“I hope we are forgotten,” said Reid Wiseman, as he and the rest of his crew made history. On April 1, humanity traveled farther into outer space than ever before, a testament to the strength of the human spirit as the unknown became the conquered.
The Artemis II mission, operated by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), spent a little more than nine days in space, performing a crewed lunar flyby for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972, which came fewer than 4,100 miles from the moon.
Commander Reid Wiseman, Pilot Victor Glover and Mission Specialists Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen made up the four members onboard the first-time crewed Orion spacecraft, nicknamed Integrity. In addition to breaking the record for the longest distance traveled into space, achieved on April 6 at 252,756 miles, the mission also attached some other prominent records to its name: Glover being the first person of color, Koch the first woman, Hansen the first non-U.S. citizen (as a member of the Canadian Space Agency) and Wiseman the oldest person to travel beyond low Earth orbit and around the moon. It is no mistake to say that much of the mission was unprecedented.
The Artemis II mission garnered mass global attention as more than 27 million people, including Pali students and staff, tuned in to a NASA Youtube livestream and other various news outlets to watch the safe return of the crew. This helped to foster hope and joy through a strong sense of collective effervescence in a globally tumultuous time.
Pali physics teacher David Schalek explained that the motivation for his current career came from the Apollo program and said he thinks the Artemis missions could have a similar effect on others.
“I was 14 months old when Apollo 11 landed on the moon,” Schalek said. “I don’t remember it, but when I was a child and I started reading about [the Apollo missions] and the space program as a whole, it inspired my interest in astronomy and physics, and aided by a love of science fiction, everything worked together to lead me along the path that I eventually took. [Artemis II] set a milestone… people will remember that portion of the mission, and then therefore it will drive interest in subsequent missions.”
Senior Oren Davidi said he also found inspiration in the Apollo program and is excited about the influence of the Artemis II mission on future generations.
“I first learned about the space race when I was six at a space camp… that’s when my interest in space and space travel started,” Davidi said. “[Artemis] is another space race and other kids are learning about space like I did, and they’re seeing it firsthand this time. As a future astrophysics major, it’s a huge accomplishment and human endeavor to explore space.”
Davidi said that Artemis II’s push to go further than ever before made him feel more empowered in his future dream career.
“My will to live is for humanity’s future. I want to be an astrophysicist, to serve humanity,” Davidi said. “It feels like I’m a part of the human collectiveness to survive and thrive and explore and to go further.”
Inspiring him to explore greater possibilities, Artemis II also prompted Davidi’s engineering mind.
“Back in the 60s, [space researchers] were testing out putting dogs and monkeys and apes in space, but we did this in about four or five years, building a rocket from scratch,” Davidi said. “Imagine what we can do in 10 years after we build the colony on the moon, and in space travel.”
Schalek also noted the need to venture farther out into space to alleviate the environmental and social effects of trying to get resources from a finite Earth.
Schalek highlighted that Artemis II is a push to “the next economic frontier” and he thus encourages “students to at least take an interest and pay attention to what is going on in space because there is going to be a whole host of opportunities available to students over the next 25 years or so.”
This significant engineering and human achievement spurred many to ponder humanity’s future.
Reflecting on the historic mission, Wiseman said “I hope we are forgotten,” referencing their aspiration that the accomplishments of Artemis II will be overshadowed by future achievements.
Davidi echoed this idea.
“To explore space… not only progresses exploration but also progresses what we can do apart from Earth,” Davidi stated. “We were born here but we were never supposed to die here. We were born to thrive and to explore the universe because the universe is ours.”
