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The Artemis II mission to circumnavigate the moon has been a soaring success for NASA, the United States, and humanity.
The scale of human accomplishment here is hard to overestimate. This first crewed mission outside of Earth’s orbit since 1972 brought four astronauts 252,756 miles away from Earth and 4,700 miles beyond the moon. It’s the farthest into space that humans have ever traveled. But this is just the beginning.
After Artemis III’s test flight into Earth orbit next year, NASA intends to return astronauts to the moon’s surface in late 2028. Considering that this will be the final year of President Donald Trump‘s term, significant resources will likely be applied to see the schedule met.
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Trump deserves credit for his leadership here. President Barack Obama’s presidency saw NASA beset by low ambition. But shortly after first taking office in 2017, Trump directed NASA’s restored focus on returning to manned space exploration.
Americans seem to very much like it.
The common response to Artemis II’s adventure has been incredibly inspiring. Across the political and social spectrum, we’ve seen a common outpouring of almost reflexive excitement and pride at what NASA and its crew have accomplished. Their accomplishment has reverberated back to Earth. They’ve taught young children another reason to dream, middle and high schoolers why being good at math and science is cool, and our best minds to seek new companionship in the cause of space exploration. They’ve taught all of us to find a new, unifying domain for patriotic optimism.
All Americans should be proud. While Russia prioritizes deploying treaty-breaking nuclear strike platforms in space and China goes for the means of destroying civilian satellite networks, America remains focused on exploration for the benefit of all mankind.
Ultimately, however, the exploration of space isn’t about nationalist competition. Space matters most because it offers the pinnacle test of human imagination, innovation, and courage. A test rewarded by great new discoveries in science and technology.
What might we find out there?
We know that the technologies applied in space exploration will help develop new modes of high-fidelity communication — note the crystal-clear pictures of the moon beamed back to Earth — new means of growing crops, recycling water and power, applying artificial intelligence, and new opportunities for energy extraction. But what new understandings of physics, chemistry, and biology might space harbor? What new developments in technology and medicine might our discoveries avail us?
The best estimates suggest there are between 100 billion and 400 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy. In our galaxy alone, there are estimated to be between 300 million and 40 billion habitable planets where liquid water, a key building block for life, could exist. There are estimated to be between 200 billion and 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. Today, the vast distances between our world and others mean that the potential for long-range exploration remains a dream. But what about tomorrow?
Will we one day discover other forms of intelligent life in the depths of space?
Considering what we’ve learned in recent years about the number of planets in our immediate stellar neighborhood that may harbor life (TRAPPIST-1 and LHS 1140 b, for example), the answer to this is far more likely to be yes than no. Indeed, we have circumstantial evidence that some of that intelligent life has already been visiting us.
While the vast majority of unidentified flying objects have conventional explanations, a small but significant minority defy easy explanation. Most coverage of these UFOs is ignored by journalists for self-interested concerns over stigma. The topic is thus largely left to entertainers who profit from sensationalism.
Still, in thousands of cases since the advent of nuclear power in the 1940s, credible witnesses (respected police and military officers) and data systems (radar, satellites, sonar, etc.) suggest the enduring presence of highly advanced, intelligently controlled machines of unknown origin. These reports should motivate us to look up at the stars. After all, just as new peer-reviewed studies indicate UFOs were in orbit prior to the satellite age, so we are also seeing new, the energy requirements problem notwithstanding, scientific theories on faster-than-light travel.
Addressing Rice University students in September 1962, President John F. Kennedy crystallized why the manned exploration of space is so intrinsic to the human condition. Going to the moon, Kennedy said, would galvanize the nation and the world in pursuit of a unifying cause of unmatched value. Kennedy concluded his speech with a rousing call for exploration.
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“Many years ago, the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked, why did he want to climb it. He said, ‘Because it is there,'” Kennedy said. “Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail, we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.”
Artemis II just reminded us of something. Kennedy’s rallying cry is timeless.
Tom Rogan (@tomrtweets) is a national security writer and editor for the Washington Examiner.
