Top U.S. science advisors say that this decade’s top space project is not on Mars, but instead locked inside Uranus, and are urging the Biden administration begin probing the planet.
Science media is reporting that a survey released last year, headed by a top NASA scientist, urges the Biden administration to focus on exploring Uranus as a vital space objective for the next 10 years, culminating in 2032.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine released the results of a survey that “outlines science objectives” for researchers and scientists for the next 10 years.
The top priorities listed by scientists, according to the scientific community of the United States as reported by Gizmodo, are “finding Earth-like exoplanets, better understanding the nature of the universe’s densest objects, and drastically improving our grasp on the birth and growth of galaxies.”
When it comes to research close to home, that means probing Uranus.
The survey “calls for a spacecraft that will orbit Uranus” to chart “its gravitational and magnetic fields.”
A craft would need to lurk outside Uranus “for several years” and ultimately enter Uranus with a probe.
The survey makes recommendations for several missions within different NASA programs, but insists “the highest priority flagship mission of the next decade should be a probe of Uranus.”
Apparently the powerful arguments for Uranus were championed by Mark Hofstadter, who is a planetary scientist at NASAA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Biden administration has yet to comment on the survey, however, it has made its own bold promises about space exploration.
Joe Biden promised that the United States will return to the moon with the goal of putting the first woman of color on its surface.
The cost of putting a woman of color on the moon will total at least $7.6 billion, with more money set aside for NASA to advance social justice narratives and research climate change.
