Canadians have certainly seen their share of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) over the years, but does that mean those things are aliens from another planet?
Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen isn't so sure about that, but he's also not ready to rule out the idea that there is life in the universe beyond our planet.
"It's an important conversation to have, and I'm very open-minded," Hansen recently told Narcity during a chat in Toronto.
Hansen is slated to become the first Canadian ever to visit the moon when NASA's Artemis II mission takes off late next year, and while he won't be bumping into E.T. on that flight, he does hope the mission brings us a bit closer to answering the big questions about our place in the universe. The Artemis program is all about setting up a foothold on the moon for future missions to Mars, and who knows where we'll go from there?
Hansen's future is in space but he's also a former Canadian fighter pilot, and many of Canada's UFO reports have come from pilots in recent decades. That's why we had to ask if he's seen or heard anything that might hint at extraterrestrial visitors, especially given that the U.S. now encourages its pilots to report so-called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) whenever they see them.
"I don't know 100% of the answer, but I do have my own personal experience on it, and none of it is classified," Hansen said. "I haven't seen anything," he continued. "I did spend a lot of nights sleeping in a hangar beside an army jet, waiting for a bell to go off, and I just never saw any of my colleagues or myself see anything that was unexplainable."
So is that a "no" on the UFO question?
"We have seen some evidence of things that are unexplained," said Hansen. "But to me — look at the evidence. The most logical conclusion is they're Earth-derived, and (military officials) are still interested in trying to figure out what that is, but I don't feel like they're extraterrestrial."
Still, Hansen says it's totally worthwhile to think about the possibility that we are not alone, even if we probably don't have flying saucers hiding in the skies above Earth.
"It's worthy to look for life in the universe. It's so vast, there are so many galaxies, let alone solar systems and planet. There has to be life out there," he said. "It's just really unlikely that they're here right now (and that) we haven't already discovered them, or heard some of their transmissions or something like that."
Former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield told Narcity a similar thing last year when asked about the possibility of life beyond Earth.
"To me, that's the big, big question we've been wondering since we've looked up (at the stars)," Hadfield said at the time. He added that it's entirely possible there are lifeforms in another galaxy. However, space is so vast that entire civilizations can rise and fall before you might even spot them through a telescope, let alone plan a mission to visit.
Hansen put it even more clearly with an example in his chat with Narcity.
“We live in the Milky Way Galaxy, and if you assume life is in the next one closest to us, Andromeda, it’s 2.5 million light years away," he said. "So even if in Andromeda there’s a civilization there somewhere in that galaxy, and they have the most powerful telescope available, and they’re looking at Earth right now, they are seeing us 2.5 million years ago, and we (humans) are not here. And that’s the closest neighbouring galaxy. So it just gives you an idea of how hard it is to search for other life in the universe.”
In other words, our timelines probably won't ever line up with another advanced space-travelling race, because that's just the way the universe works.
Nevertheless, there's still plenty to learn about space, and Hansen hopes the Artemis program will kickstart that sense of wonder in many Canadians. He says we're on the verge of a boom in space travel, and the idea of non-government astronauts is not as far-fetched as it might once have been.
"I think it’s important for Canadians to understand that the future is changing rapidly, and the space program you see today will be different 10 years from now," he said.
Hansen added that if you're wondering what it's really like to be an astronaut, the best movie to watch right now is The Martian, the 2015 Matt Damon film based on the book by Andy Weir. Hansen says Weir really did his research and spent time at NASA's Johnson Space Center to see how crews run a space mission.
"What I loved about The Martian is they captured the can-do attitude. You don’t have to know what the solution is, but you do have to keep trying if you want to succeed," said Hansen.
"The other thing that was really well done was capturing how our collective space industry works through problems. The way Mission Control was characterized, the way that they look at a problem and tackle it, I think was really well done and accurate.“
As for the idea that little green Martians might be here on Earth, Hansen left Narcity with one final thought.
"I just don't believe that people would want to hide it," he said. "It's a really exciting thing if we figure out that we're not alone in the universe. I don't think it'd be kept a secret. I really think we would share it. It will be a huge and monumental discovery."
You can watch Hansen take one giant leap for Canadian space travel late next year when the Artemis II mission takes off. The 10-day mission will take Hansen and three NASA astronauts on a loop around the moon and back, making it the first crewed visit to the moon in over half a century.
Artemis II is expected to launch as early as November 2024.
