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For decades, the question of whether life exists beyond Earth has been the domain of science fiction writers and late-night conspiracy forums. But one NASA astronaut about to spend eight months orbiting our planet says he is going to run an actual, controlled scientific experiment to find out and he has promised to share every result publicly.

Dr. Anil Menon, an emergency medicine physician, U.S. Space Force colonel, and newly minted NASA astronaut, is preparing for the most ambitious chapter of his already extraordinary career. Scheduled to launch aboard the Soyuz MS-29 mission on July 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Menon will join Russian cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anna Kikina as a flight engineer on Expedition 75 aboard the International Space Station.

The mission is expected to last approximately eight months. And during that time, Menon has confirmed he will conduct a search for microbial extraterrestrial life during a series of spacewalks.

What Exactly Is the Experiment?

The idea sounds almost too simple: check the outside of the space station for bacteria. But the science behind it is anything but simple, and the implications could be world-changing.

"What we're looking to see is if there is any bacteria that can survive on the external side of the space station," Menon told Newsweek.

The external surface of the ISS is one of the most hostile environments imaginable. Objects on the outside of the station are exposed to unfiltered cosmic radiation, extreme ultraviolet light from the sun, and temperature swings that can range from roughly 250 degrees Fahrenheit in direct sunlight to negative 250 degrees in shadow. For any biological organism to survive out there would be extraordinary.

But previous reports have suggested it might not be impossible. The problem, Menon explained, is that earlier experiments lacked rigorous scientific controls, raising the possibility that the station itself could have contaminated the samples.

"Past reports made us think perhaps it's possible, but it wasn't clear if we had a really good control, like we might have potentially contaminated it," Menon said. "So I think we're going back. We're going to do a good job of having a very controlled experiment and that'll be some more exciting science to follow in terms of just other things living in space."

In other words, this time they are doing it right. A controlled experiment means cleaner data, more trustworthy results, and potentially a much clearer answer to one of humanity's oldest questions: are we alone?

An Astronaut Who Has Promised to Tell You the Truth

What makes Menon's mission especially compelling in 2026 is the broader political and cultural context surrounding extraterrestrial life. The U.S. government has been releasing batches of previously classified Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena records, a category that includes what were historically called UFO sightings.

The releases include military reports, videos, photographs, audio recordings, witness statements, and investigative documents from agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, the FBI, and various intelligence organizations. Reports describe objects seen by military pilots, astronauts, law enforcement officers, and civilians -- discs, spheres, orbs, and lights exhibiting flight characteristics that defy conventional explanation. Some of the sensor footage included in the releases is newly declassified and dates back decades.

Neither the Pentagon nor NASA has stated that any of this material constitutes evidence of alien spacecraft or extraterrestrial technology. Many of the cases remain unexplained simply because the available data is limited, and "unexplained" is not a synonym for "alien." But the releases have dramatically intensified public curiosity about what is really happening in the skies and beyond.

Menon acknowledged that context directly, and made a pledge worth paying attention to.

"Now that it's declassified, I could totally tell you if I encounter them. So I for sure will follow up with this if I have any interaction with extraterrestrials. I give you that solemn promise," he said.

The Bigger Mission: Preparing the Human Body for Mars

While the extraterrestrial life experiment may be generating headlines, Menon's core scientific focus during Expedition 75 is squarely on human physiology. He will be studying what happens to the human body during long-duration spaceflight, and in a twist that delights him personally, he will be studying what happens to his own body.

"I am most excited about the opportunity to just be in space and experience the changes that happen to the human body up there," Menon told Newsweek. "I've spent most of my life studying through medicine, health, and disease. And then I spent all my special time, like specialization in space medicine. And so it's just such a unique thing to actually see how that happens."

He described the experience with a kind of self-aware humor: "It's actually like you usually don't want this to happen, but it's like the doctor becoming the patient. But in these unique cases, it's really worthwhile because there's just so much to learn and so much nuance to it."

The research Menon conducts will directly inform humanity's plans for eventual crewed missions to Mars. The ISS exists, in large part, as a laboratory to identify and solve the physiological problems that deep space travel would impose on human beings.

