Artemis mission reminds us of a time when we looked up and dreamed.

Watching the Artemis II mission completed Friday night was a welcome reminder of a time when we looked up and dreamed.

It’s important to do that, even as we despair over the continued conflict in the Middle East and other battles across the Earth.

One represents the best of mankind — daring to explore, breaking boundaries, seeking knowledge that will benefit the world. The other is just the latest tragic moment in our history, as we attack and kill, repeating the sins of eons past.

On Friday, NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen completed a 10-day trip around the moon in the Orion spacecraft. They conducted multiple tests in deep space while sharing their journey with billions of their earthbound brethren. 

It’s the stuff of dreams and science fiction, but it is fact. The four astronauts were kept busy during their flight.

“They will conduct manual spacecraft operations and monitor automated activities; evaluate Orion’s life-support, propulsion, power, thermal, and navigation systems; perform proximity operations activities; assess habitability and crew interfaces; and participate in science activities, including lunar surface observations and human health studies, that will inform science operations on future Moon missions,” according to NASA. “They also will practice mission-critical activities, including trajectory adjustments, communications at lunar distances, and piloting Orion during key phases of flight, culminating in a re-entry and splashdown to further validate the spacecraft’s performance with crew aboard.”

Artemis II is the first mission to the moon since Apollo 17 made the sixth lunar touchdown in 1972. We first reached the moon in 1969 when Apollo 11 landed, fulfilling a promise from President John F. Kennedy.

“We choose to go to the moon,” Kennedy said at Rice University in Houston on Sept. 12, 1962. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Why did we stop? Money was, as always, a central issue. Funding was cut, and with JFK’s goal accomplished, much of the public lost interest.

We have still explored space, with Skylab, the Space Shuttle, the Mir space station and the International Space Station providing access to the stars. But we have not revisited our silent satellite, the moon.

The Artemis II mission obtained a close look at it — for space anyway — coming within 4,070 miles of the moon during its closest approach. It went further than any other in our history, reaching a maximum distance of 252,760 miles from Earth. That’s about 4,101 miles farther than Apollo 13 ventured in 1970.

President Donald Trump phoned the astronauts and accurately labeled them “modern-day pioneers.”

They are at the vanguard of a new frontier that we must continue to explore. These four have carved their name in world history and deserve to be remembered for their courage.

“Today you’ve made history and made all America really proud, incredibly proud,” Trump said.

He also promised more lunar visits, as astronauts will return to the surface. There are plans for a lunar station, and in time, “the whole big trip to Mars,” the president said.

That will be a new experience for the astronauts, and for all of us who ride along from our couches.

We must celebrate these heroes who braved danger and death in the name of progress and human achievement. Since man first gazed up, we have wondered about the stars, planets and mysteries above our heads.

Space exploration allows us to learn, to grow, to dare. It allows us to better understands the universe and our own planet, to test theories and equipment, to attempt experiments and seek advances in technology, medicine, agriculture and more.

Buzz Aldrin was the second human being to step onto the moon after his astronaut colleague Neil Armstrong. Aldrin said he thinks man will reach Mars, and he hopes it happens in his lifetime. He is 96, but holding onto that hope, and urging us onward.

“We can continue to try and clean up the gutters all over the world and spend all of our resources looking at just the dirty spots and trying to make them clean,” Aldrin said. “Or we can lift our eyes up and look into the skies and move forward in an evolutionary way.”

It’s easy to agree with the need to explore our world and worlds beyond, and also see an obvious need to reduce the damage we have done and make this a cleaner, better world. We also can wish for peace and understanding among all people and a cessation of the wars and killings that plague us every day.

Perhaps setting a goal such as further space exploration, re-establishing a physical link to the moon, and reaching Mars, can help us follow Aldrin’s advice.

Let’s look up.

Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states for four decades. He has contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Do not republish without permission.

Photo: Artemis II crew, public domain, wikimedia commons

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