WASHINGTON DC, US – NASA is gearing up to return astronauts to the lunar surface and beyond, heralding a new era of space exploration.
The ambitious plans, driven by a vision to explore Mars and other distant frontiers, will see four astronauts orbit the Moon next year as a stepping stone for future missions.
“We don’t need to go back to the moon just for the moon. We’re going back to learn new things, in order for us to go to Mars and beyond,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
This return to the Moon is not just about revisiting old terrain but about gaining the necessary experience and knowledge for more distant explorations, such as Mars.
On Mars, the Perseverance Rover is diligently exploring the Jezero Crater, a site that was once a lake and could potentially hold clues to past life on the red planet.
The rover is equipped with a drill to collect core samples, which are then sealed in titanium tubes for future retrieval.
“It’s getting samples and it’s drilling with this drill, creating these core samples about the size of a cigar and sealing them up in these titanium tubes,” Nelson explained. “We’re trying to figure out right now how we’re going to go back and get them and bring them back to Earth so that we got an idea of whether or not there was life there.”
NASA is working with several companies to develop a plan for the sample return mission, which could happen in the 2030s.
Among these collaborations is Firebird Diagnostics, whose work in synthetic DNA has been instrumental in understanding potential extraterrestrial life forms.
“NASA’s mission is to go out, among other things, and discover whether or not we are alone,” said Steven Benner, Founder of Firebird Diagnostics.
His company’s synthetic DNA, which features up to eight nucleotides compared to human DNA’s four, allows for more sensitive testing and has applications in detecting diseases on Earth.
The renewed interest in lunar exploration has also sparked discussions on the legal and strategic implications of lunar mining.
As the new space race heats up, key questions about space resources and international cooperation come to the forefront.
Bill Nelson emphasized that the search for life on other planets not only expands our understanding of the universe but also helps us comprehend our place within it.
While the discovery of extraterrestrial life may be a distant prospect, NASA is actively preparing for that possibility.
“If you ask me directly, do I think that there are aliens here on Earth? I don’t think so. I don’t absolutely know. And I don’t think the U.S. government is hiding anything from anybody. But if you ask me, ‘Do I think there’s life out there in the cosmos?’” Nelson said. “I ask our NASA scientists that question, ‘How many possibilities in the vastness of this universe are there, that there’s another planet like Earth that would be habitable for life as something like we know it?’ They said at least a trillion.”
Looking to the future, NASA is investing in artificial intelligence to enhance spacecraft capabilities.
Nelson highlighted the potential for AI to enable spacecraft like Voyager, which is now in interstellar space, to autonomously communicate with potential extraterrestrial technology.
“In a spacecraft like Voyager, that is out in interstellar space, that is beyond our solar system, if it came upon another spacecraft, it could real-time learn to communicate with that other spacecraft,” Nelson said. “That’s what we do at NASA. They make the impossible possible. It’s a bunch of wizards around here.”
