TRANSCRIPT:
For the next five months, Danish astronaut Andreas Mogensen may well have the best seat in the house.
He'll be commanding the International Space Station, in what's his second mission to Earth's orbiting outpost.
"Being on board the space station is an incredible experience. And I was sad, even though I was tired and looking forward to getting back to the Earth because of how intense the program had been while I was in space, I was also sad to leave the space station, and as soon as I had landed, I knew I wanted to go back at some point."
Part of Mogensen's task during his five month stay will be to test a new 3D printer, which could allow metallic parts to be produced away from Earth.
"We have previously tested 3D printers in space using polymers. But now, for the first time, we will test a metal 3D printer allowing us to print components in metal, which could be a real game changer in terms of allowing us to print parts, reserve parts, spare parts, tools and anything else we need without having to fly them from the Earth."
The other crucial part of the mission will be to gather knowledge about how humans will travel even further into space, to the Moon and Mars.
The European Space Agency's director of human and robotic exploration David Parker says Europe’s collaboration with NASA on its Artemis mission could see a European set foot on the Moon within a relatively short period of time.
"The first thing is we have three ESA crew are going to fly to the Moon on the Orion Moon ship to help build the Lunar Gateway, which is a permanent outpost around the Moon... We are discussing with them now how our next contributions to our to Artemis, the Argonaut landers, we can barter that to get flights for astronauts. The goal is the first one by the end of this decade."
This mission will likely be Mogensen’s last - to the International Space Station, at least - but he’s calling on Denmark and Europe to increase investment in space for those who will follow him.
"The last year or so has certainly shown that there are some critical technologies that we need to possess in the future simply to ensure our independence from other countries. Europe has the capability, we just need the political will and the funding. So hopefully the countries will step up."
That investment is highly likely to come, with strong interest already in exploring outer space and the moon.
India became the first nation on earth to successfully land an aircraft on its south pole this week, days after Russia's attempt ended with its Luna 25 module crashing into the moon.
The south pole is an area where scientists believe there could be important reserves of frozen water and precious elements.
Jack Burns is a Planetary Sciences Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, and a principal investigator for the NASA-funded Network for Exploration and Space Science.
He says it's clear what is motivating the current international push for lunar exploration.
"In the 1960s and 70s it took all of the resources of the most wealthy nation in the world, the United States, to be able to just get to the moon and land. Today, with 50 years advancement in technology, it's now much less expensive, much better technology, so that individual companies as well as individual countries can afford to go to the moon. So our moon is now accessible in a way that it never has been before. You can get there. You can do things."
