.ca stardustinc.ca

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