CNN iReport

In the future, when so many seemingly historic events have faded into obscurity, one thing will remain: in 1969, for the first time, humans traveled to, and walked on another world. Project Apollo remains the greatest technological triumph in history.

How lucky we are to live in this thin slice of time where we were able to see it actually happen. Since the dawn of humanity, we have marveled at the moon, and in the 1960s, for the first time, we had the technology to go, the option to go, and we did.

What Apollo means is that the spirit of human exploration must go on. Between 1968 and 1972 we sent 24 people to the moon... and then stopped. Imagine if Magellan or Columbus had discovered a new world, one unlike any other, and never bothered to return.

The Space Shuttle and ISS are not space exploration. Space exporation means traveling to other worlds. We will go, exploration is instinctual in humans. We will return to the Moon. We will go to Mars. It's part of our evolution. Apollo was our first step to the stars.

Photo: Mike Black and Apollo 11 Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin. Mike Black is a science teacher and writer.