These are troubled times, to put it very mildly. But perhaps it is especially important in such times to take a larger, more optimistic view of things. Last month, the Artemis II mission took humans further away from Earth than they had ever been before and launched humanity onto the next stage of becoming an interplanetary species. Whatever horrors might be happening on Earth, and whatever cynical view some might take of space exploration, the images from Artemis are truly beautiful—and, yes, inspiring. Thus it is that the astonishing photo of ‘Earthset’ is our latest featured image.
From Samuel McKee’s recent article on optimistic futurism, which you can read in full here:
Artemis II feels like a gift at this moment. It is an opportunity to champion a bolder vision of the future. Soon, perhaps, thanks to Artemis, we will be living on the Moon, and possibly even Mars, pushing our best technology to its limits again, and dreaming of a better, more united technological future. I have noticed that, in the wake of Artemis II, young people are suddenly wondering why we didn’t do it years ago and have been inspired to adopt an attitude of ‘Let’s get this done!’
Artemis II has inspired another outburst of the overview effect, the exhilarating and inspiring change in perspective that comes with seeing the Earth from another orb, this time dubbed ‘Moon joy’. I love astronauts because they represent the very best of us: a cosmic elite. We should see more of them, rather than the usual suspects, on our TV and phone screens. So here’s to the Artemis astronauts, groundbreaking heroes, pioneers of the future: Jeremy Hansen, Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, and Victor Glover.
Dreams, as Artemis II has shown, are there to be realised. We should all be futurists, and public about it.
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