Space travel has an unsurprisingly profound impact on the rare group of people who are lucky enough to experience it. Since the days of NASA’s earliest missions, psychologists have studied what happens to the minds of people who have left the Earth and had the opportunity to view it from the vacuum of space.The four members of the Artemis II crew will undoubtedly be changed forever after voyaging farther from their home planet than anyone in history, but the emotional effects aren’t reserved for the people inside the Orion spacecraft.Many of us back on Earth have also been deeply moved by the Artemis mission as well. These are some of the moments that have resonated the most with those of us who have been watching humanity’s return to the moon.AdvertisementAdvertisement“Who could’ve guessed how badly we needed to send that little group of humans to everybody’s favorite little space rock,” one commenter wrote on TikTok.Naming a moon crater after an astronaut’s late wifeMonday was the day that the entire mission was designed for. The astronauts completed their flyby of the far side of the moon, observing the lunar surface with an unprecedented level of detail and scope. But for all the scientific milestones that were accomplished, the moment that stood out the most was a deeply human one.The Artemis crew had the opportunity to give names to craters on the moon’s surface. They chose to name one of them Carroll as a tribute to mission commander Reid Wiseman’s wife, who died of cancer in 2020.“It’s a bright spot on the moon … and we would like to call it Carroll,” mission specialist Jeremy Hansen told mission control as he fought back tears.Seeing this emotional tribute brought countless observers to tears.AdvertisementAdvertisement“So much LOVE and JOY coming from this mission. I needed this, we all needed this,” a commenter wrote on Instagram.“Being human is really all we have, huh?” one TikToker said in a video that has been liked more than 800,000 times.More in ScienceA commenter on that clip was especially moved by the thought of what the tribute would mean for the Wiseman’s two daughters: “so now Katie & Ellie can look up at the moon and talk to their mom?? I am unwell,” they wrote.“I was like why is this girl crying over the moon?! And now I’m crying over the moon,” another wrote.Commander Wiseman’s decade-old dre …
