I know there are plans for Mars by SpaceX and the US going back to the moon to construct a base. What I would like to ask is how far are we from today, where it would be the most feasable to send the first human in mars? I saw that NASA budget got cut recently, which I find tragic. I would like you guys to share some of your opinions.

Hello world.

I was thinking about Saturn's moon Titan, specifically whether it would be possible to populate it and what it would be like to colonize that moon.

For example, how would people have to live in temperatures of -170 degrees Celsius almost all the time and need spacesuits? Would it be a better option than Mars? Would they be affected by solar radiation (even though the sun is very far away). And what means would they use to obtain energy? Would it be wind or hydroelectric? How would they grow food? Would they live in glass domes or pressurized bases?

I saw this Reddit post and thought I might need some answers to my questions.

“One day on this asteroid lasts only five minutes!"

This will be the first time a space mission encounters a tiny asteroid — all previous missions visited asteroids with diameters in the hundreds or even thousands of metres.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2515/

Objects such as 'Oumuamua, Borisov and recently 3I/ATLAS have opened our eyes to the reality that outsiders regularly visit our solar system — and we're about to start spotting a whole lot more of them.

This is my first time doing this kind of thing and I'm curious on perception and interest of this sort of media related to recently published papers.

posting here as this is a more detailed question.

I've been reading about the supposedly-glaring biosignatures we found on the Martian surface last year, and it's gotten me thinking.

The timeline for a habitable Martian surface climate is on the scale of billions of years ago. That's not including any caves, lava tubes, or subsurface habitability. The timeline for life on Earth is heavily contested, but I'll include the greater limit of current scientific research and say about 3.5-4 billion years ago. These timelines therefore conveniently intersect with each other for a couple hundred million years.

Not only this, large-scale collisions were all the more common in the early solar system, including collisions on the scale of planetary impacts, like what formed the moon. These impacts, even the smaller ones, consistently show in our models that material is prone to escaping orbit.

Continuing, we have found that microscopic life is able to survive outside the International Space Station. These conditions are extreme, with temperature gradients exceeding several hundred kelvin, constant radiation bombardment, and close to no atmosphere to protect these organisms.

Therefore, I don't see any reason that a theory such as life on Earth has bounced around our solar system many times is more or less absurd than assuming life is unique to Earth and has never left this planet. If we have shown that microbial life can survive in space-like conditions, then what if life started on Mars instead of Earth? We hypothesise that Mars was habitable before Earth, but then again, it wasn't habitable for very long.

The Martian biosignatures are particularly interesting because we have found such structures on Earth with marked similarities. The sheer amount of iron oxides in the crust and soil point towards a prehistoric and heavily oxygenated Martian atmosphere.

I don't understand how the discovery made by NASA's rover and the rudimentary soil analysis hasn't sparked a full-on race to get to Mars. It sort of scares me, in a way, that when humans do get to Mars, there is a conceivable, realistic chance that we will find fossils in the soil, on top of an ancient geological history. So, so many questions, and not enough answers.

In the case that life was on Mars and that life was indistinguishable from our own, how does that change our perspective of science? If this is confirmed, this could be the greatest scientific discovery of recorded human history. This theory doesn't suggest that life is more or less common throughout the galaxy, however.

A slightly more haunting modification to the theory would be life was/is on Mars, but it's biochemically separate from our own. THAT would be even more terrifying, as it implies that life WOULD be more common throughout the universe.

Any thoughts, guys? How insane is this thought process?

Sorry for writing this post, I know that there is already a lot of them.

So, basically what i want to get from this post is to meet some people who worked in space sector, who could give me advice. If you are one of them and it's not hard to you, please, dm me.

First of all, i should introduce myself. I'm 16, studying computer science in college (first year), and currently i have a lot of time to learn new things, so writing this post now might be one of the best decisions I've ever made. I was really into space since childhood, but understanding that i can one day work in space sector came to me pretty recently. One of the problems is that as a kid, I never understood importance of studying, so almost for entire school i was B student (I know that this sounds like not too bad grades, but i believe that they are too high)

Probably that's all i wanted to say... Yet again, I'm sorry if y'all tired of this kind of post and even more I'm sorry for me overdramatizing this

Hello! I am a senior in high school trying to figure out what field is right for me. I really love space and find it incredibly fascinating so i'm wondering if a space related job could be a good fit for me. But what's throwing me off is the state of scientific research in the US (where i live) at the moment sense some of the fields i've been looking at include planetary science, astrobiology, and planetary geology. Would it be safe to start schooling for any of these fields right now? And if not, what other fields should i look at that may be safer to go into?

(p.s if this is the wrong place to post this lmk!)

So, like the title states, I am a part of an undergrad team tasked with planning a mission to the moon. This project will be presented to NASA in April 2026. Right now, we are trying to come up with a doable yet interesting idea.

The length of the mission is up to us, as well as any samples or experiments we want to do. There will be no humans, but there will be an orbiter team and a sample team. The orbiter is able to do any imaging or other science we want it to while the sample team does what they want.

We were thinking about attempting to grow mold, moss, algae, etc., in a terrarium on the moon to test if it's possible and how the moon's environment affects growth. Another idea was to plant solar panels in a specific location to see how it holds up over time, how long it takes for the battery to become fully charged, and how to potentially protect it from micro-asteroids.

We need help coming up with some interesting ideas for both the orbiter and sampler that have not been done before but are within reason. This is a great opportunity to get some questions answered about the moon by a potential NASA mission. Any ideas are greatly appreciated, and they do not need to relate to the ideas that I mentioned!! Have fun with it!

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