NASA wants to expand its operations in Brazil. See how and where | Science and health

a Brazil Should expand the partnership with the US space agency, and NASAto monitor deforestation Amazon. The announcement was made on Monday, the 24th, after the meeting between NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, at the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia, to discuss space cooperation between Brazil and the United States.

The US ambassador to Brazil, Elizabeth Frawley-Bagley, who was also present at the meeting, said Lula and US President Joe Biden will speak by phone, likely by the end of this week, about the matters discussed at the meeting on Monday.

• The United States is offering Brazil the use of three deep imaging satellites to monitor the Amazon
• Can you live on Mars? Volunteers participate in a NASA simulation for a year

“Our satellites are already sending a lot of pictures and information back to scientists here in Brazil to locate the destruction of the forest,” Bill Nelson stated in a press conference after the meeting. “In the future, three new satellites will increase our ability to identify and prevent deforestation.”

Bill Nelson also explained that the space agency has tools that can help increase productivity in the field, which determine soil and air moisture and detect pests.

On Tuesday the 25th of this year, the Administrator of NASA visited the National Institute for Space Research (Inpe) and Embraer facilities in São Paulo.

The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luciana Santos, explained that any kind of partnership in forest monitoring depends on the approval of the scientific authorities that follow the Brazilian space policy, which can indicate the real need for the use of this equipment and the feasibility of crossing information.

The minister noted that, soon, a new radar will come into operation that will allow images to be taken through clouds and that Inpe “remains steadfast and strong, doing its duty”, qualifying information to combat deforestation in the Amazon.

“At the outset, we have total sympathy,” the minister told Agência Brasil. “Everything that has technological progress to be able to guarantee the best monitoring of our forests, we are at your disposal.” “We have companies with production capacity to provide NASA with equipment for the aerospace industry; therefore, it is part of this exchange that we want to establish during the visit of the head of NASA to Inpe.”

Luciana Santos indicated that cooperation between Brazil and the United States of America in the field of space dates back to the eighties, and one of the most important partnerships currently is the Artemis program, which aims to resume manned flights to the moon.

The minister also referred to the agreement for the use of the Alcantara base in Maranhão, and the project that studies the phenomenon of atmospheric ionization.

The meeting with Lola lasted about an hour and a half. Bill Nelson presented the president with a photo of NASA’s last uncrewed mission to the moon, between November and December last year.