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Pacific Time.

From the pages of Jules Verne to a modern day mission to the moon.

A new chapter of the exploration of our celestial neighbor is complete.

Integrity.

Astronauts back on Earth.

I don't know about you, but that gave me chills watching that Friday night.

And as you just heard, that was the four member crew of integrity returning to Earth after a ten day record setting mission aboard the Artemis two test flight.

The mission marked the first human journey beyond Earth's orbit since Apollo 17 over 50 years ago.

Their flyby of the moon took them farther than any humans have ever traveled before.

We spoke to Kentucky's JPL NASA ambassador about the historic mission and what it means for the future of space exploration.

It takes a lot to get to them.

This isn't some small achievement.

There are many, including myself, who believe that landing on the moon to begin with is one of the greatest achievements in the history of humankind, if not the greatest.

And to show that that capability, again, it's just is just awesome.

The Artemis two mission really demonstrates our capability to return to the moon, to return human beings to the moon, and do that safely when we actually start landing humans on the moon and do so in a sustainable fashion, where we're going to have a long term presence on the moon, that gets us ready to move further out into the solar system, out into Mars.

Well, we're really looking for places on the moon where we can find water and other resources, that we can use to establish bases.

Not only on the moon, but up for the end of the solar system as well, and kind of refining our detection methods for determining what sort of resources are available.

The most important, of course, is water.

Not only for astronauts to drink, but we can make rocket fuel out there because water is made of hydrogen and oxygen and half of the mixture of the fuel that propelled the astronauts to the moon was oxygen.

So you need that combustion material there to make that happen.

We've conducted experiments on Mars that allow us to actually extract, oxygen from the tenuous Martian atmosphere, using the electrolysis, which is pretty amazing.

To be able to produce that and, in effect, give our astronauts the opportunity to return and make fuel on Mars.

So it's that same sort of idea that we have when we're looking for, we call it in-situ resource utilization.

We're just looking for different materials that we can use that we don't have to bring with us.

It's been pretty exciting to see people's reaction to the launch.

You know, a lot of people are jaded these days.

I see money going to things that they don't.

They don't think it should be going to.

But even a lot of those skeptical people, that includes, some close friends of mine who were not excited about the launch, even a week before were texting and calling, you know, in the days and the hours leading up to the launch expressing their excitement for it, we kind of you have heard and, when no one and I were completely distracted for a little bit.

Even with people that don't follow space exploration closely, it's still an inspiring mission that still sparks at least some curiosity.

So it's kind of easier to draw people in from their perspective.

They're already interested.

They're already curious.

But in terms of actually communicating the significance or why this is important for humanity or why this is important for us to do this, it's pretty simple.

You know, again, this is a mission of hope, much like Apollo was again.

Geopolitical implications aside, this showcases humanity.

It showcases the best of what we can do, and it helps to inspire people and to make people feel better about not only themselves, but about our species as a whole here, here to that.

And that was fantastic for crew members.

They are so inspiring.

Artemis three, which will be a test flight to evaluate how the Orion spacecraft can dock with the lunar lander, is scheduled for next year.

A mission to land astronauts back on the moon is scheduled for 2028.

It'll be here before you know it.