Expert Voices

SPACE.com invites experts in space exploration, science & technology to provide insightful commentary and informed perspective on news, current events, innovations, big ideas and ongoing research. Expert Voices includes Op-Ed analysis and opinion as well as interesting observations from the field and space exploration efforts around the world.

Related Topics: Expert Voices - Don Lincoln, Expert Voices - Leroy Chiao, Expert Voices - Paul Sutter, Expert Voices - Robert Lawrence Kuhn, Expert Voices - The Kavli Foundation 

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people in spacesuits on the surface of mars surrounded by metal buildings

Spending time in space can harm the human body — but scientists are working to mitigate these risks before sending people to Mars

By Rachael Seidler published

With NASA planning more missions to space in the future, scientists are studying how to mitigate health hazards that come with space flight.

A SpaceX Starship enters Mars' atmosphere and decelerates aerodynamically.

When SpaceX's Starship is ready to settle Mars, will we be? (op-ed)

By Volodymyr Usov published

The challenges of settling Mars stretch beyond the boundaries of rocket technology, impacting our biology and fundamentally questioning our identity as a species.

a green comet with a faint tail in the sky against a backdrop of stars

Are we about to see a rare green comet light up the sky? An expert explains what to expect from Comet Nishimura

By Jonti Horner published

There's a slight chance Comet Nishimura might brighten unexpectedly. Astronomer Jonti Horner explains what to expect.

the painting of a man and women standing at a table.

Caroline Herschel was England's first female professional astronomer, but still lacks name recognition two centuries later

By Kris Pardo published

Caroline Herschel, the first English professional female astronomer, made contributions to astronomy that are still important to the field today.

The silhouette of couple standing in a field near a tree, holding hands, gazing up the milky way and a vibrant starry night sky.

Sex between space tourists will happen eventually. But are we ready for babies conceived off Earth?

By David Cullen published

Humans have a knack for sharing intimate moments in unlikely places...

a rocket launches over a beach at sunset

New data reveal US space economy's output is shrinking – an economist explains in 3 charts

By Jay L. Zagorsky published

Using the broad definition and adjusting for inflation, the relative size of the space economy fell by about one-fifth from 2012 to 2021.

An artist's depiction of the metal-rich asteroid Psyche.

NASA's Psyche mission to a metal world may reveal the mysteries of Earth's interior

By Jim Bell published

Can what we learn about the metal asteroid Psyche with NASA's upcoming mission of the same name be extrapolated to solve some of the mysteries about the Earth's core?

The inside of the LZ outer detector shown as a white facility with gold eye-like detectors.

Researchers dig deep underground in hopes of finally observing dark matter

By Hugh Lippincott published

Physicists like me don't fully understand what makes up "dark matter." Deep beneath South Dakota, we're trying to change that.

An array of radio telescopes pointing into the night sky with the milky way behind

First contact with aliens could end in colonization and genocide if we don't learn from history

By David Delgado Shorter, Kim TallBear, William Lembert published

How humanity responds to the first contact with intelligent alien life could determine the very fate of our species. Here's what we can learn from history.

Two children using a telescope. One is looking through the telescope while another looks up.

Curious Kids: What comes after space?

By Maggie Lieu published

To find out what is beyond space, a good place to start would be to figure out where space – our universe – ends. The problem is we don't know where space ends, or even if it ends at all.

a grey-silver porous rock

Over 100 space rocks collected by meteorite hunter Geoffrey Notkin are up for auction today

By Geoffrey Notkin published

Over 100 different meteorite fragments collected by famed space rock hunter Geoffrey Notkin are currently up for bidding from Heritage Auctions.

a large rocket on the surface of the moon

Return to the moon: The race we have to win (again)

By Rick Tumlinson published

The race is on. We are in a Sputnik moment — a sudden and important recognition that we are about to lose the heavens if we do not act with clarity and unity.

A cloudy burning orange sky hangs above a desert wasteland with the towering ruins of a modern city decaying on the horizon.

If humans went extinct, what would the Earth look like one year later?

By Carlton Basmajian published

After a year without people, the sky would be bluer, the air clearer. The wind and the rain would scrub clean the surface of the Earth; all the smog and dust that humans make would be gone.

Russia controls six modules aboard the International Space Station.

Space Blocs: The future of international cooperation in space is splitting along lines of power on Earth

By Svetla Ben-Itzhak published

Even during times of conflict on the ground, space has historically been an arena of collaboration among nations. But trends in the past decade suggest the nature of cooperation in space is shifting.

A 3D rendering of abstract shapes linked up

A 79-year-old mathematician may have just solved an infinite dimension puzzle that's vexed theorists for decades

By Nathan Brownlowe published

Mathematician Per Enflo, who solved a huge chunk of the 'invariant subspaces problem' decades ago, may have just finished his work.

dark energy depicted as wispy clouds of energy and material

A dynamic form of dark energy may explain strange radiation signal from the early universe

By Paul Sutter published

We may have already found evidence of an evolving, dynamic kind of dark energy, in the form of the radiation emitted when the first stars appeared in the universe.

Graphic illustration of the Euclid spacecraft in space against a background of stars.

The Euclid spacecraft will transform how we view the 'dark universe'

By Robert Nichol published

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid satellite completed the first part of its long journey into space on May 1, 2023, when it arrived in Florida on a boat from Italy.

satellite dishes at the bottom of the image are pointed toward a star-studded sky with the bulge of the Milky Way stretching across the center of the image.

AI is helping astronomers make new discoveries about the universe faster than ever before

By Chris Impey published

AI has now spread into every field of astronomy and is helping astronomers learn more about the universe at an astonishing rate.

The far side of the Moon is an attractive place to carry out astronomy.

Building telescopes on the moon could transform astronomy – and it's becoming an achievable goal

By Ian Crawford published

Lunar exploration is undergoing a renaissance. Dozens of missions, organized by multiple space agencies – and increasingly by commercial companies – are set to visit the moon by the end of this decade.

Both the U.S. and China have plans to establish bases on the Moon in the near future.

Is the US in a space race against China?

By Svetla Ben-Itzhak published

Headlines proclaiming the rise of a new "space race" between the U.S. and China have become common in news coverage following many of the exciting launches in recent years.