Many scientists have been motivated by the hunt for extraterrestrial life throughout the years, and it appears that NASA is prepared to make a significant contribution to their efforts. Following the first public hearing in nearly 50 years, the US space agency had previously announced that it would begin looking into UFO sightings across the nation. Now, Dr. Thomas Zurbuchen of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate has hinted that the agency may be able to use existing satellites to find signs of extraterrestrial life by getting ‘another view on strange aerial phenomena.’
The deputy administrator of NASA, Col. Pam Melroy, also expressed a similar feeling.
He stated in a media interaction, as quoted by The Telegraph, ‘This team is going to be looking at questions like: ‘do we have sensors that can notice things, you know, take another look at the evidence? We have a ton of satellites looking down at the Earth, are any of them useful?’
‘I mean, before you build a rover that’s going to Mars, you ask yourself, ‘What’s the sensor I have to build to detect the most interesting thing?’ So, they’re going to really focus on that.
‘How would you get the evidence that you need to be able to determine if it’s an optical phenomenon or some other kind (of phenomena)?’, he explained in the interaction.
Several academics have recently criticised NASA for using its resources on what they considered to be a ‘fringe’ subject. Bill Nelson, a NASA administrator, countered that the agency values the mission and that one of its ‘remits was to look for life beyond of Earth.’
According to The Telegraph, he stated, ‘Remember that one of our goals is to reach out to check if there is life. We’re currently mining on Mars for that reason.’
‘Is there the possibility of life in something as big as the universe? Of course, there is the chance that in somewhere as big as that, conditions similar to Earth existed, and some other kind of life form developed.’
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