The Moon as a stepping stone to Mars | DW News

now the space race is back several countries including the United States China Russia India and Israel are trying to reach the moon it's not just a quest for National Glory scientists see the moon as a Gateway a place to build bases that could then launch missions to Mars and Beyond [Music] one indispensable resource for manned space flight water H2O can be used to make breathable air for astronauts and fuel for Rockets [Music] the largest water deposits are in the Deep icy craters at the Luna poles at the moon's South Pole alone researchers suspect there is as much water as in Germany's largest lake over the next few years an outpost is set to be built in the lunar orbit the so-called lunar Gateway NASA will build it with Canada Europe and Japan it wants to involve the private sector more than before the new space station will serve as a research platform and later as a base for manned flights to the Moon its orbit should make it possible to see The Far Side of the Moon and the South Pole and to have constant radio contact with Earth nights on the Moon last for 14 Earth days and the temperatures dropped to 160 degrees Celsius below zero that's a major hurdle for long-term human missions but there are craters at the south pole with rims that are almost always in sunlight NASA wants to build a lunar station at such a crater the so-called Artemis base camp initially astronauts will land in transport craft which will also serve as their accommodation during their short stays as they explore the surrounding Terrain in vehicles [Music] Mission the lunar base should become more comfortable spacecraft hoping the equipment and robots will build the infrastructure up to four astronauts will work here for up to two months at a time [Music] The Outpost will also serve as a springboard for a new mission human voyages to Mars well joining me in the studio is Joseph ashbarger he is the director general of the European Space Agency Esa and Alexander Gerst he is a German astronaut who spent a year on the International Space Station where he was also a mission Commander it's great to have you with us here on DW news I'd like to start with you Alexander why is it so important to go back to the Moon after 50 years yeah actually uh we don't see this going back because we're doing something new so for us it's a great step forward we're going there not to plant a flag in the ground or just collecting some rocks but we want to be there as scientists to stay to understand this well actually it's an open history book about the the first few billion years of Earth history that we cannot read here anymore because we don't have the Rocks anymore on Earth they were destroyed by erosion they're an open out in the open on the moon if we study them we understand ourselves better also the Moon is our next neighbor we we compare it as a an eighth continent that is right they are there to be explored to be understood and it's important for us because if you think about it as humans we're an island species we're live on this little blue planet thinking that it's always going to be there it's always going to protect us but that's not the case the dinosaurs have made that experience they were hit by an asteroid the same could happen to us their space weathers solar storms out there that threaten our society and we need to understand our Cosmic surroundings so the Moon is the first like look outside of our little sphere and we we have the responsibility to understand it to make sure that our existence is insured so so you describe the moon as being our neighbor considering whether this might be a success if we were to build a moon base is there the possibility that we could see people living on the moon at some point yeah I don't I don't see that you know the Moon is is hostile and dry there's no atmosphere there's um there's you know nothing that that would get you as a human to love being there I I mean I've spent a year in space and I always love to come back that's a it's an important thing that we learn but you could compare the moon to Antarctica right a hundred years ago it was not clear to people why should we go there it's it's expensive it's risky and it's full of ice but now 100 years later in hindsight we understand that we were right in going there and understanding like Antarctica not by itself but because it delivers data to us that is important for our understanding of the planet now there's lots of research spaces even though nobody lives in Antarctica just for fun and the same will happen with the moon and why is uh Mars such a Hot Topic when it comes to the space race so Mars can answer us two very very important questions in my opinion the most important ones is something that every one of us you and I have asked ourselves that are we alone in the universe so if we go to Mars and if we find traces of Life extinct or existing it doesn't matter if that life was was formed independent of life on Earth that means just by like the first view out the first planet we look we find life that means the universe is full with life right now before we go to Mars and find out about that we don't know we we're not we cannot be sure is there life out there or we alone in the universe the second thing is Mars we see it behind ourselves now is is a very dry and hostile Planet but actually it used to be um it used to be full with water had a thick atmosphere it used to be able to support and sustain life now it's dead and dry what happened there and how can we prevent the same happening with Earth all right well stick around because we do we do one of the European space agencies key missions is to gather data about climate change the information should help scientists to predict natural disasters such as hurricanes or droughts The agency's Sentinel satellite system flies over the same region every few days acquiring information over time well researchers