Artemis II is just who we are

I sat in my living room with the surround sound precisely set up with extra subwoofer and a center room balance on April 1.
A massive Space Launch system sat quietly on the Florida coast, specifically Merritt Island, and the clock ticked down with the ultimate unintended April Fool’s joke seconds away.
A battery system was running just a tad hot and the venture was about to be scrapped, an event that most betting enthusiasts would have given the juice for as an odds-on favorite to happen. Even the astronauts were surprised at the actual liftoff, per their first interview from space.
I was mesmerized at the size of this massive rocket system, a 212-foot missile with solid fuel boosters, and four-astronaut Orion capsule that uses cryogenic propulsion and some solar panels to navigate a figure eight around the earth a couple times and then out around the moon and back.
There were many people, including those in my family, who were asking what the big deal was and why they were saying we’re going to the moon, when really we’re going around the moon. And we’ve already been to the moon.
Well, that was a visit, and some even doubt that. But it doesn’t matter at all. Exploration in itself is what the world has been about for eons.
I cranked up the volume a little as the countdown hit T minus 30 seconds and I got the phone on my camera ready to capture some of the footage from the big screen in the living room.
When it got to 5 seconds and the engines cranked up, I had to turn the volume back down. I could feel the vibrations in the house. Obviously nothing like paying $250 apiece to sit in the “heat zone” near Merritt Island. But at liftoff, when these flames kicked out strong enough to push the math on thrust to weight ratio far enough to kick this 10-story bullet into the atmosphere, I was stunned.
And then as the rocket boosters got into full tilt and the unduplicatable popping sound of the fuel burn could be felt in my chest, we prayed for nothing to go out of whack. To see the proper rotations as the rocket bent toward its orbit cutting through the earth’s atmosphere was phenomenal. The solid rocket boosters’ separation sent the detached fuel towers hurtling toward the sea. I was a little curious to see if NASA was going to try and catch those boosters on landing like SpaceX did. But in this venture, parachutes were deployed to bring the boosters back to the ocean where they were recovered for examination and potential reuse.
I’m not a fan of the word amazing, but this was amazing. Even learning about the restroom facilities in the floor of the Orion capsule captured the imagination. It’s so loud in that closet that you must wear ear protection, not to mention ‘going’ in zero gravity.
The Artemis mission is multiphase, with the final phase being a lunar landing and human presence on the moon before 2030. With that would be deep space “commerce”. A few quick searches reveal that the lunar presence is for testing and research to springboard the first manned crew to Mars.
An episode of West Wing hinted that if we get to Mars we could literally build a “gas station” and harness hydrogen from the planet to power a return trip to earth. Therefore so on, and so on…and so on.
Exploring is what’s “amazing”. What we can do is amazing. And where we stop short is infuriating. We’re locked in on politics and who wins. We’re locked in on oil when we produce more than any other country in the world at 13.5 million barrels per day. Think of that. The geopolitical climate is so narrowly focused on military commerce and power that we forget just what we are capable of on an even more grand scale.
No country shot that rocket down to keep the U.S. from its exploration. There’s a reason for that and it’s because we all benefit from space exploration. It doesn’t really matter how long it takes…until it does. So we just keep pushing forward. We’re going to suffer our arrogance in jumping around the solar system for sure. We already have as lives have been lost, but it’s in the name of Galileo, or Armstrong, or Apollo. We must go, because it’s who we are. There is no A to Z here, it’s A to infinity, so we just keep reaching.
You can feel that in your chest, too.
Happy Easter to everyone. Celebrate your families, your religion, your health, and your curiosity. It’s who we are, but that’s Beside the Point.
Chuck Vandenberg is editor and co-owner of Pen City Current and can be reached at Charles.V@PenCityCurrent.com.