A NASA satellite’s camera captured the far side of the Moon as it passed in front of Earth.Credit: NASA/NOAA Curiosity draws us to the cosmos, and as a planetary scientist, I am excited about the upcoming Artemis II mission. With its crewed trip around the Moon, humanity is poised to leave Earth orbit for the first time since 1972. It might also be the point at which humanity decides to commit to becoming a space-faring civilization — and to the decades of hard work that this will require. How to keep astronauts healthy in deep space The Moon remains compelling for further exploration, even with the knowledge gained from the Apollo missions and more than 50 years of robotic mission data. Its surface offers the Solar System’s most pristine record of how a planetary crust forms and evolves. It provides evidence of asteroid and comet hits that are key to understanding the history of Earth and the inner Solar System.…