Science is always advancing.
Our knowledge is always growing.
And there are more scientists working now in more scientific fields than ever before.
So, as we gaze out to the sky and stars beyond our own planet, what’s next?
This is Unveiled, and today we’re uncovering the extraordinary space discoveries that could
happen in the next ten years.
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First, a place on the tip of every space enthusiast’s tongue.
Mars!
Ever since the moon landings in the late ‘60s, humankind has seen Mars as the next step for
space exploration.
And we’ve had a number of successful robotic Mars missions over the years.
But, in the 2020s, it’s finally time to swap machine for man, as we’re closer than
ever to sending real life astronauts to the Red Planet.
And what’s the one question at the top of the agenda?
What’s the one discovery that would represent a truly ground-breaking moment?
Everyone’s hoping to answer this; is there, or has there ever been, life on Mars?
Proof of life on Mars - even microbial life, or life from the ancient past - would be a
discovery like no other.
And if we’re ever going to make it, then it could happen in time for the next generation.
That generation would then know that we’re not alone, and that life can develop and survive
on planets other than Earth.
And such a fundamental shift would change the way we explore space for centuries.
But Mars isn’t the only place in the solar system where it’s thought that life could
one day be discovered.
It isn’t even the most promising place in the solar system.
Within the next ten years, there are other missions planned to finally send probes directly
to the moons of Saturn and Jupiter.
NASA’s Dragonfly probe, for example, is heading to Saturn’s Titan this decade, a
place often described as the most Earth-like other body around our sun.
It has a similar atmosphere and gravity to Earth, so we could soon discover whether humans,
or indeed aliens, could survive on its surface.
Although, strictly speaking, this one’s a discovery that will only start to happen
within the next ten years.
Dragonfly is currently scheduled to launch in 2027, but it won’t reach Titan – which
is almost a billion miles away from Earth on average – until the year 2036.
For faster results, we need to look at Jupiter, which is the closer of the two gas giants.
What’s particularly exciting is that, in 2022, the European Space Agency is launching
the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE for short.
It will study three of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons: Ganymede, Callisto, and Europa.
All three are thought to have subsurface oceans, making them all main players in the debate
on where (other than Earth) humans could ever hope to live.
Given that JUICE is set to arrive in the Jovian system by 2029, scientists and astronomers
are hopeful that we’ll soon determine once and for all whether these moons are habitable
for us (or for others).
We might not have to look quite so far away to make interesting moon discoveries, however…
with our own moon set for a starring role in the coming years.
Multiple space agencies have new lunar programs planned inside the next decade.
With NASA, for example, there are the Artemis missions, which aim to put humans back on
the moon’s surface.
And before that there’s the Lunar Gateway initiative, which will create a new space
station in lunar orbit between us and our closest satellite.
And, despite it being more than fifty years since we first set foot there, we still have
plenty of questions about the moon left to answer.
It’s hoped that these missions will finally determine whether humans will ever be able
to live there.
And, in terms of imminent discoveries, it’s all about the resources - including lunar
water deposits and potential building materials - that we could tap and use to supply future
human outposts.
The last celestial bodies we can look to for upcoming discoveries and breakthroughs are
asteroids.
And there are plenty of missions already underway to study them…
such as the OSIRIS-REx NASA probe which, in 2020, retrieved a sample from its target asteroid;
101955 Bennu.
Should large rocks like Bennu (or the asteroid belt giant, Ceres) be found to contain valuable
resources, then the 2020s could see a surge of private and public mining interests in
outer space.
Companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Boeing, and Virgin are already set to monetize space…
and the predictions are that asteroid mining will soon be big business.
It’s still a hotly debated issue, though, so the practice could quickly find itself
regulated by various laws and treaties.
A much less contentious prospect is NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.
This mission has had its launch date continually pushed back thanks to numerous problems and
delays, but all reports are that it will go up sometime in the next decade.
And when it does it will see more of the universe than we’ve ever seen before.
The James Webb Telescope is the most powerful telescope ever built.
It’s also an infrared telescope, much improved on the Hubble Space Telescope… so it’s
capable of seeing infrared light emitted by planets and low-light stars, as well as other
things far beyond the usual visible range.
There’s no telling just how many discoveries the Webb will make, but it’s easily one
of the most exciting space missions on the horizon… with experts tipping it to shed
new light on red dwarf stars especially, and on whether red dwarf systems could host life.
Finally, what of the discoveries that don’t come out of meticulously planned and scheduled
missions?
Sometimes, the best breakthroughs happen when we’re not pushing quite so hard for them.
For instance, in the next ten years, most scientists will hope that something happens
to improve our understanding of dark matter and dark energy.
Right now, we can only detect dark matter by studying its effects on normal matter,
but we know it’s vital to the formation and maintenance of galaxies.
Meanwhile, we know dark energy is key to cosmic expansion… but that’s about all we know.
With experiments and studies ongoing, all predictions are that we will come to see (and
perhaps even manipulate) the true nature of dark matter and energy before long.
If that happens within the next ten years, then by the time the decade is out we won’t
only be living in a different world but a different universe.
Suddenly so much that doesn’t make sense right now, will make sense.
A better grasp of dark matter would certainly push us much closer to a theory of everything.
This holy grail of scientific research aims to unify the theories of general relativity
with quantum physics… and, according to the most optimistic projections, we could
be very close to finally achieving it.
Today, we still haven’t quite cracked the theory of everything.
All attempts made so far to reach it - such as string theory, which is one of the most
prominent - are full of problems and contradictions.
But so often history shows how science can move suddenly and quickly.
So, if we make even a small adjustment, if we move even a tiny bit closer to a theory
of everything in the next ten years, then we might well look back at this time as a
period of enlightenment.
But there’s one last, enormous, potential discovery that really would cement the next
ten years as ten of the most important years in the history of humankind: the discovery
of intelligent, alien life.
We’re not just talking microbial life now, or traces of past life in the solar system,
but full blown first contact with an advanced alien species.
Because, really, there’s no telling when this discovery will happen, if it ever does.
The search for extraterrestrial intelligence goes on, with organizations and initiatives
like the SETI Institute and the Breakthrough Listen project, but we’ll always be limited
as to what we can do from Earth.
Which is why, for many, it could be that we’ll only ever meet intelligent aliens if they
reach out and reveal themselves to us.
And, ultimately, that could happen at any time.
So, why not within the next decade?
Why not tomorrow, for that matter?
With a growing number of scientists predicting that alien life must be out there somewhere,
how exciting (or, perhaps, frightening) would it be if this generation was the one to finally
see it?
Which of these scientific breakthroughs do you most hope will happen next?
And are there any that you really hope don’t happen?
The future is an unknowable place… but those are the space discoveries that could happen
in the next ten years.
What do you think?
Is there anything we missed?
Let us know in the comments, check out these other clips from Unveiled, and make sure you
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