# NASA wants AI to find missed discoveries and extend its reach

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/nasa-wants-ai-to-find-missed-discoveries-and-extend-its/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Jared Isaacman](https://realalpha.app/people/jared-isaacman/) · Jared Isaacman is an entrepreneur, pilot, commercial astronaut and NASA administrator. · Commanded Inspiration4, the first all-civilian orbital flight, and founded Shift4 payments; now runs NASA.
- Host: [Peter Diamandis](https://realalpha.app/people/peter-diamandis/) · Founder, XPRIZE · Co-founded Singularity University and founded Zero-G; co-wrote the books Abundance and Bold.
- Host: [Salim Ismail](https://realalpha.app/people/salim-ismail/) · Founder, Open ExO · Co-wrote Exponential Organizations; was Singularity University's founding executive director; sold Ångströ to Google.
- Host: [Dave Blundin](https://realalpha.app/people/dave-blundin/) · Founder & GP, Link Ventures · Has co-founded 23 companies; founding CEO of Vestmark and chairman of insurance marketplace EverQuote.
- Host: [Alexander Wissner-Gross](https://realalpha.app/people/alexander-wissner-gross/) · Founder & chief scientist, Physical Superintelligence · Has backed and advised 40+ tech companies, directly and through 021T Capital and Reified; writes The Innermost Loop.
- Show: Moonshots
- Episode: [Jared Isaacman: NASA's Moon Base by 2028, Optimus Robots on the Moon, and 15 Years to Mars | Ep #274](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/), Jul 27, 2026
- Moment: 7:59 to 12:58 of the episode (5 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/nasa-wants-ai-to-find-missed-discoveries-and-extend-its/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=479

## Quote

> “We have collected so much data over the decades from various NASA missions, **what have we overlooked** in it?”
> — [Jared Isaacman](https://realalpha.app/people/jared-isaacman/) at [10:19](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=619) · Moonshots

## Takeaways

1. AI could surface discoveries hidden in decades of NASA data.
2. NASA's Genesis proposals focus on missed insights and extending its reach.
3. AI could help pursue propulsion beyond chemical rockets.

## About this segment

NASA plans to use shared government AI resources to mine old and incoming mission data for discoveries, while applying AI to propulsion research. The approach targets work NASA can uniquely do rather than compete with hyperscalers.

From “Jared Isaacman: NASA's Moon Base by 2028, Optimus Robots on the Moon, and 15 Years to Mars | Ep #274”, Jul 27, 2026. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[8:05](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=485) now we're, you know, talking a lot on the pod about speed running Star Trek and getting to that destination in some bounded timeframe. But two questions for you. One, AI back here on the ground, how is it accelerating the rate at which you design new ships, new missions, and then also So, humanoids out in space doing a lot of what an astronaut like you would have done historically, now you can take a lot more risk if you're launching a humanoid robot than an astronaut.

[8:31](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=511) Yeah, so, good question. Maybe just if I can reframe it just a little bit to say, like, what are we doing with AI right now, and how is that informing NASA's mission? And I'll tell you one, like, we are structurally very disadvantaged relative to any of the hyperscalers. We're a government agency. I mean, if you think about even NASA's budget, which you said at the beginning of $25 billion a year, I mean, the hyperscalers are investing many times NASA's budget into just hardware procurement right now.

[8:57](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=537) So, how do you even be smart knowing you're at somewhat of a disadvantage at NASA to get the most out of the capability to further our mission, ensure America's competitiveness in the high ground of space? And I'll tell you, President Trump, with OSTP Director Kratzios, have come up with a really good idea of the Genesis program. I don't know how familiar you are with it. We are. Okay, so you're all tracking. Everybody in government is kind of kicking into this. But the audience may not be, so if you want to hit that, yeah. Yeah, sure. So, I mean, again, it's recognizing even whole of government, you know, is disadvantaged. And the worst thing possible is for every government agency to throw what little dollars it can at the problem and hope for good outcomes. Instead, it's kind of collecting, consolidating resources into the Department of Energy, which, by the way,

[9:45](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=585) for a very long time, it's had some pretty substantial computing power available to it. Obviously, even that gets quickly outdated. But they've always had the budget for investments in compute. consolidating your AI strategy, leveraging some data that's very unique to government agencies just based on the work that's being done, and having a whole government approach to leveraging the potential of AI. And NASA's job, we submitted two overarching themes to leverage the Genesis program. Number one is, what have we missed and what are we likely to miss? That's just my way of describing it. We have collected so much data over the decades from various NASA missions, what have we overlooked in it? I mean, there wasn't just that long ago headlines were made from a teenager in Texas who leveraged AI and went through some

[10:38](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=638) archival NASA data and found new galaxies. I mean, that's not something we should generally want to overlook. And we've since extended an internship offer to him, and I think he may start next year. But that problem, and maybe you call it a problem or an opportunity, is only going to get worse. When you think about the constellations of satellites that are going up, even for Earth observation and space weather, let alone new missions like Nancy Grace Roman Telescope, which will launch August 30th on a Falcon Heavy, 100 times the field of view of Hubble, 1,000 times the scan rate, you're going to be gathering so much data. And then there's so many new missions, again, that will be going up. So, how do we just leverage AI to go through this immense amount of data that we have for scientific breakthroughs we might have overlooked or could

[11:27](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=687) likely overlook? And that kind of goes to the heart of NASA's mission of unlocking the secrets of the universe. The second category is extending our reach. And that kind of goes to your advanced spacecraft design. I'm kind of concentrating that into propulsion. But so, whether you have on-orbit or on-mission robotics, whether that's actually necessary or not, what I care about is overcoming the tyranny of distance in space right now, which you have appreciating that we barely even scratched the surface in our solar system, let alone the next closest star system. Industry is doing a fantastic job of maturing chemical propulsion from rapid reusability or you see the evolving performance that they get out of even Merlin, let alone Raptor, which is very early in its design cycle. How do we leverage AI and go well beyond that

[12:26](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=746) and try and unlock a little bit more of the energy potential from matter, which is almost immeasurable in chemical propulsion to, I don't know, one-tenth of one percent with fission or a half a percent with fusion until we ultimately get to the desired destination of any matter annihilation, which maybe actually gives us the real potential to start thinking beyond what's in the reach of our solar system.

[12:51](https://realalpha.app/v/nV_lyWrkBs8/?t=771) So those are two overarching themes. Alex, over to you, pal. Amazing.