Argentina joined as a partner of NASA’s Artemis project

2023-07-29 08:22:20

After the signing of the agreement between Alberto Fernández and Bill Nelson, General Administrator of NASA, Argentina officially became the country number 28 to join the Artemis program: this is the ambitious international initiative to install a permanent base on the Moon and to be able to explore and exploit its resources, in order to use it, later, as an intermediate base and send future missions to Mars.

With this joint initiativethe Argentine scientists of the CONAE and other researchers will find it easier to add their initiatives and projects to those of their US peers on these topics. Nor is it ruled out that, in the future, an Argentine could join the astronaut program of the North American agency.

After signing the agreement, it was explained that each country can participate in Artemis adding their exploration or civil exploitation projects, either in alliance with other countries of the initiative or individually, according to their interests. But always within a framework of collaboration international and following good practices and standards. Something that stood out to differentiate itself from the way its current space rival approaches this type of project: China, which is also embarked on a space race, but –according to Bill Nelson– under another “philosophy” of access.

Other countries in the region that are also participating in the initiative are Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Ecuador. And Nelson recalled: “The focus of NASA’s activity is placed both on investigating outer space and on providing data about our planet that is useful to improve life on Earth.” According to statements made by the Minister of Science, Daniel Filmus, “the collaboration with NASA is strategic for us, because it allows us to advance in the design and sending of satellites into space”. And he recalled that “we have already met with Nelson several times: in March of last year and in April of this year, in the United States. This return is a pleasure to receive it in Argentina to be able to deepen in this way the international cooperation of the space sector”.

Conae, NASA and technological sovereignty

According to the current Minister of Science, “our country is one of the few in the southern hemisphere -and the only one in the region- that today They are in a position to develop their own satellite and space policy.”

Aliens and NASA

During his visit to Argentina, Nelson was asked about the recent public reports about evidence of life and possible extraterrestrial visits to Earth that would have been hidden for decades by different US administrations.

His answer was accurate and ironic: On the one hand, he explained that there is currently a commission of twelve experts from the scientific body that he directs, preparing a new and complete report on the subject. It will be issued at the end of this year.

But, on the other hand, he was encouraged to publicly risk his personal opinion: “I asked our scientists what is the mathematical probability that there is another Sun like ours, with planets orbiting around it, and that these have a similar chemical composition and atmosphere to ours, facilitating conditions for life as we know it. . The answer was that, in the vastness of the known universe, there could be at least a trillion planets,” Nelson said. And he concluded: “Taking into account these numbers of the universe, it would be really weird if there were no extraterrestrial life.”