The crew of the Artemis II mission to the Moon captivated and inspired a whole new generation of scientists, engineers, astronauts, explorers, artists, and storytellers from the moment that they left the pull of Earth’s gravity and they began their journey to our natural satellite for the first time in over 50 years and gave humanity the collective opportunity to experience the return to somewhere we know, to somewhere that has always been a constant in our lives, and somewhere that will one day become humanity’s first interstellar outpost, beacon, workplace, and home… for ten days, we the people of Earth stopped focusing on the chaos and the turmoil of the conflicts being fought around the world and we lifted our eyes and followed every step of the way of the 685,000 mile round trip of a crew of four sojourners as they traveled farther than any humans have ever traveled before and they got to witness the sights of the dark side of the Moon that we do not get to see here on Earth - not to mention the sight of Earth rising over the horizon of the Moon, and a spectacular solar eclipse - and they were able to share what they saw with those of us back on Earth in the form of photographs that will continue to capture and captivate the imagination of people for years to come… NASA Commander Reid Wiseman, NASA pilot Victor Glover, NASA mission specialist Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut and mission specialist Jeremy Hansen maintained almost continuous contact with Earth for almost the entirety of their journey to the Moon, and as they reached farther and farther away from this lifeboat of a planet that we all call home they gave us all so much insight and inspiration about who they are and who we all are as a people; because what that crew embodied every moment of their mission was what makes humanity so singular, so unique, so special, and so extraordinary, and what we can all achieve if we work together and never give up on the power of our dreams and our exceptional ability to make leaps into the unknown for the betterment of all of humanity… the mission of Artemis II and its phenomenal crew will never be forgotten by those who watched them and followed the story of their space adventure every step of the way and every hour of every day by those who wanted them to do what they set out to do: to return humanity to the moon and invite future generations of astronauts to follow their example and one day eclipse their accomplishments and once again return humanity to the surface of the Moon and use it as a staging ground for a future mission to the planet Mars… the crew of Artemis II have now successfully returned to Earth and are now sharing their experiences and their bond with one another with the entire world as they attempt to put into words how their mission and their journey has changed them and their relationship with Earth and all of humanity; but one thing they should be sure about is that to many of those of us who watched them, and who listened intently to every word they said, they are more than a team of astronauts; they are more than a crew of voyagers; they are the heart and the soul of what makes humanity capable of doing extraordinary things; and, in my opinion, what the crew of Artemis II shared with us here on Earth was nothing short of poetry and, to me, they are nothing short of poets.
If looked down upon from space our planet, Earth, would be seen to be a shining blue sphere teaming with possibilities and full of potential; however, you would never be able to see everything and everyone that exists on our beautiful world from orbit because you would be too removed - but if you were able to listen to what humanity broadcasts, transmits, and has shared every moment of every day, for over half a century now, then you might find it hard to understand everything that everyone is saying to one another; however, if you were to travel farther from Earth - say fifty light-years away - then you would be able to receive the transmissions of humanity that left our planet fifty years ago, and it would be like discovering a message in a bottle, or an audio signal of an era in time, that travelled at the speed of light from its source to be heard by anyone or anything that was listening in Earth’s direction.
Earth has always been a world full of stories, of civilisations, of beliefs, and our ideas about why things are the way that they are, and Earth has always been a world of invention and of dreamers who hope to be given the answer to the question of whether we are alone in the universe… for all of human existence, groups of individuals - such as scientists, artists, musicians, and believers in a particular religion - have sought to reach out their grasp and touch the face of the unknown, and reveal the truth about the meaning of life and why we are here; and since we have had the means and the resources to send living beings into space to relay back what awaits us far beyond the clouds - from dogs, to chimpanzees, to humans - as well as robotic sojourners capable of sending back images of the planets and the moons of our solar system, as well as photographs of the extraordinary phenomenon of our galaxy, humanity has been uncovering the history of the universe as well as the possibilities of reality.
In 1977, two gold disks were launched along with their respective Voyager spacecraft containing a greeting from the people of Earth, as well as images and depictions of human anatomy and the building blocks of life, the location of the sun and our solar system, and also recordings of some of the sounds that can be found and heard on our planet - such as the sound of waves crashing, birdsong, whale song, and a selection of some of the human languages that our species has evolved to use for communication between one another for centuries… even now, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 - not to mention all the other probes we have sent out into space - continue their mission and their journey into the great unknown, hopefully to be one day found by another, similar, space-faring, intelligent, innovative, and inquisitive race of beings who might wish to see whom it was that chose to take a leap of faith and send an invitation to a fellow member of the galactic community to visit a beautiful planet that is full of people, plants, animals, and other things that need to be seen and heard to be truly believed and understood; however, it’s entirely possible that we have already been visited by an intelligent interplanetary extraterrestrial species of explorers, who were drawn to our world a long time ago and who have already bore witness to the wonders of our planet, and who have long since become obsessed with the infinite number of the sounds of Earth.
Mark Hastings 