can then see how land sea and air are gradually changing well let's turn now to Joseph ashbacher who is the director general of the European Space Agency the esa how could this new satellite system change how we tackle climate change I mean what we have with the copernico system we have just talked about the Sentinel missions they are a unique set of different satellites we have a number of them up there and with all of them we are taking the pulse of our planet literally that we look at all the elements uh the oceans the atmosphere the land surface and how this Earth system works together and we do need these observations to really understand our planet to help agriculture forestry ship holding Farmers disaster management people so really for their daily life and for the job and the information they need but also we really understand climate change because we have these satellites measuring it let me just say that Copernicus is really quite a unique uh piece of of satellites and information we provide actually some colleagues sir in the US for example colleague the gold standard of Earth observation that means Europe has created in the last 20 years one of the best if not the best Earth observation systems worldwide and even NASA is participating in this program and that's quite unique because normally we are the small partner of a NASA program in this case it is fair to say that Europe has really established itself as a as a major player as a leader in observing our planet and of course of course climate change sustainability all these are key topics which we address from space and yes this program really helps us understanding our own planet and just a little bit more on that when it comes to trying to understand where climate change is going as a forecast what are you gauging from this at the moment in terms of your research I mean what we see and we've just heard very recently that methane emissions are increasing drastically much higher than what we expected of course we all know about CO2 as being the main greenhouse gas that is creating uh the warming of our planet of course we aim at 1.5 degrees by the end of this Century it is a very tough goal and we can only reach it if we are taking serious measures so one thing is of course to get the measurements with satellites and on ground systems and air-based information but a much more important task is to convert this into information and what we're creating there is I call it digital twin of our planet so a digital twin which allows us to model to simulate our planet and have what if scenarios so what happens if I change one parameter again against another one for example in the energy crisis now we are converting our all and oil are supplies into electric energy or more renewable energy sources and of course you can simulate what that what does it mean in order to be really faster in beating your carbon targets which we all have set up very ambitiously so this simulation allows us to really make sure first of all that we understand the system but also make the right decisions in order to do the right steps the right measures to get there in terms of reducing the carbon footprint therefore minimize the impact of climate change I imagine a lot of very interesting equipment will be used for this Mission could you talk us through some of it oh yes there is a lot of it I mean we have satellites that measure that the radar sensors on board radar can look through the clouds and measure day and night so that means anytime uh whatever the daytime whatever the weather is you can take pictures down here on our planet and that's quite amazing that's of course very useful but also we have sensors that allow us to measure sea level height with millimeter accuracy so you can imagine the satellite flies in 800 kilometers height and measures with one millimeter accuracy what is the average sea level height on our surface with red altimeters which are on the satellite so some of them are groundbreaking technology and science which we're applying and yes this is quite a unique system and it's actually quite cool very cool very interesting as well um Alexandra I'd like to end this with you you spent a year in space clearly got to see things that many of us haven't had the opportunity to do what's your perception of how we are dealing with Earth right now well it's always you know hard to look down on Earth onto Earth from space and seeing things that we do down there we see war from the outside we see how people treat the planet at the same time we see how fragile it is and even more importantly we see how alone we are you know when we grow up but down here on Earth it looks infinite but if you see it from the outside on the backdrop of a black hostile Cosmos where there's nothing there it's just from a few our of our neighbor neighbor rocks and planets but apart from that there's nothing there if you see that and put it in perspective it usually fills us it did certainly with me and my colleagues usually say the same it fills us with a concern that we're not treating our planet in the way we should to be sustainable to make sure it's doing biosphere it's doing what it's doing for us even in the future and that's something that's a message that we want to bring out it's one of the most important things that we bring back as human humans to fly to space is the perspective but at the same time we're trying to make things better and to you know to give scientists the data at hand that they need to understand this problem well thank you very much indeed for taking the time to speak to DW news this is uh Joseph ashbacher director of the European Space Agency Esa and Alexander Gutt the German astronaut thank you so much for your time thanks for having us thank you very much

Channel: DW News

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Length: 13min 2sec (782 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 27 2022