There it is up in the night sky shining down on us bright and beguiling — a signpost to the mysterious outer darkness and everything beyond.
But that’s only one side of the moon. What about the dark side?
It’s always been there lurking in the back of your head like an old Pink Floyd song.
Of course, just like an A-list celebrity, the moon only shows its best face for the cameras.
But we know there is another side.
It might be a monstrous and unexplained side, possibly harbouring terrifying and ugly truths.
Or is it really a giant slab of Wensleydale cheese waiting for a Wallace and Gromit restaurant?
These and other important questions were at the top of my agenda this week as Artemis II drifted its way around the shadow of the big cheese with all the hubris and theatre of American greatness.
Meanwhile, the rest of us down here on earth were left to ponder the reason for another grand mission to the dark or “far” side of the silver orb.
The Americans were there in 1968 when Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell became the first humans to see the dark side of the moon.
Admittedly, it was very dark when they viewed the lunar surface because it was nighttime, whereas this week’s Artemis II crew were treated to splendid views in glorious daylight.
The Apollo 8 crew were also the first to endure the nerve-wracking radio silence as they flew behind the moon, and they were the first to capture the now iconic Earthrise photo as the blue planet rose above the cratered surface of the moon.
I was 13 when these things happened, and I remember the world collectively held its breath until the crew returned safely.
This week, the world held its breath for other reasons — again American-made, but very much earthbound.
The 1960s were years when moonshots really did live up to the hype of a giant leap for mankind.
So the media hoopla of this week’s space journey is a bit déjà vu with a big dollop of “so what?” for people my age.
The Apollo missions went all the way to the moon and back with less computer power than we have in our mobile phones.
Artemis II might have better computers and safer, faster flight paths, but it sounds like there has been no giant leap in toilet science.
While frozen urine blocked the pipes on Artemis, on the Apollo 10 mission, it was a Number Two problem.
On day six of the mission, commander Tom Stafford was recorded relaying a vital message to his crew: “Give me a napkin quick. There’s a turd floating through the air”.
Other things haven’t improved much over the decades either.
In fact, the clock of human moral evolution has remained stuck at one minute to midnight.
During the Apollo missions, Americans were trying to bomb the north Vietnamese people back to the Stone Age.
Today, it’s the turn of the Iranian people to live under the same threat.
But there is one more important moon mission question to be answered.
Why didn’t Americans offer a free Artemis trip to President Trump?
With a little bit of flattery and an extra seat, all their waste management problems could have been solved with the push of an eject button.
John Lewis is a former journalist at The News.
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