Nicola Fox is wearing a pendant that, to any layman, could pass for an abstract piece of jewelry. “It’s the Solar Parker Probe,” she explains while showing the necklace, “the NASA probe that will ‘touch’ the Sun and her favorite mission among the 155 she directs as Associate Administrator of the Scientific Missions Directorate at the US space agency. His face lights up when he mentions it, and Fox has a choice. It manages a budget of 7.3 billion dollars for the study of issues as varied as past life on Mars, the use of lunar resources, the formation of hurricanes, the origin of the universe or even the famous study for the US army on UFOs. When he was only 8 months old he saw, without anyone knowing, what his destiny would be. His father, a space enthusiast and great inspiration, showed him the landing of Apollo 11 on the television at his home in Hitchin (England). An antenna in the Madrid town of Robledo de Chavela broadcast that historic moment. On Monday he visited her for the 60 years of NASA in Spain. -We will return to the Moon to stay, for what purpose?- Artemis III, in 2026, will involve only one visit. It will be with Artemis V and VI [sobre 2030, 2031] when a sustained presence will be established. We will spend longer periods in microgravity there to prepare to send astronauts to Mars. Related News standard No NASA launches Europa Clipper to find out if a moon of Jupiter is habitable Judith de Jorge-Sending a crew to Mars will be really risky and expensive, will it be worth it?-I hope so, it’s something we’ve been waiting for preparing for decades. Our first step, in the mid-2030s, is to bring Martian samples to Earth for the first time, which the Perseverance rover is now collecting. We’ve never launched anything from another planet, so it’s very interesting for us and kind of a great test for launching humans. -How do you value the future of Spain’s relationship with NASA? -Spain plays an integral role. Has contributed to Perseverance with a meteorological instrument [ MEDA ] which worked great and helped us pilot the Ingenuity space helicopter on Mars because it could detect wind and dust conditions and know if it was a good time to launch it. And, of course, the Madrid station of the Deep Space Network (DSN), which is extremely important. It helped us bring back the first words we heard from Neil Armstrong from the Moon. It is an incredible achievement. With these dishes we follow the James Webb space telescope, the Solar Parker, the robots on Mars… At the beginning of the year we had an anomaly with Voyager 1 [la primera nave que alcanzó el espacio interestelar] and the Madrid station turned its six really large dishes towards it until we recovered its signal. -Will the first words of the first person who sets foot on Mars be heard from Madrid? -There is a one in three possibility. In addition to Robledo, the Deep Space Network has the Goldstone (California) and Canberra facilities, which are basically the same distance. So it will depend on the time of day. It would be great if that were the case. -With the emergence of the private sector in space, aren’t you afraid that commercial interests will take precedence over science? -Cooperating with the private sector is wonderful, it allows us to bring more science to space, which is my goal. every morning, and achieve amazing things. Just last week we launched the Europa Clipper mission [a Europa, luna de Júpiter] with SpaceX and its Falcon Heavy. In February, [la compañía estadounidense] Intuitive Machines put a ship on the Moon [la primera empresa privada en hacerlo]. We want more companies to come and be a very active part. The closer the collaboration with the private sector, the more we ensure that the science we do is what we want, for the benefit of humanity. -You mentioned the mission to Europa, what are we looking for there? -With Europa Clipper we hope to fly through some of the feathers and discover what lies beneath the moon’s hard icy crust. We do not believe that we are going to find life there, what we are really interested in is knowing more about the conditions that allowed life on Earth. For this we also study the ancient channels of Mars, where Perseverance is currently taking samples. And a future mission, Dragonfly, will land and hop back and forth on Saturn’s moon Titan to collect data on its conditions. -Do you think we will find life outside of Earth? -I don’t know when it will happen, but there are certainly billions and billions of stars in the universe. We are still looking for a planet that revolves around a star very similar to the Sun at the right distance so that it is neither too hot nor too cold, a rocky planet with an atmosphere. With the James Webb Space Telescope we can begin to observe the atmosphere surrounding distant planets, key to knowing what chemicals they contain and searching for something that is capable of supporting life. I believe we will find signs of life in other star systems, billions of light years away. It seems hard to believe that Earth is the only planet in the entire universe that contains life. -And intelligent life? -Who knows. -The NASA reports on UFOs were somewhat controversial, why were they made? -Actually, they offered us to analyze the images of these unidentified anomalous phenomena with the scientific method. [UAP] that the Department of Defense had, identify the available data and establish guidelines to study it and know what it was. -And the conclusion was that no one has visited us.-Indeed. -Directing 155 missions must be like having 155 children.-I love all my children. But the Parker probe is my favorite. On December 24, it will reach 4.8 million kilometers above the surface of the Sun, which is very, very close, passing through 3 million degree material. He will tell us his secrets. I participated as a scientist in the development of the mission, which was very daring and very tough, with an incredible team. We did wonderful science, but the most important thing is the relationships, the work we did together. It was also the first mission that NASA named after someone who was still alive, Dr. Eugene Parker. In fact, he’s the only person to have seen the launch of a mission named after him, so it was very exciting. -What would you say to people who think that space missions are a waste of money and that there are more urgent problems on Earth? -We try very hard to study how our planet is changing, how to predict really intense natural events, we help in disaster recovery. For example, the data we provide can help first responders know if it is safe to enter an area that has been devastated. We predict space weather so that catastrophes do not occur and much of the technology that is developed for space ends up in things that we do not even imagine: the cell phone camera, iPads, fans, the foam that makes shoes comfortable… And A ton of medical research is done on the International Space Station (ISS)… Everything we do, we do for humanity. Whether it’s looking for life in other systems, there is a direct benefit to people. -She has managed to reach one of the most important positions at NASA by raising her two children alone. [su marido falleció cuando los niños eran pequeños].-Thanks to my teammates, who became great friends.
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