On a clear, bright morning in September 2023, a spacecraft landed at a military site in Utah—and humanity’s representatives burst into laughter, tears, and applause. It may not have seemed like it to most of us, but at that very moment, our species got a little closer at that moment to finding out the provenance of eggnog. And mulled wine. And, well, pretty much everything. Minutes after the spacecraft gently rendezvoused with the planet, helicopters flew out to greet it. They swirled around the inert, rotund capsule, and dropped off…
