Artemis II completes its mission: an empowering intellectual exploration
"Our View" is prepared by the Editorial Board and should be considered the institutional voice of The Record.
A country that stops exploring is a country that stops thinking.
NASA’s Artemis II moon mission returned home last Friday, April 10 after landing safely in the Pacific at 8:07 pm EDT.
The four astronauts on the mission, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen, were the first humans to travel to the moon in 50 years in an expedition first announced by NASA in April 2023. The crew spent ten days in space and broke the record for the furthest distance traveled
from Earth, according to NBC.
However, this was not the only record that the Artemis II mission broke.
Christina Koch set the record for the first women to take part in a moon mission and first woman to travel beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO). Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen set the records for the first person of color and first non-American to travel beyond LEO, according to Space.com.
The spacecraft used three parachutes to land and floatation devices after landing in the Pacific.
After landing the Orion spacecraft, the astronauts were removed from the spacecraft and then flown via helicopter to a U.S. Navy ship. Immediately afterwards, the crew was seen by emergency medical technicians who performed health checks and gave the crew “green flags,” according to the New York Times.
Constant research and innovation was required to make sure Artemis II was safe. Charlie Camarda, an engineer and former NASA astronaut who had previously warned against launching the Artemis II mission because of known flaws in its heat shield, said in an interview with the New York Times, “I can breathe now.”
The risk behind the mission only made the safe landing so much more special.
However, you don’t necessarily have to take risks to value or partake in intellectual exploration. It’s important to ask difficult questions rather than comfortable ones.
In light of the recent Artemis II mission, millions had tuned in from take-off to landing, showing the public’s collective wonder and interest during this new step towards progress. This mission presents itself as a unifying event within our country, encouraging a variety of perspectives with the inclusion of a diverse crew.
National ambition and collaboration have been the main influence when it comes to the development of our country. Considering that the structure of this nation is built on progressive thought and invention, our future depends on the continuation of intellectual exploration.
Challenging ourselves with the curiosity of the unknown motivates our ambition and the pursuit of achievement. As we know, the Artemis II mission is not an endpoint; it’s a progressive motion towards the final goal, but it has still earned valid recognition as it provided the basis for long-term success.
As college students, we are on our own journey of exploration in new and unfamiliar life experiences.
Though we may not be astronauts on a mission through space, we are still navigating through these life changes on our own paths to success.
We are all experiencing our individual missions in relation to the development of our careers and current aspirations as we continue to grow and mature through change.
As the Editorial board of The Record, we encourage you to never stop exploring, thinking and growing. Take this space mission as inspiration for constantly challenging yourself to keep climbing — intellectual growth expands past CSB+SJU.