Let me play among the stars.

Let me see what spring is like

On Jupiter and Mars.”

These well-known lines from the song Fly Me to the Moon, written by Bart Howard and made famous through the celebrated recording by Frank Sinatra in 1964, capture a sense of wonder that has accompanied humanity for centuries. Long before rockets, satellites, or modern astronomy, people everywhere looked toward the Moon and imagined distant worlds beyond Earth. The Moon, Earth’s closest celestial neighbour, became one of the earliest inspirations for humanity’s curiosity about the cosmos. On clear nights in Kashmir, the Moon rises above the mountains and reflects across Dal Lake, while its light traces the quiet course of the Jhelum River. For generations such moments have inspired poetry, songs, and quiet reflection about the natural world. Yet the same Moon that illuminates the valley has also guided telescopes, spacecraft, and scientific inquiry across centuries. From cultural imagination to modern exploration, it reveals how science and culture together shape humanity’s curiosity about the universe.

Across civilizations the Moon has long occupied a place in both imagination and observation. Ancient societies carefully followed its phases to measure time and guide agricultural life, and lunar calendars influenced traditions and seasonal rhythms across many cultures. At the same time poets and storytellers described the Moon as a symbol of beauty, contemplation, and wonder. Gradually, however, curiosity about the Moon began to move beyond symbolism toward systematic observation. In 1609, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei used an early telescope to observe the night sky. He recorded observations of several celestial bodies. The Moon was described as having surface features such as mountains, valleys, and craters. These observations were published in 1610 in the book Sidereus Nuncius.

The twentieth century brought another profound transformation. Advances in rocketry made it possible for human technology to reach beyond Earth’s atmosphere. In 1959 the Soviet spacecraft Luna 2 became the first human-made object to reach the lunar surface, marking the beginning of direct exploration of our nearest celestial neighbour. A decade later the NASA mission Apollo 11 carried astronauts to the Moon. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar surface on 20 July 1969, the moment was followed by millions of people around the world and demonstrated how scientific curiosity could unite humanity across continents in a shared sense of discovery.

Today the study of the Moon involves scientists, engineers, and researchers from many parts of the world. Space agencies and research institutions collaborate on missions designed to understand the Moon’s surface, environment, and geological history. India has played an important role in these efforts through the work of the Indian Space Research Organisation. The Chandrayaan missions have expanded scientific knowledge about the Moon’s composition and terrain, and the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the Moon’s south polar region in August 2023 marked a significant milestone that contributed valuable insights to global lunar research. In the United States, the work of NASA continues to shape the next chapter of lunar exploration through the Artemis programme, which aims to return astronauts to the Moon and establish a sustained human presence near its south polar region.

Other scientific programmes around the world, including those in Russia, Japan, Canada, and the United Arab Emirates, also contribute to ongoing lunar exploration through collaboration among international teams. Private aerospace organisations are also developing technologies that may support future exploration. Companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin are working on spacecraft designed for missions that may involve the Moon and other destinations in space. For many scientists and engineers, curiosity about space began with stories and books. Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has often spoken about the influence of the science-fiction classic The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. Writers such as Carl Sagan, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov similarly inspired generations to imagine humanity’s future beyond Earth.

The Moon itself remains scientifically valuable because its surface preserves ancient geological records. Unlike Earth, where tectonic activity and erosion constantly reshape landscapes, the Moon retains evidence of early planetary formation and meteor impacts. Studying these features helps scientists better understand the history of the solar system, and recent lunar missions have also detected evidence of water ice in permanently shadowed craters near the Moon’s poles. These discoveries may help scientists better understand how water was distributed in the early solar system and may support future exploration.

The landscapes of Kashmir have also appeared in modern artistic imagination. In the song Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, the region is portrayed through imagery of vast skies, distant horizons, and timeless journeys. Such artistic reflections, like moonlit nights in the valley, evoke the sense of wonder that has long connected human culture with the mysteries of the night sky

Yet even as scientific knowledge expands, the Moon continues to hold cultural meaning. In Kashmir it appears frequently in poetry and song as a symbol of beauty and reflection. The celebrated Kashmiri poet Habba Khatoon was known as Zoon, a word associated with the Moon in Kashmiri, and in her poetry the Moon often appears as a quiet witness to human emotion.

Even today, when the Moon rises above the mountains and reflects across Dal Lake, it connects observers in Kashmir with people everywhere who look up at the same sky. On clear nights bright planets such as Jupiter and Mars sometimes appear nearby, reminding us that the night sky remains a shared horizon for all humanity. Seen from space, Earth itself is a small planet orbiting the Sun, one star among hundreds of billions in the Milky Way galaxy. The Moon rising above Kashmir is therefore the same Moon seen from deserts, forests, oceans, and cities across the world.

From the moonlit poetry of Habba Khatoon to modern missions such as Chandrayaan-3, the story of the Moon reflects a shared human curiosity that extends across cultures, landscapes, and generations. Science deepens humanity’s understanding of the cosmos. Culture gives that understanding meaning. And beneath the same Moon, humanity continues its quiet and enduring search to understand the universe.

Suhaib Bakshi is an engineer who writes on science and technology.

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