The Moon has long shaped life on Earth: governing tides, structuring time and anchoring human understandings of the natural world. What is new is not the Moon’s power, but the extension of ours.

The Artemis II mission carrying astronauts around the far side of the Moon marks the first human journey beyond low Earth orbit in more than 50 years. For Canada, with Jeremy Hansen aboard, it is also a moment of participation in shaping what comes next. 

As activity expands beyond Earth orbit, the Moon is becoming a place where systems of infrastructure, governance and influence are taking shape in real time. This matters not because the Moon will directly transform life on Earth, but because it is becoming the next extension of the systems that already underpin life on Earth — and the power they enable.

The satellites, data and services that underpin GPS, banking, weather forecasting and military coordination already shape how we move, communicate and manage risk every day. As I’ve argued elsewhere, these systems form a critical infrastructure underpinning economic and strategic power. That architecture is now expanding outward.

Artemis is not a return to Apollo. The “flags and footprints” model has given way to a sustained human presence. Efforts now focus on building the tools and infrastructure needed to live and operate on........

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