By Mallory Mankin, Staff Writer
Artemis II launched on April 1, 2026, for a nearly 10-day trip around the moon. Four astronauts traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, setting a record for the farthest humans have traveled in space. Many engineering faculty and students were both aware of the mission and invested in its progression.
Ethan Frattarelli, a 3/2 engineering student who started at Wheaton and is completing his degree at Georgia Tech, also started the Wheaton College Aerospace Club, which builds reusable, dual-stage rockets.
Frattarelli interned at Johnson Space Center during the summer of 2025, where he worked on various aspects of the crew capsule that carried the astronauts to the moon. He said space exploration is a lens through which to see the vastness of God’s creation.
“I think a way that we can glorify God is by pursuing innovation and continuing to learn of the intricate methods that God has employed throughout his creation,” he said.
The Artemis missions are building toward a mission to Mars, a goal also shared by Elon Musk and his company SpaceX.
Darren Craig, the department chair for physics and engineering, said such planetary travel would take a lot of engineering and scientific prowess. Flying directly from the Earth to Mars would be very difficult for the technology, he explained, so using the moon as an intermediate step could be considered.
“Having the moon be a staging base for things going back and forth to Mars, I think that’s part of what the vision is for all this is,” he said.
Craig also mentioned that once you get to Mars, there are questions that cannot be answered by engineers alone, requiring experts from other disciplines.
“If you get to Mars, what are the laws? What can you do, what can’t you do? Who’s in charge? Who gets to decide these things?” Craig asked.
He noted that the liberal arts are involved with space exploration, as it requires all fields — not just science — to come together and answer these questions.
Craig said NASA has historically cared about public perception, compared to other politicized areas of government, where politicians often split along party lines. When the Apollo missions occurred, they were “divisive,” Craig said, but the goal of reaching the moon united people across the country.
“At the moment, it’s functioning that way too,” he said, referring to NASA’s modern influence.
Kelly Vazquez, associate professor of engineering, described the recent mission as a uniting force, describing the impact NASA had, choosing the astronauts they did for Artemis II. The mission included Christina Koch, the first woman ever to go to the moon. Vazquez was touched by her inclusion, given how the STEM field is male-dominated.
“I have always been in spaces where I’m the only woman,” Vazquez said.
She also said the mission unified the engineering field at large as the mission was a major success. Vazquez noted that in her field, engineers pay attention to the failures more than successes, to learn how to correct them.
“The flight going off without any sort of major issues obviously matters broadly for America,” she said. “But then as an engineer, it instills in us this level of trust and confidence and honestly pride in other engineers.”
Abraham Baker, a sophomore engineering student and the current president of Wheaton’s aerospace club, said that he had been paying attention to NASA’s space missions since 2010, since he has always wanted to engage with the space industry. He called it “remarkable” that Artemis II had clear mission expectations that were on time and on budget.
The first of these mission goals was ensuring the astronauts would stay alive via the life support systems. Aims also included that the launch, flight and recovery hardware all worked appropriately and that emergency operation procedures were validated.
Baker said that, beyond the long-term benefits of space exploration, people back on Earth also reap short-term benefits. For example, technologies like smoke detectors, GPS systems and memory foam all trace their origins back to space travel.
“Every time humans go to space, we learn something,” Baker said.
