Embryo space colonization
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Embryo space colonization is a theoretical interstellar space colonization concept that involves sending a robotic mission to a terrestrial planet (having a biosphere) transporting frozen early-stage embryos. This circumvents the problem of freezing fully developed humans (which is not technologically feasible today and is regarded by many scientists as never feasible; see cryonics) for the hundreds or thousands of years required for interstellar journeys. Instead, it would use currently available technology to preserve viable human embryos in a frozen state.
Upon arrival at the target planet, fully autonomous robots would build the first settlement on the planet and start growing crops. Thereafter the first embryos could be unfrozen and would develop in artificial uteri. In contrast to a generation ship, an Embryo-carrying Interstellar Starship (EIS) would have feasible small dimensions in the range of today's spacecraft.
Major difficulties with the idea being implemented in reality include: the development of fully autonomous robots, Artificial Wombs, and computer hardware that can function reliably over long periods of time. Furthermore, a propulsion system would be required that could accelerate the EIS to around one percent of light speed and slow it down again upon nearing the destination. Finally this depends on the existence of an exoplanet qualifying for colonization within a few hundred light years of Earth.
At present the concept is a speculative thought experiment which is untestable. This has made it of some interest to science fiction. As these embryos would have to be raised by machines this also brings up issues about how humans would adapt to non-human raising. (See feral children for a very different, but relational idea) There is also the possibility of genetic selection of embryos, for eugenicist or sex-selection purposes, raising other ethical concerns.
[edit] Examples in fiction
- James P. Hogan's novel Voyage from Yesteryear features a planet that was colonized many generations ago by an automated ship bearing frozen embryos, and is now being visited by a more advanced interstellar spacecraft capable of carrying an adult crew.
- Jack Williamson's Manseed has as a protagonist one of the robots responsible for protecting and assisting colonists created on a new planet by an automated "seedship", though in this case the colonists are "born" as full adults and with implanted knowledge recorded from preexisting humans via mind transfer technology.
- In Yukinobu Hoshino's 2001 Nights manga, "Night 4" showcases an interstellar mission where an automated ship bearing frozen embryos is launched with the help of a comet. Two latter chapters, or "Nights," in the series explore what happens to the mission after it touches down on the surface of the destination world.
- In David Brin's The River of Time (1986), the short story "Lungfish" - which prominently features Von Neumann probes - mentions a class of probe called Seeders which seem to be a type of self-replicating EIS. The complete text of the story has been placed on the authors website.
- In Arthur C. Clarke's novel, "Songs of Distant Earth" (1986) humans respond to the prospect of unavoidable doom by launching a series of robot colony seedships into space, to continue Earth life after the destruction of the homeworld (caused by the Sun becoming a nova). Thalassa is colonised by one such ship, but loses contact due to a natural disaster. As technology advances the mantle of colonization is then taken up by sleeper ships. Meanwhile, just as the predicted time of cataclysm is due to elapse, vacuum energy technology is invented to allow the construction of one near-light-speed vessel, the Magellan, which is launched to build the last colony of mankind. (Previous colony ships involved frozen embryos, or various forms of DNA synthesis. In Magellan, a living crew is transported in cryogenic stasis.) The Magellan will also assist in terraforming the colonists new planet, Sagan Two.
- In the episode "Scorched Earth" of the TV Science Fiction series Stargate SG-1, a ship created by extraterrestrials known as the Gadmeer was in the process of terraforming a planet. It contained genetic information from all the life forms of the Gadmeer's home planet, all the knowledge of the Gadmeer, and things of cultural importance to the Gadmeer, and was to re-create them once the terraforming process was completed.
