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This story is a part of our Ask a Professor series, in which Georgetown faculty members break down complex issues and use their research to inform trending conversations, from the latest pop culture hits to research breakthroughs and critical global events shaping our world.

Life on earth has become dependent on orbital satellites. Telecommunications, weather, and imaging satellites provide services and data that we rely on in the course of our daily lives, and that doesn’t even touch on more specialized or sensitive areas like national defense or scientific research into climate change or space exploration. Many of these satellites become obsolete in a matter of a two or three decades because they run out of fuel or succumb to technological obsolescence, but what if they could be refueled or upgraded while still in orbit? While it is too dangerous and difficult for astronauts…

Whether in the farthest reaches of our solar system, her lab on the Hilltop or her New York Times bestselling book, Professor Sarah Johnson seeks out signs of life — and connection.

In a paper published in Nature Astronomy, Georgetown Postdoctoral Fellow Maëva Millan and her advisor, Sarah Stewart Johnson, Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in the Department of Biology and Science, Technology, and International Affairs Program, share their findings from the very first “wet chemistry derivatization” experiment performed on Mars, where NASA’s Curiosity Rover landed in August 2012.

The question seems like science fiction or a classic video game: What should be done — legally, of course — if we discover some day that there is a large asteroid on a collision course with Earth?

NASA invests nearly $7 million in an effort, led by biology professor Sarah Johnson, aimed at developing a new kind of extraterrestrial life detection system that could be used on Mars.

Simulations with animal models meant to mirror galactic cosmic radiation exposure to astronauts are raising red flags for investigators at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) about the health of astronauts during long voyages, such as to Mars.