{"id":21328,"date":"2025-10-18T19:09:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:09:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/the-search-for-aliens-is-right-under-our-noses-its-us\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T19:09:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T11:09:25","slug":"the-search-for-aliens-is-right-under-our-noses-its-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/the-search-for-aliens-is-right-under-our-noses-its-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The search for aliens is right under our noses\u2026 it\u2019s us"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"img-border featured-image\">\n<p>\t<img width=\"100%\" src=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/52547389828_cdcf46cc07_o.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1600\" class=\"skip-lazy wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/52547389828_cdcf46cc07_o.jpg?w=320&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/52547389828_cdcf46cc07_o.jpg?w=640&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/52547389828_cdcf46cc07_o.jpg?w=1024&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/52547389828_cdcf46cc07_o.jpg?w=1500&amp;quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;ssl=1 1500w\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\" data-attachment-id=\"43767\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2025\/10\/17\/the-search-for-aliens-is-right-under-our-noses-its-us\/dcim100goprog0081549\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/52547389828_cdcf46cc07_o.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"2000,1000\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Artemis 1 Earthrise\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: NASA<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/52547389828_cdcf46cc07_o.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243;><figcaption>\n\t\t\t\tImage: NASA\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They have come from a fragile blue sphere, wrapped in oceans and clouds. They walk in sealed suits, carrying their air like infants carry blankets. They are aliens \u2013 strangers who bend local dust into shelter and harvest light into food. They call themselves human.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-43766\"><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-shift-in-perspective-nbsp\"><strong>The shift in perspective&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An alien is typically considered any life that does not belong to the world it inhabits. The moment humans began living in orbit, building analog habitats, and planning settlements beyond Earth, we crossed that line.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From another intelligence\u2019s vantage \u2013 on the Moon\u2019s rim, Mars\u2019 highlands, or the edge of a passing comet \u2013 we already appear as the newcomers. We\u2019re fragile mammals importing water, air, and plants into places that never evolved to host us.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This isn\u2019t a speculative future. It\u2019s unfolding now in rocket factories, spaceports, and research centers across the world.<\/p>\n<p>\t<span class=\"outbrain-ad-label\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/plain\">\n\t\t\twindow.adSlotsConfig = window.adSlotsConfig || [];<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tadSlotsConfig.push( {\n\t\t\t\tslotID: '\/1049447\/Outbrain',\n\t\t\t\tslotName: 'div-gpt-ad-outbrain-ad-43766',\n\t\t\t\tsizes: [300, 250],\n\t\t\t\tslotPosition: 'mid_article'\n\t\t\t} );\n\t\t<\/script><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-rockets-our-passports-to-alienhood\"><strong>Rockets: Our passports to alienhood<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rockets are not just machines, they\u2019re the immigration office of the cosmos. They decide who and what can cross the border between Earth and everywhere else.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>SpaceX\u2019s Starship, the tallest and most powerful rocket ever built, flew its 11th integrated test flight on October 13 demonstrating its ability to deploy payloads and survive reentry with a new heat-shield design, again. Elon Musk and Gwynne Shotwell maintain that Starship\u2019s true test will be carrying cargo for NASA\u2019s Artemis 3 mission to the Moon, now slated for no earlier than mid-2027.<\/li>\n<li>United Launch Alliance\u2019s Vulcan successfully launched its first U.S. Space Force national security mission on August 12, proving it can shoulder critical defense and science payloads.<\/li>\n<li>Blue Origin\u2019s New Glenn, after years of anticipation, has entered its flight campaign, aiming for regular launches with a heavy-lift capacity of 45 tons to low Earth orbit.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Each of these vehicles is more than hardware; it\u2019s a declaration. Earth is no longer our only address. These rockets are the ships that make us alien to every world we touch.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-habitats-earth-s-children-in-off-world-skins\"><strong>Habitats: Earth\u2019s children in off-world skins<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If rockets are passports, habitats are citizenship.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The International Space Station has orbited Earth for 25 years, humanity\u2019s longest continuous settlement off planet. NASA plans to retire it by 2030 with the help of a SpaceX-built deorbit vehicle, and then transition to commercial stations.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Axiom Space is building modules that will first attach to the ISS as soon as 2027 before detaching to form an independent commercial orbital outpost by the end of the decade, effectively becoming the business park of space.<\/li>\n<li>On the ground, NASA\u2019s Mars Dune Alpha \u2013 a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed analog at Johnson Space Center \u2013 has already hosted its first yearlong crew. It is expected to welcome the CHAPEA-2 crew on October 19 for another 378-day mission. ICON CEO Jason Ballard calls it \u201cthe highest-fidelity simulated habitat ever constructed by humans \u2026 to prepare humans to live on another planet.