Elon Musk has his eyes set on a "self-growing city on the Moon," which he thinks can become reality in less than a decade. However, Evans and other experts have varying opinions on Musk's ambitious plans.
“We're still, as a country, working on getting back to the moon,” Evans said. “So, I think maybe we'll have a better sense of a timeline once we can actually land some humans there.”
The number of US-based researchers applying to prestigious grants that would see them relocate to Europe has more than doubled in the last year. The trend points toward a potential 'brain drain', and -- according to Evans -- is also a result of the fallout from thousands of research grants being cut since Donald Trump returned to the White House.
“No doubt the uptick is a direct result of the Trump administration’s science policy, and in particular, its attacks on universities and academic freedom,” Evans said.
NASA will have to wait at least a month to launch humans to their deepest point in space in over 50 years, as the launch of Artemis II will be pushed from a possible February window to March at the earliest after a a prelaunch test to fuel the rocket, was terminated because of a liquid hydrogen leak early Tuesday.a
“You want to make sure that you can do all of the things that it takes to get humans safely to and from space without any major operational or infrastructural hiccups,” Evans said. “And so, it's very important that they do these wet tests, that they do all the flight rightness checks.”
In this commentary, Evans is mentioned among public scholars who continue to push back as the Trump administration has terminated research grants, dismissed government scientists without cause and cut science funding. Evans and other academics are continuing to provide evidence and context on consequential topics in the science space.
Launched in November and overseen by the U.S. Department of Energy, the Genesis Mission aims to accelerate scientific breakthroughs through AI. The initiative comes at a time when America finds itself in a race for global tech dominance, particularly with China, as the two are rapidly developing AI.
“There’s going to be a winner and there’s going to be a loser, whether that means economically, in terms of national security or in terms of general prosperity,” said Evans.