What do we really see when looking through telescope lenses deep into outer space, at stars and galaxies? Why are space explorations and space missions needed? Is it really possible to extract minerals on other celestial bodies and where exactly should humanity start doing this first? Why is colonizing the Moon and Mars harder than it might seem? Why does Ukraine need space? All this and much more was discussed by astrophysicist and junior research fellow of the Department of Extragalactic Astronomy and Astroinformatics at the Main Astronomical Observatory of the NAS of Ukraine, Olena Kompaniiets, in an interview for the podcast "Beyond Formulas". Here is a shortened summary of this conversation.
1. Light – the echo of cosmic past
"This summer I completed an intensive two-week training on working with the James Webb Space Telescope. It searches not only for exoplanets. This instrument is unique because it allows us to see light from the first galaxies that appeared in the Universe.
How is this possible? It should be understood that when studying space, we are essentially traveling through time – into the past. We see something only after the light reaches our eyes. Telescopes are our big eyes. They accumulate the light that reaches them. But light does not move instantly: it needs time to cover the distance. The speed of light is 300,000 kilometers per second. This seems incredibly fast, but compared to the size of the Universe, this speed is very small.
For example, the distance to the galaxy closest to us – the Andromeda galaxy – is 2.5 million light years. If there is no light pollution, for example high in the mountains in summer or during a blackout in the city, it can be seen in our sky with the naked eye. But we see it as it was 2.5 million years ago.
With more distant galaxies – objects of the early Universe – it is somewhat more complicated because the light from them traveled to us for more than 13 billion years. During this time, the Universe expanded (and with acceleration), and these galaxies became even more distant from us than they were at the moment the light was emitted. Now the distance to them exceeds 30 billion light years.
These are very large numbers that are not typical for our everyday life. We are talking about billions, trillions of kilometers and more. It is hard to imagine such distances. Perhaps when humanity (if it does not destroy itself) begins to travel the Solar System (I dream that this will happen someday), and then our Galaxy, these distances will become familiar."
2. The non-obvious but tangible effect of space research and programs
"The journey to the Moon completely changed humanity. Thanks to it, many technologies appeared without which we cannot imagine our lives today: video cameras in smartphones, comfortable shoes with cushioning, wireless technologies. All these are 'descendants' of technologies first developed to solve problems astronauts faced on the Moon. For example, to cut a piece of lunar rock, a drill was needed that would work not from a power outlet (because there is none there), but on a battery.
I highly recommend visiting the NASAatHome website. It helps to understand how non-obvious the significance of space colonization is. And these were just ordinary human trips to the Moon; we did not even build a colony there, we just walked around, collected lunar soil samples, and conducted some research. And already this enabled such technological development. Many perceive these trips superficially: like, well, they flew there and back, brought back some rocks, but spent billions. But in reality, these were investments in innovation and the economy. And that is very cool."
3. Space colonization and mineral extraction on celestial bodies: Moon, Mars, asteroid belt, and beyond
"No matter how you look at it, minerals on Earth will soon begin to run out. And if we do not master their extraction in space, then all technologies can be forgotten. No metals – no smartphones, computers, flying devices, and much more.
Scientists have an understanding and long-term planning of this process. But a lot of work still needs to be done – popularizing science to convey to society, business, and government representatives why this is important. It might seem strange to talk about long-term planning, about the future, when our country is under great threat. But we must leave room for the dream of space. In my personal opinion, dreams help us hold on during the most difficult life moments.
Although investments in the space industry and, in the future, in mineral extraction in space are not something that will start bringing profit tomorrow or the day after. By the time this happens, a whole generation may change. And that is decades. But the fact is that most of the minerals that are currently incredibly important for industry are metals, including rare earth metals. And we definitely know that deposits of various metals exist, for example, on the Moon. They can be extracted there. Not exactly in the same way as on Earth, but that is a topic for conversations with geologists. Promising for mineral extraction are also objects from the asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. In this context, it is important that the Moon has no atmosphere, and gravity is much weaker than on Earth. Therefore, it will be much more advantageous to launch spacecraft from our natural satellite into the asteroid belt. In addition, there is a lot of helium-3 on the Moon – a promising fuel for future nuclear fusion. In my opinion, when this technology appears is only a matter of time. The world is already moving in this direction.
Also, there is water on the Moon, and this is very important. If minerals are extracted there or a foothold for longer journeys through the Solar System is created that involves human presence, delivering water from Earth will be too expensive. But it will not be necessary because in deep lunar craters (for example Shackleton), where sunlight never reaches, there is ice. Additionally, splitting water can produce rocket fuel. So, the Moon has the potential to become a spaceport for journeys into deep space.
So why is there still no colony of Earthlings on the Moon? The question is not how to get there. You can get there; it is not that far – 380 thousand kilometers, a few days' journey. Why can't we send a person to Mars yet? Because you can get there in a little over half a year. However, a person is unlikely to arrive there functional. The first and biggest problem is cosmic radiation, which is deadly to living organisms. Materials and technologies to protect against it have not yet been created.
