in Odyssey from Homerthat is not in one of Clark D cockpit, Ulysses discover Orion hunting with a bronze club. Hesiod said that the one who was the son Poseidon, from whom he inherited the ability to walk on water, claimed to be able to prey on all creatures on Earth. This did not please Mother Earth and she sent a giant scorpion to hunt him down. It finished him off. For some time.

On November 21, 2022, Orion returned. This time, to hunt down the only thing left for him beyond Mother Earth’s reach: the moon. On the sixth day of the Artemis-1 mission, it successfully completed its fourth orbital trajectory correction launch. This maneuver, performed almost like an interplanetary waltz, brought this messenger of Humanity with several mannequins inside only 130 kilometers from the lunar surface. We are talking about something more than the distance between Seville and Cadiz by road.

In this beautifully choreographed dance, the closest approach took place on what we have always called “the other side of the moon.” I mean on the other hand. An area that thirty people walked, nine of them alone. Being there logically cuts off communication with the Earth, which is almost 400,000 kilometers away. Michael Collins and eight other companions became “the loneliest people in history” when they found themselves without company or the opportunity to communicate beyond the lunar surface. Utter radio silence means that, in this case, mission control also projected an animation during the transmission of the event, offering data derived from calculations created by sages who, in some cases, were dead and buried for centuries. Galileo or kepler.

The most interesting thing about this cosmic dance is the extraordinary use of the forces of nature. At a time when it would be unthinkable to consume more fuel than is strictly necessary, more modern geniuses, experts in the art of using energy, have developed over the years a script that the capsule will follow exactly. our natural satellite Movement is difficult to describe. First, the vehicle is approaching at over 5,000 miles per hour and is interacting with our satellite’s gravity. That’s why he has to “fly” so low. This gravity holds him and he won’t run away until he returns to Earth, but the momentum with which the hunter arrives sends him back into space until next Friday, the 25th, he is almost 100,000 kilometers away. “retrograde” because, from our point of view, the spacecraft will move “backward” along the lunar trajectory. As if it were a courtship, with its tug of war, the vast energies of the cosmos are conspiring with science to leave Orion at the candy point, exactly where it is planned to be able to rehearse what will happen when people are on board and they have to descend to the surface .

Even though it coincided with the World Cup due to delays, NASA also wants to put on a show.

During their daily shift, for 8 hours, the antennas located on the road from Colmenar del Arroyo to Robledo de Chavela in Madrid are responsible for keeping in constant contact with the Orion spacecraft before the Californians and then the Australians, who connect us with the most complex artifact ever created by man.

The North American Space Agency has been preparing this dance for many years. Even though it coincided with the World Cup due to delays, NASA also wants to put on a show. Of course, before entering the “dark side of the moon”, to which they dedicated the album Pink Floyda small “webcam” available on the ship was able to offer us an impressive image of the Moon, yes, but with a blue patch in the background that turns out to contain our entire world.

That little blue semi-circle that we see below in the plane contains all of us. With our desires, desires, hopes, wars and peace. How beautiful our world is with its old people and children, with its women and men, with their last names, first names, gender and address, with their identity cards, as Serrat sang.

The earth, seen from there, is a point in the sky, James Lovell he covered his eyes with only one finger and thought that “our whole planet fits in my thumb.” It was on Christmas Eve 1968, when during the first manned flight to our satellite, three Apollo 8 astronauts congratulated all mankind on Christmas on TV live from the same point in space. They began to read the Bible, which they handed out one by one.

One of the most reproduced images in history was taken by those people who reached the moon months before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin set foot on it. The conversation between the astronauts is an example of the great charm that a person can experience in front of colossal nature.

Andrew: My God! Look at that picture over there! The earth comes out. Wow, beautiful.

– Borman: Hey, don’t take this photo, it’s not scheduled.

– Anders: (Laughs) Do you have color film, Jim? Give me a roll of paint, quick, could you…?

Lovell: Oh man, that’s great!

54 years have passed. That blue is more brownish every day and heroism has given way to commercial interests, but it’s good that we are thinking about going back there and going further as a species, having only a fraction of the budget that the World Cup melts in a few weeks Qatar, if not consider human rights.