Artemis II moonshot reflects a spacefaring vision present in Jules Verne’s 19th-century novel

Going to the Moon isn’t just about science. Novelist Jules Verne predicted some of the societal ramifications modern lunar missions are creating today.

By: Anastasia Klimchynskaya, Illinois Wesleyan University, The Conversation

Outlets: The Conversation

Published: April 10, 2026

Words: 1,426

Last Updated: 3 months, 3 weeks ago

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By Anastasia Klimchynskaya, Illinois Wesleyan University

With the launch of NASA’s Artemis II mission on April 1, 2026, human beings have finally returned to the Moon for the first time in 50 years – since the age of Apollo.

When Apollo 11 first landed on the lunar surface, the astronauts portrayed their accomplishment as the realization of a science fictional dream. In a televised broadcast during their return, Neil Armstrong explicitly evoked Jules …

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