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Beyond Earth orbit, NASA\u2019s Lunar Gateway is being assembled through international partnerships. Its first two modules, the Power and Propulsion Element, and Habitation and Logistics Outpost, are now tracking for launch no earlier than late 2027, to position itself for use for the Artemis 4 Moon landing mission around the end of the decade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"43768\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2025\/10\/17\/the-search-for-aliens-is-right-under-our-noses-its-us\/artemis_base_camp\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png\" data-orig-size=\"2034,1145\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Artemis_Base_Camp\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: NASA<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?w=1024&#8243; height=&#8221;576&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; src=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?w=1024&#8243; alt=&#8221;&#8221; class=&#8221;wp-image-43768&#8243; srcset=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png 2034w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=300,169 300w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=768,432 768w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=1024,576 1024w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=1536,865 1536w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=350,197 350w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=140,79 140w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=1600,901 1600w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/Artemis_Base_Camp.png?resize=150,84 150w&#8221; sizes=&#8221;(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px&#8221;><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A NASA concept for a base on the Moon. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These habitats are humanity in disguise: domes of regolith, inflatables, and modules that let us breathe, eat, and dream in places that would otherwise kill us in seconds.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-daily-life-as-heavenly-wanderers\"><strong>Daily life as heavenly wanderers<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">From the outside, our technology looks like armor. From the inside, it\u2019s routine.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Water loops endlessly through recycling systems.<\/li>\n<li>Air is scrubbed of carbon dioxide and in the future expected to be replenished by crops growing in hydroponics bays.<\/li>\n<li>Food becomes a matter of production, not preference: kale, radishes, microgreens. Crews in NASA\u2019s analogs say these green spaces are both nutrition and medicine \u2013 a cure for the mental toll of confinement.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"43769\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/2025\/10\/17\/the-search-for-aliens-is-right-under-our-noses-its-us\/gmt204_21_10_jonny-kim_canadarm-moving\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all\" data-orig-size=\"8256,5504\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"ISS Candarm2\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\n\n<p>Image: NASA<\/p>\n<p>&#8221; data-large-file=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243; height=&#8221;683&#8243; width=&#8221;1024&#8243; src=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?quality=82&amp;strip=all&amp;w=1024&#8243; alt=&#8221;&#8221; class=&#8221;wp-image-43769&#8243; srcset=&#8221;https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg 8256w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=300,200 300w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=768,512 768w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=1024,683 1024w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=1536,1024 1536w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=2048,1365 2048w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=350,233 350w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=140,93 140w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=1500,1000 1500w, https:\/\/spaceexplored.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/10\/54775907782_728bc8318e_o.jpg?resize=150,100 150w&#8221; sizes=&#8221;auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px&#8221;><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A view of Earth from the International Space Station, which has been continuously occupied since November 2000. Image: NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Culture adapts alongside. Astronauts mark birthdays with tortillas instead of cake, tape children\u2019s drawings to bulkheads, and gather in greenhouses just to see something alive.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These rituals are as essential as oxygen. They are how humans remind themselves that being human doesn\u2019t end when Earth is below the horizon.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-near-horizon\"><strong>The near horizon<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Space timelines slip. That\u2019s not failure, it\u2019s physics and politics.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Artemis 2, the first crewed test of NASA\u2019s Space Launch System and Orion spacecraft, is now slated for 2026, with Artemis 3 no earlier than mid-2027. The Lunar Gateway modules have shifted to late 2027 as well.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Axiom\u2019s space station modules are targeted for 2027. ISS retirement is firm for 2030.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Meanwhile, Starship is pushing toward operational cadence, Vulcan has moved from debut to reliability, and New Glenn is seeking a steady rhythm. Together, these vehicles form the backbone of supply lines that will determine whether human settlements survive or stall.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To paraphrase what former NASA Administrator Bill Nelson has often said: We\u2019re returning to the Moon in a way we never have before \u2013 to learn how to go farther.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-if-someone-else-were-watching\"><strong>If someone else were watching<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If there are other eyes on us, they would not see conquerors. They\u2019d see fragile beings wrapped in metal and plastic, carrying bottled oceans and synthetic gardens, quarreling over budgets but stubbornly building again and again. They\u2019d see us as a species trying to belong someplace new.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And they\u2019d be right. The alien is us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A NASA concept for a base on the Moon. Image: NASA These habitats are humanity in disguise: domes of regolith, inflatables, and modules that let us breathe, eat, and dream in places that would otherwise kill us in seconds. Daily life as heavenly wanderers From the outside, our technology looks like armor. From the inside, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21328"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}