NASA has plans to return astronauts to the moon’s surface in the near future. Next year, four astronauts will orbit the moon.
“We don’t have to go back to the moon just for the moon. We go back to learn new things. So we can go to Mars and beyond,” said Administrator Bill Nelson.
The Perseverance Rover explores Mars’ Jezero Crater, once a lake on the red planet. Scientists believe that life may have existed in the distant past.
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“It takes samples and drills with this drill bit, creating core samples the size of a cigar and trapping them in these titanium tubes,” Nelson explained. “We’re now trying to figure out how to go back and get them and bring them back to Earth so we can get an idea of whether or not there was life there.”
NASA is now working with several companies to develop a plan for the return mission, which could take place in the 2030s. The agency is also working with Firebird Diagnostics in the search for life on Mars.
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“Part of NASA’s mission is to go out and find out whether or not we are alone,” said Steven Benner, founder of Firebird Diagnostics.
His company sells so-called alien DNA. It uses synthetic properties and has helped NASA understand what possible forms of alternative DNA might exist.
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“It’s a big question how molecular biology could be done if it were done by an organism that doesn’t share a common ancestor, a common origin, with you and me,” Benner said.
The DNA has also helped detect diseases such as Covid-19, cancer and HIV here on Earth. Human DNA consists of four nucleotides or building blocks. Benner’s synthetic material has a maximum of eight. They enable more sensitive testing and eliminate false positives.
“It allows you to catch the needle in the haystack without having to worry about all the background information,” says Benner.
Nelson says looking for life on other planets helps us better understand who we are in the universe.
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“If you ask me directly, do I think there are aliens here on Earth? I don’t think so. I don’t know absolutely. And I don’t think the US government is hiding anything from anyone. But if you ask me asks directly, I don’t think there are aliens on Earth.” Ask me, ‘Do I think there is life in the cosmos?'” Nelson said. “I ask our NASA scientists, ‘How many possibilities are there in the vastness of this universe that another planet like Earth exists that could be habitable to life as we know it?’ They said at least a trillion.”
Nelson says the likelihood of life existing in space, whatever it may be, is likely so remote that it won’t be discovered for a long time. However, NASA is still preparing for the possibility.
“Even if you could travel to a far distant world at the speed of light, the nearest world is a thousand light years away,” Nelson said. “That doesn’t mean we can’t have some understanding of what’s out there.”
Nelson has asked NASA scientists to use artificial intelligence in spacecraft software.
“In a spacecraft like Voyager, which is in interstellar space, which is outside our solar system, if it were to encounter another spacecraft, it could learn to communicate with that other spacecraft in real time,” Nelson said. “That’s what we do at NASA. They make the impossible possible. They’re a bunch of wizards here.’
Original article source: NASA administrator says ‘at least a trillion’ other planets like Earth could exist in the universe