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.
Since the beginning of everything, the universe has been remaking itself… since the first flash of existence, reality has been changing the definition of what it is supposed to be… since our version of the laws of nature settled upon a seemingly stable form and continued to do things in the same way, a cycle of repetition has been what has become the most important aspect in the process making sure that nothing stops and then starts running in reverse… since the ignition of the engine of the world in which we live within began the series of mechanisms that keep every single one of the worlds orbiting their stars, as well as keep the stars of their individual galaxy encircling the dark maelstrom of the supermassive black hole at their centre, nothing has been able to break free of what was set in motion when space, time, and all the elements of life in all its varied forms was created by something powerful - unlike us, but connected to us - whose purpose was to make the most of the moment that was needed to bring order to chaos… since the first eyes looked up and gazed at the heavens above, people have been asking: why? Why are we here? Why does what always happens have to happen? Why allow us to question our existence and to ask the ultimate question: why? since everybody has their own individual answer to the question of how we got to where we find ourselves, all each of us can do is remember that things happen for a reason, life is sometimes what it is and what it was always supposed to be, questions and the search for the truth are what will keep people exploring as they always have, forever; but one thing is for certain - and something that stories, myths, scripture, and the picture of the cosmos that anyone can see with their own eyes every night after dark: all that has happened before will happen again, and again - because it is supposed to.
Last night the tail of a meteorite
streaked across the sky...
last night a star fell to Earth
and as it burnt up in the atmosphere
those who were lucky to be looking up
were hypnotized by the sight
of this interstellar visitor being
transformed from a space rock
into a fireball of energy and light.
Whenever a piece of the cosmos
gets so close to our world
that it can almost touch it
there is always something magical about it...
whenever our ancestors witnessed
an interstellar phenomenona
they always found a way to
somehow make a record of it -
because it was always believed
that whenever a piece of outer space
was seen by the people of our planet
it was a sign and potentially heralding
a time of great change was due to begin.
Today I could feel that something
had indeed changed...
today I could feel that something -
call it a wave of fate -
was carrying me to somewhere
I needed to be once again...
today I could feel this pull -
like the force of gravity -
take me away and remind me
of who I used to be once upon a time
and who I will always be no matter
where I am or who I am with...
today was beautiful, amazing,
and transformative in so many ways...
today was full of life, nature,
and bright sunshine that shone down from above
and made sure that everything that I saw
and everywhere that I went
my eyes were gifted by the beauty
of our world that can only be seen
when nature is spectacularly
and celestially lit.
Every day overlaps with the last… every day everybody’s thoughts overlap with their memories of the past… every day people realize that there are things that are harder to distance themselves from because of the tangle of lose threads that continue to dangle from the fray of where we have been… every day the stories of people far and wide become connected to one another as if by fate in ways that can sometimes feel like a dream… every day in this world people from the past, the present, and the future meet and metaphysically shake hands, because some things, like music, cross time and space and find mutual friends who they feel understand them… every day everybody wades deep into the ocean of life and consciousness – especially while they are asleep, and everybody can find themselves stuck in a whirlpool from which it can be hard to break free… every day as we get older every day feels like it is here, there, and then gone again in a flash… every day is new and unique – however, more often than not, the events of yesterday, today, and tomorrow will always find a way to invariably overlap.
Whenever I look at an image of the beautiful Helix nebula – an image captured of an region of space within the constellation of Aquarius, almost 695 light years from Earth – I, like many others, not only see a beautiful planetary nebula that looks almost similar in appearance to both the “Cat’s Eye Nebula” or the “Ring Nebula” – but I also see what looks like some kind of celestial eye looking back at me, because the more that you look at the Helix nebula the more that you see an image like that of the iris of an eye, and which is most likely why the Helix nebula’s colourful and vibrant blue, green, gold, and red appearance when seen through the filters of the visual spectrum is often referred to as the “Eye of God”: because once you see it you never forget it.
Mark Hastings 