5 crazy missions that space agencies would like to realize

Over the years, various space missions have drawn people's attention due to the boldness of their goals. The future seems to be, at least in this sense, quite promising and full of new and relevant discoveries. We can cite as an example the Rosetta Probe, which recently landed on comet 67P / Churyumov-Gerasimenko, as we reported here at Mega Curioso.

As we think of these very significant steps for the science of humanity, it is inevitable not to imagine what will come next. The BBC has put together some of the craziest space missions that NASA and other space agencies have ever considered - and they may actually occur in the distant future. Below are some of them:

1 - Floating in the clouds of Venus

Venus is a planet very similar to Earth in size, but it is extremely toxic and has constant acid rain (sometimes called the evil brother of Earth because of this feature). Despite this unfriendly environment, a NASA team has already investigated the possibility of sending astronauts to orbit the planet and operate remote control probes on the surface.

Geoffry Landis, the project manager, believes humans could live in balloons in the upper atmosphere and above the poisonous clouds. In these regions, pressure and temperature are (theoretically) more similar to those on Earth. For now, it does not seem that Landis's dream will come true.

2 - Sailing the Titan Seas

Titan (one of Saturn's moons) has a somewhat Earth-like climate system - except that methane is the creator of clouds that make it rain and create lakes and seas. Two missions have already been proposed to sail and clear Titan's seas, one proposed by NASA and the other by the European Congress of Planetary Sciences.

None of them left the paper for now due to the great difficulties that the project requires. The thick clouds of Titan would never allow the use of solar energy, so it would be necessary to navigate the treacherous seas of the moon using nuclear fuel. In addition, other propulsion methods should be used to safely navigate this world. In other words, it does not seem to be something that will come true soon.

3 - Piercing the ice of Europe

The moon Europa orbits the distant planet Jupiter and has thick crusts of ice on the surface - as the sun is far away, the satellite receives almost no heat. However, according to studies, this minimum heat provided by the sun is able to keep underground oceans, which are just below the ice sheets, very warm. Since water is the basic source of life we ​​know, it is very possible that there is evidence of life in these oceans.

NASA's goal with a robot named Valkyrie is to drill this ice and analyze the water conditions in Europe. Tests have already been done in Alaska and the robot prototype managed to excavate five miles of ice, which was considered very good. As the project is receiving a lot of investment, it is possible that it will come true in a few years, so that what is submerged on the surface of Europe will be discovered.

4 - Capturing an asteroid

We already commented this case in Mega Curious, as you can remember here. The objective of this mission is to build an unmanned robotic ship to capture an asteroid and take it to lunar orbit. Sound crazy? Well, know it has already been approved by NASA. One of the mission's goals is to analyze the composition material of the asteroid so that the origins of the universe can be better understood.

In addition, it will be possible to devise new ways to reach Mars and possibly how to mine asteroids. Anyway, the mission will only come true in 2021, when the space rock will be brought into orbit of the moon.

5 - Interstellar Travel

If you watched Interstellar, you know what we're talking about. Interstellar travel is characterized by traversing hundreds of light years through the space warp, which is able to connect galaxies that are extremely distant along a path that serves as a kind of shortcut .

Although theoretically possible, there are many caveats that such a trip might be successful. However, NASA and DARPA have already started projects to try to make such a trip possible over the next 100 years. Given today's technology, it is impossible to consider missions of such magnitude. However, 100 years ago we did not imagine flying the planes we fly today.

Agencies are considering every possible mechanism at the moment, even antimatter propulsion. In addition, one has to think about the effects such trips would have on humans and how they could be softened or even countered. Who knows what scenario we will have 100 years from now ...