I point out stars in the sky above Guaraci. — Lower your finger, boy, or you'll grow a wart. I smile, because I've named the highlighted stars Dito do Bar, Dito da Quitanda, and Dito do Açougue. The three Ditos, stars of my childhood, which you can identify as the Three Marys – Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka –, blue supergiants that make up the belt of the Orion constellation. But what to write about Orion? My child's eyes were dazzled by the nights of northern Paraná, captivated by Greek mythology, including the myth of Orion: a fabulous warrior, to the point that Artemis, goddess of the hunt, fell madly in love with him, as she would have forbiddenly fallen for any other human, demigod, or god. Orion reciprocated the passion, however it was not consummated due to the deadly sting of a scorpion, sent by the jealous Apollo, twin brother of Artemis. The sting deprived the brave warrior of the earthly plane, but elevated him to the celestial realm, transforming him into a constellation, at Artemis' request to her father, the all-powerful and thunderous Zeus.
Wake up, Marco, wake up. Ground control to Major Tom. Check the instruments and depart. Can you hear me, Major Tom?This shaking sound is a line from "Space Oddity," a song by David Bowie released in July 1969, shortly before the Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon. Fifty-odd years later, its sister mission, Artemis, accomplished a similar goal. However, instead of touching the Moon, it flew over it platonically, since the mission's spacecraft, named Orion, was destined not to challenge the gods to touch the face of Selene, the Greek personification of the Moon.
Approaching the far side of the Moon and severing communication with Earth, Orion boldly took humanity where it had never been before, on a journey to the stars, breaking the record for the furthest distance from our planet at 406,6 kilometers. At that moment, one of the astronauts reinforced Major Tom's message, signaling that Earth is a precious oasis for coexistence. Now, I wonder, if humans were represented on that spacecraft, why didn't the astronauts ask the Chinese for help to maintain communication? It is known that on the far side of the Moon are the satellites Queqiao-1 and Queqiao-2, which orbit the L2 Lagrange point, a position of gravitational equilibrium, where they accompany Earth in its solar orbit with fuel efficiency. In this way, they would enable the retransmission of radio signals to Earth, overcoming the physical blockage of the Moon. Either the Orion astronauts didn't want to give in to the CNSA's taikonauts, or they put into practice research to which the remaining billions of human beings will have access whenever Zeus wills, or they simply thoroughly enjoyed the album. The Dark Side of the MoonFrom Pink Floyd, falling silent upon hearing the voice that concludes the album, which says: “There is no dark side of the Moon, in fact, it is all dark, it is only illuminated by the Sun.” In this album, I allow myself to fly, several themes emerge such as greed, present in the music. Money, which opens with the sounds of cash registers and coins; similarly, regarding the inexorability of time, introduced into the music. Time, featuring clocks and alarms in quadraphonic sound by Alan Parsons, followed by muted bass strings by Roger Waters, progressing with Richard Wright's keyboards and David Gilmour's guitar.
Time It makes me think about how ephemeral and fragile we are. The other David, Bowie, in his Odyssey, enchants us, in the persona of Major Tom, before plunging into space-time never to return. Tell my wife that I love her very much.One of the Orion astronauts, on the verge of exploring the far side of the Moon, delivered a poignant speech about our human condition, particularly about brotherly love. This is undoubtedly an important message, just as the scientific advancements of space missions are undeniable. The Apollo 11 mission contributed to the development of compact and powerful computers, enabled the creation of Food Safety programs, now standard for the food industry, and developed sensors to monitor heartbeats, giving rise to modern hospital monitoring systems.
The Artemis 2 mission, broadly speaking, sought to study the effects of space radiation and microgravity on the human body, as well as evaluate navigation and communication systems and the improvement of the Orion spacecraft's thermal shield. And here, our students' questions about heat transfer, the reaction of matter to energy, and concepts associated with specific heat, particularly regarding the plasma formed in the capsule's external structure upon re-entry into the atmosphere, will inevitably arise. This is without even mentioning the contribution to mathematical models, based on historical signals and images, which enable stochastic strategies linked to machine learning to assist in making immediate and safe decisions.
The Artemis 2 mission envisions humans repeating the Apollo 11 moon landing and even landing on Mars. Hello, hello Martian. This is Earth speaking. As usual, we're at war. You can't imagine the madness.I rewind the music of Roberto de Carvalho and Rita Lee, sung by Elis Regina, because on the same day that we applauded and endorsed an astronaut's appeal for fraternity – April 6, 2026 – we witnessed, astonished and incredulous, the declaration of someone aspiring to the Nobel Peace Prize: "An entire civilization will die tonight, never to be resurrected." To destroy a civilization forged in one of the greatest empires of Antiquity, dating back to the 4th century BC, with Cyrus the Great as a reference for efficient administration and cultural tolerance. To wipe from the map the origins of Avicenna and Al-Khwarizmi, the latter being the legacy of the numeral system. To claim divinity in order to destroy millennia. Is this to be expected from someone who sees himself superior to the Pope, whose roar surpasses that of Ares, the Greek god of war, or his Latin counterpart, Mars? I have no answers, I only cast my gaze upon the three Sayings, believing that knowing the hidden side of the Moon also contributes to knowing a little more about our true selves.
This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Unicamp.
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