Learned recently the Artemis II mission is carrying a 1in. x 1in. piece of the canvas used in the Wright brother’s Flyer, oohhh man. I love technology but I also adore beyond everything the sentiment for the past we attach to advancements, because a lot of people think there’s no need to remember the time we could barely figure out plane flight while blasting off to go briefly orbit the moon.
There’s sometimes a mindset of science purely for advancement, the next big thing, which feels both distinctly human and un-human (inhuman? Uhhhh) It’s our nature to go as far as we can, build until we hit something that can actually stop us. Learn and see it all. But we’re also the people that saw shapes in the stars; we have to give it all meaning. Artemis II is only one part of a much larger plan, but by itself it’s still an incredible feat. Every step of the way has meaning to the world, and taking a single square inch of fabric to make us look back is a really nice reminder of all of it.