4 ms·
It's probably one of our best options if we fail to find a way to reach a destination faster than light (our current candidate being warp). Microscopic life, e
by zamalek 9y ago
It's probably one of our best options if we fail to find a way to reach a destination faster than light (our current candidate being warp).
Microscopic life, especially bacteria, would be simple. We could simply drop off a wide variety of samples on a planet (especially extremophiles) and wait a few billion years. It would probably cost roughly the same order of magnitude as getting a satellite to wherever it is that you want to seed life. This assumes that the planet isn't entirely hostile to even extremophiles.
- gooseus 9y agoDr. Michael Mautner has a bunch of papers and an organization, SOLIS, which promotes this very idea. http://www.panspermia-society.com/ http://www.panspermia-society.com/
- AnimalMuppet 9y agoIt also assumes that the extremophiles we have to send can also withstand several decades (or millenia) of interstellar radiation. And it assumes that we can build a container that can supply them with nutrients and their preferred temperatures, for decades or millenia. Alternately, it assumes they can survive the absence of those things for decades or millenia.
- Baeocystin 9y agoSeems to me the better option would be to assemble the microbes from non-decaying base materials upon arrival. Not that we can do so yet, but it is almost certainly tech we will see within our lifetime.
- booleandilemma 9y agoSend them off and let evolution sort them out?