It’s not always obvious why something is being done and what doing it achieves.

Something I’ve taken for granted is that astronauts fly into space. In the beginning, it seemed to be flying to the moon. Now it seems to be to explore the endless universe.

As it happens now, the decision to fly into space and to have a place like the ISS where experiments are being done may still have that long-term target. But looking at it from a short-term perspective, the reason people fly into space is to learn how to do it.

There is way more we don’t know about flying to another planet and spending years in space than we know. The human body is a miracle, and yet we still don’t know how it adapts to being in space for a long period. There is also quite a lot to let go of known phenomena on earth and learn how different elements can act in space.

Much of it needs to be learned to be able to reach Mars.

It is the same for many of our activities.

To know what it takes to be a leader requires stepping into one’s role as a leader and choosing how to act in it.

To know how it feels to work together as a team requires to be in a team and to be willing to engage in it.

And, as it is for flying into space, there always is the possibility to experiment and find ways to explore how it works and what can make it challenging.