The Bruin side of the moon as Artemis II launch nears

The moon has always held a special influence on humanity and, even before we existed, on our planet. So it's no wonder that our relationship with our closest cosmic neighbor continues to evolve and inspire us all, whether we're scientists, students or simply stargazers.

In honor of today's Artemis II mission - the first crewed mission to the moon in more than half a century - we spoke with three professors from across the UCLA College to get their perspective on what makes the moon so important to us all, on so many levels.

Through this exchange and the accompanying video created by alumni Alinna Martin and Steven Ruiz with staff member Roger Lee, we explore a range of historical and current curiosities surrounding our lunar companion, including: What comes to mind when you think about the moon?

" Personally, I think about the fact that for the past 17 years, I've had an instrument that's been orbiting the moon every two hours. We've been learning about the thermal environment of the moon and also searching for ice," said David Paige, professor of Earth, planetary and space sciences as well as the principal investigator of the Diviner instrument on NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.

"I feel a sense of awe. And I think about early Greek philosophers and scientists and how they sought to understand entities that they couldn't actually travel to. It's interesting how we are still asking the kinds of fundamental questions of what the relationship of the world and universe are to our lives that fifth-century researchers were," said Alex Purves, professor of classics.

"Anthropologists have this phrase that they use, where they'll talk about how certain kinds of animals are good to think with. What they mean by that is that in the world, across cultures, you'll see that animals are used to understand ourselves and our world - for example, one group is like lions, and another group is like tigers. What makes the moon really interesting is that it's also good to think with, but it doesn't divide us, it brings us together," said Bharat Venkat, associate professor with joint appointments in the Institute for Society and Genetics, history and anthropology.

Hear more from them in the video above and on the UCLA College's Instagram account.