‘The better telescopes become, the more stars appear.’ — Julian Barnes
Embryo space colonization is a proposal for colonizing space using embryos raised by robots.
It involves sending a robotic mission to a habitable terrestrial planet transporting frozen early-stage human embryos or the technological or biological means to create human embryos.
In contrast to both a sleeper ship (in which the crew spends the journey in some form of hibernation) and a generation ship (in which the occupants might either grow old or die during the journey and leave their descendants to continue traveling) the resources needed to build a spacecraft for an embryonic space colonization effort are considerably lower in terms of pure mass and complexity of the spacecraft.
Embryo space colonization concepts involve various concepts of delivering the embryos from Earth to another extrasolar planet around another star system.
• The most straightforward concept is to make use of frozen embryos. Modern medicine has made it possible to store frozen embryos in various low-development stages (up to several weeks in the development of the embryo).
• The technologically more challenging but more flexible scenario calls for just carrying the biological means to create embryos, that is various samples of donated sperm and egg cells.
• Going a step further, the spacecraft “cargo” could be limited just to the genetic information of humans stored in digital form. In this case, sperm and egg cells would need to be recreated by a biosequencer at the target planet (this proposal is currently not technologically feasible).
Regardless of the “cargo” used in any embryo space colonization scenario, the basic concept is that upon arrival of the embryo-carrying spacecraft (EIS) at the target planet, fully autonomous robots would build the first settlement on the planet and start growing crops. More ambitiously, the planet may be terraformed first. Thereafter the first embryos could be unfrozen (or created using biosequenced or natural sperm and egg cells).
In any event, one of the technologies needed for the proposal are artificial uteri. The embryos would need to develop in such artificial uteri until a large enough population existed to procreate by natural biological means.
Proposals of sleeper ships and generation ships require very large spacecrafts to transport humans, life support systems and other equipment or food as well as an even larger propulsion system for a long period in time. In contrast an EIS would have feasible small dimensions in the range of today’s spacecraft, as the most important “cargo” would not need much space or would not weigh very much.
While sleeper ships and generation ships would deliver to a prospective colony world a population that has undergone some degree of education, training, and socialization in areas reconcilable with those of the sponsor culture (e.g. historical, scientific, and technical education, language acquisition, an understanding of the original mission and broader cultural norms), individuals who are born into colony worlds through embryo space colonization would lack this education.
Major difficulties with the idea being implemented include needed advances in various technological areas:
• Artificial Uterus: Artificial wombs are not available today. However, scientists are working on this technology.
• Robotics: Whether it will be possible to develop fully autonomous robots that can build the first settlement on the target planet and raise the first humans, is unclear.
• Long-duration computers: Computer hardware would need to function reliably over long periods of time, in the range of several thousand of years.
• Power: Small and more efficient power systems have to be developed. Spacecraft traveling past the orbit of Mars (like Voyager and Pioneer) derive their electrical power from onboard nuclear batteries (solar panel systems sometimes double the weight of the spacecraft). With nuclear power (radioisotope thermoelectric generators/RTG), weight and volume are far less of a concern. Pioneer 11 was launched in 1973 to investigate Jupiter and the outer solar system. The spacecraft contained two (RTGs), which generated 144 W at Jupiter, but decreased to 100 W by the time it reached Saturn. Pioneer 11’s RTG power supply is now dead. Its last communication with Earth was in November 1995.
• A propulsion system would be required that could accelerate the EIS to a high speed and slow it down again upon nearing the destination. Even assuming a speed one hundred times faster than any of today’s spaceprobes and a target planet within a couple of hundred light years would lead to a journey lasting several thousand years.
• Exoplanet: Spotting an exoplanet qualifying for colonization within a reachable distance, preferably unoccupied (intelligent life could already occupy the planet, and might not allow us to settle it).
• Ultimate Meaning: Some would argue that there is no point to such a mission, as the humans eventually born from such a mission would have no idea of their significance, and even if educated about it somehow by the robots, would have no way to return information to earth’s inhabitants. Some would accuse it of being an empty, purely symbolic gesture at best.
{ Wikipedia/nswd }
Astronomers have discovered more than 150 planets outside our solar system, ranging from 100 to 1,000 times Earth’s mass. In 2005, they announced the 155th exoplanet discovery, much hotter than Earth (400º to 750º Fahrenheit (244º to 398º Celsius)). Astronomers believe these conditions could not support life, but have not ruled out the existence of water — the hot conditions also make it likely that the planet has not retained much gas, making the planet solid.
In 2007, they discovered Gliese 581 c, the most earthlike planet outside our solar system to date, with a radius only 50% larger than the Earth and possibly having liquid water on its surface. Liquid water is a key ingredient for life as we know it. The newfound planet is located at the “Goldilocks” distance-not too close and not too far from its star to keep water on its surface from freezing or vaporizing away.
{ Space.com | Astronomy.com }