One of the most well-documented challenges is bone density loss. Astronauts in microgravity lose roughly three percent of their bone mass every month. Left unchecked, that rate would leave a Mars-bound traveler catastrophically fragile by the time they arrived.

"Imagine that compounding over time. You would just be susceptible to fractures from anything," Menon said. But research conducted on the ISS has already produced a workable solution: targeted resistance exercise. The station carries specialized exercise equipment designed to simulate the mechanical stress that gravity would normally place on bones.

Mars presents a different set of variables. The planet has approximately 38 percent of Earth's gravity, meaning that resistance exercises effective on the ISS would need to be recalibrated for the Martian environment.

"Instead of like lifting like 100 pounds on your shoulder, you can lift 300 pounds on your shoulder and it'll give you the same effect," Menon explained. "You can't do that on the space station. You need to have some sort of resistant exercise. But I think there's a lot more avenues on a place like Mars to getting those kind of Earth-like pressures and gravity-like impact that will affect your body positively."

He added that humans are "amazingly resilient" -- a phrase that, coming from an emergency medicine physician who has provided medical relief after earthquakes in Haiti and Nepal, carries real weight.

Beyond physiology, Mars poses other challenges that are not yet fully solved. The Martian soil contains perchlorates, highly toxic chemicals that would pose a serious risk to any humans attempting to work on or near the surface.

"That's why we're now using the Earth and Moon base as a platform to do those things and just open up even more doors for us," Menon said.

During his time on the ISS, he will also participate in experiments studying blood flow, vein structure, and blood composition in microgravity. He will help test methods for producing intravenous fluids from the station's water supply, a capability that could prove critical on missions where resupply from Earth is not an option.

The Man Behind the Mission

Anil Menon is not a typical astronaut in any sense of the word. Born and raised in Minneapolis to Indian and Ukrainian immigrant parents, he earned a degree in neurobiology from Harvard University, then went on to earn both a medical degree and a master's in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. Few people in any field carry that combination of credentials.

Before being selected as a NASA astronaut in 2021, Menon built a remarkable career at the intersection of medicine and aerospace. He served as a flight surgeon for NASA, working directly with ISS astronauts. He then became the first flight surgeon at SpaceX, where he played a key role in preparing crews for the company's early crewed missions, including the historic Demo-2 flight that returned American orbital launches to U.S. soil after nearly a decade.

He is also a colonel in the U.S. Space Force and has deployed on humanitarian missions following major natural disasters. He completed NASA astronaut training in 2024, and Expedition 75 marks his first spaceflight assignment.

On Elon Musk, Rocket Travel, and the Road to Mars

Menon was also asked during the Newsweek interview about Elon Musk's vision for using rockets as a means of city-to-city passenger transport on Earth, and for eventually sending humans to Mars. His answer was characteristically measured and optimistic.

"I don't doubt that he is capable and SpaceX is capable of getting there. They've shown that they can do a lot harder things, but in the process of getting there," Menon said. "I think what you do is you figure out some of those challenges. Just like going to Mars, we figure out some of the health challenges; doing point-to-point transfer, we figure out some of the technological challenges, and we figure out how to solve it."

He drew a parallel to the evolution of clean energy technology -- a field that seemed impractical for decades before incremental problem-solving made it viable.

"Think about just energy utilization. We've figured out how to make cleaner energies, to take energies that were existing for hundreds of years and figure out systems and plants that make them more sustainable and cleaner. So I think all of these processes, there is a way forward. We just need to thoughtfully move forward. And I have full confidence that that will be part of the process."

The One Thing He Says Will Be the Hardest

For all the scientific complexity of his mission, when asked what personal challenge looms largest, Menon's answer was immediate and entirely human.

"My wife and kids. I'm going to miss them a lot. But luckily we'll have the opportunity to do video calling and stuff," he said.

Eight months is a long time. But if the science Menon conducts during that period helps unlock the future of Mars colonization, and if the bacteria swabs he takes on his spacewalks produce results that upend our understanding of life in the universe, it may turn out to be eight of the most consequential months in the history of human spaceflight.