Artemis II – A New Era

I still remember the flicker of that grainy black-and-white television, the moment Neil Armstrong took “a small step for man, a giant leap for mankind” and left a footprint somewhere humans had only ever imagined possible.

Decades later, I’ve stood in my own garden with a telescope, breath fogging in the cold, camera poised, capturing the Moon in astonishing detail. Craters etched in silver, shadows stretching like quiet poetry across its surface. Through the lens, it feels both impossibly distant and intimately close. Every photograph I’ve taken has been a quiet conversation with that first moment of wonder.

And now, Artemis II.

It’s hard to explain what that name stirs in me. It’s more than just nostalgia. It’s something deeper – something alive. Apollo proved we could go. Artemis asks what comes next. Not flags and footprints alone, but continuity. Presence. A future that doesn’t end when the cameras turn off.

As someone who’s spent years immersed in space – reading, observing, learning – I see Artemis II as a bridge between generations of curiosity. The same spark that lit up living rooms in the 1960s is still there, but now it’s being handed forward in new ways. That matters to me more than ever.

Because these days, my “mission control” looks a little different. It’s classrooms across Calderdale. It’s young people, learning about rockets and rovers, leaning over screens, exploring Earth observation data, asking questions that don’t have tidy answers. Through the ESERO-funded work we’re doing, space is no longer something distant and abstract – it becomes a tool. A lens through which we understand our own planet better. And in those moments, I see it again –that same wonder I felt watching Apollo.

Only now, it’s theirs.

Founding acornITy came from that belief: that curiosity, when nurtured, grows into something powerful. Not everyone will become an astronaut, but everyone can be part of the journey. Some will analyse data, some will design systems, some will simply look up and ask “why?” – and that question alone can change a life.

Artemis II feels like an invitation. Not just to return to the Moon, but to reawaken that collective sense of possibility. To remind us that exploration isn’t finished – it’s evolving. And crucially, it’s becoming more inclusive, more connected to life here on Earth.

When I look at the Moon now, through my telescope or with the naked eye, I don’t just see the past anymore. I see continuity. I see classrooms, conversations, futures unfolding. I see a thread that runs from Apollo to Artemis, and from there into the hands of the next generation.

And that, to me, is the real wonder.