Here, hope lies in regolith – an analog of Earth soil. People once brought samples from the Moon. After studying the properties of this material, scientists concluded that it is promising for protection against cosmic radiation, as well as two other problems on our natural satellite – micrometeorites (small stones capable of piercing a spacesuit) and very large temperature fluctuations (approximately from +150 °C on the lunar day side to –150 °C on the night side). Theoretically, for living modules or a protective sarcophagus over a lunar station, a layer of regolith about 1 meter thick would be enough. Currently, NASA and the European Space Agency are separately working on 3D printing technology using regolith. At the European Space Agency, this technology is being tested on specially created synthetic regolith. One of the options being considered: to first send robots to the Moon, which, using lunar regolith as a building material, will create all the necessary protective blocks with 3D printing (there is even a visualization of how it will look), and then people can fly there. At least for now, regolith blocks seem quite strong, but the technology is not yet perfect or complete. The European Space Agency is investing heavily in this area. Unfortunately, Ukraine has not yet joined these studies. But maybe this will change someday. Because no country alone will be able to colonize the Moon and carry out mineral extraction there. Everything will have to be done cooperatively. For example, NASA initiated a large program to return humans to the Moon called "Artemis," which unites about 30 countries, including Ukraine. We need to join because countries that now advocate space colonization and mineral extraction on space objects will invest in the future development of their economies, and the space economy sector grows every year.
Humanity, as a civilization, has all the possibilities to colonize the Moon (and quickly), then Mars, and begin extracting minerals in the asteroid belt. But unfortunately, there is no unity or understanding. Some countries still live in an era when new resources were gained by conquering new territories and do not look upward. But space is so vast. Even the scale of the Solar System is hard to imagine. On Earth, wars are fought over minerals, but these same minerals exist in space. If only people became smarter and kinder, stopped fighting each other, and looked into space."
4. Colonization of Mars: pros, cons, alternatives
"The Earth's population is constantly growing. If we, as a civilization, want to develop further, it is important for us to understand in the next 100, 200, 1,000 years where we can relocate. This is a question of long-term planning. In 5 billion years, when the Sun becomes a red giant, it will be hot on Earth, all water will evaporate. But on Mars, it will be good. Besides Mars, there is Titan, a moon of Saturn.
Why is Mars interesting to us? It is the only object in the Solar System (after Earth) that has seasons (there is winter and summer). It also has an atmosphere and, like Mercury, Venus, and Earth, a solid surface you can walk on (on other planets in our system, it is fundamentally impossible to land because they are gas giants). Temperature fluctuations on Mars are quite significant: in winter it is below –100 °C, in summer it can reach +15 °C. Water exists there in the form of ice. It is known that in the past there were rivers and lakes on Mars. This has been proven. And quite recently, the rover Perseverance, studying a crater that was once a lake, found evidence of former microbial life. This is the first such finding and is the most likely explanation for the origin of minerals found on Mars.
But there are difficulties. The Moon is more convenient for human colonization because in an emergency evacuation can be considered. That is, people can be returned to Earth or a rescue ship can be sent for them. This will not happen instantly, but nevertheless, these are realistic time frames. On Mars, everything is much more complicated. Currently, only one-way trips are considered because there is not enough fuel for the return. At the same time, Mars is very convenient for mining minerals in the asteroid belt and processing this raw material for further shipment of products to Earth. Although all this remains at the level of science fiction.
Terraforming, on the other hand, I perceive as super fantastic and impossible to implement. Because Mars is smaller in size and has lower gravity than Earth. Planetary atmospheres can be lost over time. In the past, Mars had a dense atmosphere, and thanks to this, higher atmospheric pressure and liquid water. Now Mars' atmosphere is very thin, and this, not surface temperature, is the main problem. Accordingly, atmospheric pressure has significantly decreased, and the lower the pressure, the lower the temperature at which water boils. I cannot imagine how this could be changed. I cannot imagine how to make Mars' atmosphere denser, especially within a human lifetime. Moreover, Mars is a tectonically inactive planet and therefore does not have a magnetic field like Earth. There is only a residual magnetic field, not a global one like ours. This also weakens protection against cosmic radiation.
However, there is a large ocean of liquid water on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. Therefore, there may be some life there. An environment with conditions similar to Earth’s is isolated lakes deep under Antarctic ice. One of them was drilled by polar researchers, who extracted water samples and found microorganisms there. So there are grounds to assume that microbial life may exist on Europa. Or on Enceladus (a moon of Saturn), where there is also a water ocean. By the way, although Europa is much smaller than our Earth, it has much more water.
One candidate for mineral extraction in space is Titan, another moon of Saturn and the only moon with a dense atmosphere. It is very cold there – temperatures reach –200 °C. But there are methane lakes on Titan. Another question is whether it will be economically viable to develop them.
There is a lot of interesting stuff in general. And we are only talking about the Solar System. If we consider our Galaxy, there are so many planets, it’s simply incredible!
I am convinced that the colonization of Mars, and then the Solar System, will take human civilization to a completely new level of progress. It is very difficult to imagine what technologies will appear in the end and how much better life can become if we think positively."
5. Near space for Ukraine
"By the way, space is very close – only 100 kilometers away. We talk about colonizing the Moon and Mars, but an important task for Ukraine is mastering near-Earth space. And this is also part of colonizing the Solar System. To build infrastructure, fly to the Moon, Mars, and the asteroid belt, communication satellites and technologies for spatial orientation are needed. NASA is even developing a project to create the internet on the Moon. But for this, near-Earth space must be mastered. If other countries and their space agencies have their communication satellites, reconnaissance satellites, Earth remote sensing satellites, even satellite internet in orbit, Ukraine is very far behind in this regard. And this hurts me the most. Because our country needs a space program primarily for security. It is important for us to develop space technologies because it is unknown when this war will end. And having our own satellites means having our own eyes in space. They help to be independent of other countries that can at any moment close access to their data and make you blind. Ukraine needs to build its own satellite communication network."