12-03, 14:40–15:00 (Europe/Luxembourg), Banquet Room
Claudius Gros, a theoretical physicist from the Institute for Theoretical Physics at Goethe University Frankfurt, proposed an idea of how robotic missions equipped with cryogenic pods with genes could be used to distribute microbial life to planets capable of supporting life but not likely to give rise to it on their own.
These kinds of interstellar robotic missions are beyond our current and near-future technological capabilities. However, there are proposals for using laser sails to send microscale probes to nearby stars within the near future. Could these kinds of microprobes be used to seed life to other worlds? Should we do this if it is technically feasible? Clearly, there are many technical problems: How do you identify suitable target planets? What organisms should we use? How do you preserve them during the long interstellar journey? How do you securely deploy organisms during the very limited time of the fly-by, and so on? Here I will make a literature review of what kind of ethical and technical problems this kind of seeding will raise.
