Sitting in my comfy chair with my iPad, I joined the millions around the world who watched in real time the launch of Artemis II, the first spaceship to go beyond the Moon and prepare a future descent upon our beloved satellite and perhaps one day arrive at Mars.

Tired of private enterprises where the wealthiest in the world would go for a spin into space to brag about it and fill Elon Musk’s ambitions and pockets, it was satisfying to see a NASA project come to fruition after many years of preparation, in a truly public and international cooperation. How wonderful to see it happen without a hitch, without a malfunction that could have led to catastrophe. It was a beautiful sight of engineering and human persistence in dreaming about what’s beyond our bellybuttons. That it cost an enormous amount of money in a country with so many social needs it’s a given. Still, I’m convinced that space exploration is a necessary step because it’s in our human nature to wonder about mysteries and to wander beyond what is known.

I am certain there are people on the island of Santa Maria who benefit from space exploration, as their fledging satellite enterprise struggles to take hold and become a significant economic and scientific feature on the island. From this space exploration, many technologies will trickle down into our daily lives in ways that are still unforeseeable. From past ventures, I can identify several items that are quite useful, such as Velcro.

While in the most powerful country in the world, poverty is reaching unparalleled depths of despair, violence is commonplace in many areas of the country, and previously controlled illnesses spread because of a decrease in standards of vaccination (only to name a few), this same country is engaged in wars directly or as a proxy with several countries around the world. The national debt of the USA has reached critical levels, and that debt is owned by its opponents, such as China. It’s not a picture of a stable country, which raises questions about the long-term funding of NASA at the levels necessary for pursuing its goals.

I am a dreamer and a life-time reader of science fiction. One thing I understand: space exploration requires enormous amounts of resources, expertise, persistence, and time to develop. In an ideal world, because of the immensity of the requirements, a country collaborates with other countries in consortiums. These collaborations facilitate the sharing of scientific knowledge and the common development of expertise. These require peace. Extended peace.

Some of the most technologically advanced countries on our planet are exactly the ones in a state of war, using their expertise for lethal purposes. Let’s imagine if the guns went silent and scientists joined efforts to eradicate hunger while, concurrently, other scientists developed spacefaring technology that would benefit humanity in its search for answers in outer space. Would that not be a wonderful world?  

Avelina da Silveira is a poet, novelist, editor, as well as a cultural and political activist. She resided on the island of São Miguel, Açores.