The Artemis II mission was inspiring, moving, occasionally funny and, more than anything, a reminder of how magical space exploration can be. As joyful as it was to see the crew splashdown safely in the Pacific Ocean last week, that was soon followed by the sobering realization that their record-breaking journey had come to an end.But that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing going on with space to be excited about.In fact, we are in the midst of an extraordinary period of interplanetary progress that will redefine humankind’s relationship with the solar system.AdvertisementAdvertisementThese are some of the biggest reasons to keep your eyes on the skies in the near future.What’s next for Artemis?Although it was groundbreaking and inspiring in its own right, Artemis II was a test flight. Its primary objective was to allow NASA to try out the systems it will need as it pursues far more ambitious goals: putting humans back on the moon and, eventually, on Mars. The astronauts will tell us more about their experience when they hold their first press conference since returning to Earth on Thursday. One of the things they are bound to discuss is how their mission set the stage for the next one — and all the missions after that.Artemis III, which is scheduled to launch in mid-2027, was originally intended to be the mission that brought astronauts back to the lunar surface, but NASA changed its plans earlier this year. Artemis III’s new mission will be to connect the Orion spacecraft with the lunar landing system that it’ll need to safely land on the moon’s surface, and Artemis IV will land on the moon.Two companies, Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, are developing their own lunar landers in a multibillion-dollar competitio …
