The Greatest Adventure in the History of Humankind Just Resumed After 50 Years

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth

Of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things ...

Where never lark, or even eagle flew—

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod

The high untrespassed sanctity of space,

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

-- "High Flight", 1941 by RAF pilot John Gillespie Magee Jr. 

I'm slightly too young to remember when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldren broadcast back to Earth the immortal words, "This is Tranquility Base. The Eagle has landed." But I was alive then. And growing up in that age, and raising two sons who shared in my passion for space travel, today we are all this kid:

Generations from now, when lifting off from terra firma into the depths of space is commonplace - whether it's low Earth orbit, or the permanent base that's now planned for the lunar surface, or the eventual goal of inhabiting Mars and becoming a multi-planetary species - is finally realized, our descendants will never notice the half-century gap between the Apollo missions and Artemis. It will be a blip in the technological evolution of the human race. No more thanhe 65 years between the First Flight of the Wright Brothers and Apollo 11. 

But today, and for the 10 days of this mission, it is, to borrow a phrase, a giant leap for mankind. 

Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover, and Mission Specialists and Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen are a mere six days away from being the furthest away from Earth of any human beings who have ever existed. They'll be so far beyond the moon as they pass it by and return in a figure-8 trajectory, that they won't be in its orbit. As much as 6,000 miles above the lunar surface. Their willingness to risk their lives in this endeavor, and to trust the thousands of literal rocket scientists, engineers, designers, administrators, as well as the math of Sir Issac Newton, is a testament to the spirit of our species. Of the miracles we are capable of. And proof we are more than just highly evolved apes.

Of course some people will ask "Why?" When the default question needs to be "Why not?" If we have the God-given intelligence to explore the the solar system and beyond, it would be a sin to not do so. 

But also, there are practical reasons. The dust on the surface of the moon, the lunar regolith, contains high quantities of Helium-3, and element that can be used in nuclear fusion. Which would be a safe, clean, abundant, limitless energy source and will make things like fully integrated AI possible. And the aforementioned permanent lunar base will be a major step toward colonizing Mars. We were built to do these things. As JFK put it, "Not because they are easy, but because they are hard." And these four intrepid explorers, and the thousands who just safely lifted them into space, are leading the way. 

What a time to be alive. Those cheap science movies we used to watch in elementary school and all those boring rides at EPCOT are now becoming reality. We should all be grateful we're here to witness it.