May 31, 2014
For the time being, space travel is still difficult and impractical, not to mention the health problems that occur. But what if we can send bacteria with our genetic code instead and use it to 3D print humans there?
"Our best bet for space exploration could be printing humans, organically, on another planet," Adam Stelzner, the Curiosity rover's lead engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said during a conference this month.
The concept basically starts out by encoding human genetic information in bacteria so that our DNA can be used to 3D print humans when we arrive on another planet. Since many scientists believe the only way to guarantee the long-term survival of the human race is to colonize other planets, so if we could print humans there, we could skip the trip.
"Maybe we will colonize other worlds not with astronauts in space suits, but with bacteria," said Steltzner at the event. "Those considerations seem beautiful, fantastic."
This sounds absolutely crazy. The idea comes from Gary Ruvkun, a biologist at Harvard and others Havard Med Dept of Genetics. "Like using bacteria like computer memory," he said. 'It's sort of like an iPod that you send to another planet. And the bacteria can store information very densely."
But who is going to do the reassembling on distant planet? Maybe we can wait for the terraforming scenario of the DNA-carrying bacteria which reassembles naturally through organic processes. Or using 3D printers and robots?
"The idea of 3D printing is, something's created out of matter at the location, just with the information. And that's kind of what we're talking about here," Steltzner said. "That kind of feels like a very fancy 3D printing to me."
On earth we have already been able to print out human parts and organs, but biotech geneticists believe that we can even print alien life here on earth. US biologist Craig Venter is developing a "digital biological converter" device that works like a cosmic fax and can transport a digital DNA file to a new location, at the speed of light, and recreate the original lifeform there. So if it works here, could it work the other way around?
Steltzner believes printing humans, organically, on another planet is more realistic than sending people out there.
"This is completely speculative," said Steltzner. "But it doesn't require you moving faster than the speed of light, and it doesn't require infinite amounts of energy."
via Motherboard
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Galane wrote at 1/2/2015 5:30:59 AM:
They've illustrated this article with a piece of NASA space colony artwork from 1970. That's 45 years old! Time for someone to make some new stuff instead of constantly dragging out this tired old stuff nearing half a century old. http://settlement.arc.nasa.gov/70sArt/art.html
bld wrote at 6/3/2014 3:25:34 AM:
Arthur C. Clarke's "Songs of Distant Earth" was the first mention of something like this that I read, though the humans were grown instead of printed. Computers & robots educated the first generation - and left out some of the more destructive cultural influences. Life support for our Earth-adaped bodies is the most massive & expensive part of space travel. Whatever we can do to reduce that would make space travel easier - whether it's suspended animation, making people on the other side, or adapting to life in space by ditching the meat suits altogether.
Rui Barbosa wrote at 6/2/2014 4:50:11 PM:
"3D printing humans through evolving bacteria" is conceptually diferent from "giving birth to humans... from other humans"; acording to Theology, in this last case, those humans will have a soul, in the first case, only a body (like in Evolution) (reference: "New Advent Encyclopedia": http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/).
EvilWizardGlick wrote at 5/31/2014 4:07:34 PM:
Kudos to the Richard Morgan fan. No one reads Charles Stross? Neal Asher? David Brin? As has been stated Scifi addressed virtually every issue and scenario related to both what defines humanity and colonization. I'll not explain why the connection between those ideas is important. But I will say this article seems to suggest a vanilla template limited to today's version of humanity, both physical and mental structure. Finally, you only need bodies for establishing colonies. Most work can be done via telepresence, and then only when necessary to supervise or correct glitches. Mankind may be a quaint niche is the grander scheme of cosmic evolution.
EvilWizardGlick wrote at 5/31/2014 4:06:39 PM:
Kudos to the Richard Morgan fan. No one reads Charles Stross? Neal Asher? David Brin? As has been stated Scifi addressed virtually every issue and scenario related to both what defines humanity and colonization. I'll not explain why the connection between those ideas is important. But I will say this article seems to suggest a vanilla template limited to today's version of humanity, both physical and mental structure. Finally, you only need bodies for establishing colonies. Most work can be done via telepresence, and then only when necessary to supervise or correct glitches. Mankind may be a quaint niche is the grander scheme of cosmic evolution.
orest wrote at 5/31/2014 12:49:00 PM:
Of course, this was discussed in scifi literature for a long time ago. My favourite series heavily based on this type of technology is the Takeshi Kovacs series from Richard Morgan.
El. from LTF wrote at 5/31/2014 11:24:15 AM:
@3dbleh lol :D
Punk wrote at 5/31/2014 11:13:34 AM:
This is myopic on various scales, though especially on the reliance on DNA libraries based on bacteria. Moreover, 3D printing is hardly suitable for the development of an entire organism. Finally, such humans would have to be taught everything, from walking to the operation of complex machinery, at a stage when learning is not optimal. Self assembly from fertilized ova, on the other hand, is much more viable. And proven.
Punk wrote at 5/31/2014 11:12:28 AM:
This is myopic on various scales, though especially on the reliance on DNA libraries based on bacteria. Moreover, 3D printing is hardly suitable for the development of an entire organism. Finally, such humans would have to be taught everything, from walking to the operation of complex machinery, at a stage when learning is not optimal. Self assembly from fertilized ova, on the other hand, is much more viable. And proven.
Peter wrote at 5/31/2014 10:51:20 AM:
Dont be such mean to Makerbot, they do patents just on Open source things.
3dbleh wrote at 5/31/2014 6:06:15 AM:
Makerbot is filing a patent this very second...Just in case.
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