The Artemis II Mission: Reflections on an Ever-evolving Relationship with Space Exploration

For the first time since 1972, NASA sent humans back to lunar orbit, launching four crew members on a 10-day journey around the moon—at times passing beyond Earth’s view (the “far side”). The goal of the Artemis II mission was to determine human capabilities in deep space to pave the way for long-term exploration and science on the lunar surface.

For those on Earth who followed the astronauts through posts and images, the mission represents something beyond engineering and technical achievement—it reflects the long-standing human fascination with what lies beyond Earth.

To understand this continued fascination and what this mission has revealed about the future of space exploration, Penn Today spoke with Gary Hatfield, the Adam Seybert Professor in Moral and Intellectual Philosophy at the School of Arts & Sciences (SAS); Sandra González Bailón, the Carolyn Marvin Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication; and Sophie Silver, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of Doug Jerolmack, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor of Earth and Environmental Science at SAS.

Sophie Silver: What images reveal and future missions beyond the moon

When mud dries down, it contracts, creating cracks that intersect to form rectangular shapes. When re-wetted, the mud expands and pushes the cracks back into contact with one another. This causes the fractures to rearrange over time, drying down in a different configuration. The shapes gradually become more hexagonal with each wetting and drying event.

Surface cracks on Mars, which offer geologists clues about the forces shaping planetary surfaces.
(Image: NASA)

Images from the Mawrth Vallis and Utopia Planitia regions of Mars display this hexagonal pattern. This tells us that these areas may have been wet not once, but many times, in the past. Any indication of the presence of water on Mars, be it current or historic, can provide insights on Mars’ habitability, making these honeycomb patterns an important feature to keep an eye out for

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