China's Chang'e 6 mission brings exciting new discoveries about the moon's history, marking a major milestone in space exploration. James Head, Professor of Geological Sciences at Brown University spoke to CGTN Europe.
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00:00Let's talk to James Head, a professor of geological sciences at Brown University in the United States.
00:05Good to see you again, James. Welcome back to the program.
00:07So, as we've just been hearing, a very busy year in space, 2024.
00:11What in particular stood out for you?
00:14Well, I think it's really exciting. I mean, 2024 has been fantastic.
00:19I think leading that has been the return of samples by the Chang'e 6 mission,
00:23the Chinese Far Side lunar mission, which was spectacular.
00:27And we're now analyzing the samples, and it's incredibly exciting
00:30and changing our whole view of what the moon history has been.
00:34But there's so many other things. You know, I wake up every morning,
00:37and it's so exciting because there's a new discovery virtually every day.
00:40And we discovered things like, with James Webb Space Telescope,
00:44an asteroid belt around another star.
00:47The Europa Clipper was launched.
00:50There are 140 active NASA spacecrafts in orbit and around the solar system.
00:55So things are really happening, and it's incredibly exciting.
00:58It's going to be another year coming up that's going to be even more exciting.
01:02Well, let's talk about that Chang'e mission by China to the dark side of the moon.
01:07And some of the experiments, for example, seeing if rice can grow in space,
01:10do you think this is perhaps laying the path for people beginning to perhaps live there?
01:17Oh, absolutely. I think that our destination is definitely off-planet, so to speak.
01:23You know, we're explorers.
01:25China has historically been exploring nation and country with early explorers,
01:32perhaps even discovering America and the early sailors and so on.
01:36And we all feel that way. It's in our genes.
01:39And so, yes, we're headed to the moon.
01:41We're working on that right now, and we're on to Mars.
01:43And we're looking at ways to build things, looking for shelter,
01:47looking for how you survive and how you explore
01:50and what the scientific goals and objectives are.
01:52So it's definitely internationally the goal for the future of humanity.
01:59And new ground broken this year also in private space travel, space exploration.
02:04Do you think we're going to see more of that kind of thing?
02:08I think absolutely.
02:09You know, SpaceX has done a remarkable job of, you know, privatizing space exploration.
02:18That's the whole goal. Actually, NASA pays them to do that.
02:21It's a business.
02:22And in the United States, it's a little different than the Chinese space exploration program
02:26in the sense that NASA encourages and pays industry to develop the capability to fly these planetary missions.
02:33And so we're very excited about that because, you know, it isn't always successful.
02:37It takes a while. There are bumps in the road.
02:39But, you know, indeed, once that happens, then, as with SpaceX, it's incredibly, phenomenally successful.
02:46And it cuts down on government spending and encourages the private enterprise, so to speak.
02:53So I think there's absolutely going to be more of that.
02:55And, you know, I wouldn't mind spending a week in space myself.
03:00Well, given how busy this year has been, you might suggest that we're in a sort of new era of space popularity, if you like.
03:08You were always very excited about space.
03:09But what are you most excited to see coming up next year?
03:14Well, I think there's so many things.
03:17You know, the thing about science is that, you know, we can make it sound very, very complicated, but it's very simple.
03:24It's just simply the exploration of the unknown.
03:27And that's what we're doing every day.
03:29I wake up every morning and there's something coming in or there's something we just sent out there to look at something.
03:34Like, for example, next Wednesday, we have a flyby of Mercury by the European Space Agency BepiColombo Spacecraft.
03:43It's just happening all the time.
03:44So there are many, many things.
03:46I think, you know, China's upcoming asteroid mission, the United States Europa Clipper was launched,
03:52and we are having great developments in international interactions, a really important thing, international interactions.
03:59Space is so big that, you know, you can't say, oh, I'm going to take this part and this part.
04:03No, we need all the help we can get in exploring space.
04:06And that's why so many countries, China and the United States, are pioneering leadership in this area
04:12to engage dozens and dozens of countries to be involved in space exploration.
04:16So it's going to be fantastic, and it will continue to be.
04:19Professor, your enthusiasm is as infectious as always.
04:22Professor James Head there from Brown University, thank you for joining us.
04:26My pleasure.