Q&A with Bill Nelson
“WE ARE IN A RACE TO GET TO THE MOON. WE WILL BE THERE FIRST”
NASA CHIEF BILL NELSON ON UPCOMING MISSIONS AND SEEING THE EDGE OF TIME THROUGH THE WEBB TELESCOPE
You flew on the space shuttle in 1986, orbiting the planet 98 times in six days. How did that change you?
It gave me insight into NASA from the inside. There is a profound effect that happens on spaceflights when you look at your planet, your home. You see this incredible, colorful creation suspended in the middle of nothing.
What first fueled your passion?
The moment for me was Apollo 8, in December 1968, as they left Earth. It was also other Apollo missions when they would take pictures of Earth. The most recent photograph is the selfie I’m looking at right now, taken by the Orion capsule and its service module [in late 2022]. Orion was at the farthest point that any human-rated spacecraft had ever been—270,000 miles from Earth. That’s pretty dramatic.
Orion is the space capsule for NASA’s Artemis mission. When will humans fly it to the moon?
Hopefully next year. That will be to check out the spacecraft with all of its human life-support systems. It will orbit the moon and then return. One year later, we will send a crew of four into lunar orbit, and two of the four [astronauts] will descend to the lunar surface. That will be the first woman and the next man to land and walk on the moon.
You’ve said we’ll put “the first woman and person of color on the moon.” Why is this so significant for America?
NASA is reflective of the country as a whole. And the space program has the means to really get students engaged in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We found, from the history of the Apollo program, there was an explosion in those disciplines. The same thing is beginning to happen now, and it will ripple for several generations after this Artemis program.
Why is human exploration of the moon important, 54 years after the first lunar landing?
This time, we’re not going just to go and leave. We’re going to stay—to learn to live, to create, to invent, in order to go to Mars and then beyond. We plan for missions up to 30 days. That very well may be in lunar habitats that we would construct. And all this will educate and inform us about what we need to do to go millions of miles away to Mars.
What is NASA’s interest in exploring the moon’s south pole?
We’re looking for rocket fuel. We’re sending a couple of landers in the next couple of years to the [lunar] south pole to drill. There is frozen ice in the crevasses. We want to know if there is water underneath—and if there is, it can be used as rocket fuel. A water molecule is two hydrogen atoms combined with one oxygen atom. We already have a process by which we can break those out. That’s what we use in our chemical rockets right now.
The Webb telescope is sending breathtaking images of deep space. What will we learn over the next few years?
We’re going to learn answers to questions we don’t even know yet. Already we have had a number of major discoveries. We are seeing now that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. We have received pictures of galaxies they think may go back 13.625 billion years—200-plus million years after the big bang, the beginning.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX has NASA contracts. What is the role of commercial entrepreneurs in space exploration?
Their contribution has been impressive. Look at the SpaceX participation in taking food, as well as cargo, to the International Space Station. It’s been cheaper for taxpayers because SpaceX, on its Falcon 9, launches a lot of government payloads, as well as commercial payloads.
How is NASA looking for signs of life out in the universe?
We’re drilling on Mars right now with the Perseverance rover. Sixty tubes of samples to be brought back to Earth in the year 2031. That’s one way we are looking for life. And our telescopes, including Webb, are identifying exoplanets, which are other planets that orbit other suns.
You said recently we’re in a space race to the moon against China. Isn’t NASA’s goal cooperation in space?
We have a great deal of international cooperation. We have 23 nations that have signed the Artemis Accords, which are commitments to the peaceful exploration of space. China and Russia refuse to sign the Artemis Accords. We are in a race to get to the moon. We will be there first.
Interview by Sari Harrar