Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights

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.

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Marrying Mars: Fixing Our Dysfunctional Relationship with the Red Planet (Op-Ed)

August 06, 2018 | Article

Historically, humans have often fooled themselves about Mars. But as we prepare to visit and possible settle the fourth planet, are we deceiving ourselves yet again? Mars is strikingly familiar but dangerously alien.
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Sorry Elon Musk, But It's Now Clear That Colonizing Mars Is Unlikely — And A Bad Idea

August 05, 2018 | Article

We have learned that there could be life beneath Mars’ surface and that it may be impossible to terraform its surface.
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Why the Private Spaceflight Industry Needs More Lawyers (Op-Ed)

July 30, 2018 | Article

If private companies are going to start exploring and settling the final frontier—building human outposts on the moon and Mars, launching tourists into space or even building luxury space hotels in orbit—the world will need more specialized space lawyers.
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Who Owns the Moon? A Space Lawyer Answers

July 20, 2018 | Article

Only less than a century ago, back on Earth, planting a national flag in another part of the world still amounted to claiming that territory for the fatherland. Did the Stars and Stripes on the moon signify the establishment of an American colony?
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Are We Alone? The Question Is Worthy of Serious Scientific Study

July 13, 2018 | Article

Unfortunately, neither of the answers feel satisfactory. To be alone in this vast universe is a lonely prospect. On the other hand, if we are not alone and there is someone or something more powerful out there, that too is terrifying.
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How Your Kids Can Integrate Space Research with Summertime Fun

July 12, 2018 | Article

Summer is a season for children to enjoy, because it is a time when their very perception of time changes. The days seem to pass quickly — too quickly — until the months fade and the memories blur.
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Method of Making Oxygen From Water in Zero Gravity Raises Hope for Long-Distance Space Travel

July 11, 2018 | Article

Space agencies and private companies already have advanced plans to send humans to Mars in the next few years – ultimately colonizing it.
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Life-Saving Satellites: Why NASA's Earth-Science Missions Are Indispensable (Op-Ed)

July 05, 2018 | Article

America's space program is a necessity, not a luxury. While we should not have to qualify its importance, it is helpful to remember the good that NASA does.
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World UFO Day: Are We Really Alone? The Question Is Worthy of Serious Study

July 02, 2018 | Article

About 5 percent of all UFO sightings cannot be easily explained by weather or human technology. A physicist argues that there's compelling evidence to justify serious scientific study and that the skeptics should step aside – for the sake of humanity.
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Why Relativity's True: The Evidence for Einstein's Theory

June 28, 2018 | Article

As good skeptics, we shouldn't immediately believe general relativity's tangle of mathematics at first blush. Instead, we need evidence. Good evidence.
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