As Elon Musk builds a rocket to colonize Mars by the 2050s, Volodymyr Usov, the former head of Ukraine's national space agency turned space entrepreneur, believes our biology prevents us from doing so and comes up with a clever solution as if from a sci-fi scenario, according to The Sun.
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Elon Musk has spoken openly, several times, about his plans to colonize the planet Mars in the 2050s and is currently testing the rocket for this mission. But if humans want to do it, we may need volunteers to become genetically modified astronauts, claims fledgling space entrepreneur Volodymyr Usov. “We want to grow in space, not just survive for a few weeks“, he told The Sun.
Although the future described by the former president of the national space agency of Ukraine seems to be taken out of a science fiction novel, he speaks as seriously as possible.
“On Earth, what we are today is the result of millions of years of evolution and connecting to a certain environment on this planet that was very favorable for some strange reason. On Mars or anywhere else in the universe, as far as I know, it's not as favorable as it is here on Earth.”
he says.
While Musk and his billionaires build the means of transportation, Volodymyr Usov believes that private industry and scientists should invest more in adapting human biology for space. That's because humans need rapid evolution or gene editing.
“We have to adapt very quickly, and without technology helping us in that adaptation, I don't think that can really happen. Because if you bring society to Mars, it can't work…Society as we see it now is impossible unless we adapt our biology for the new environment.” argued Volodymyr Usov.
Adaptation to a completely different environment can take millions of years
The Ukrainian entrepreneur is convinced that if Mars is colonized, humans will face much higher risks of cancer from radiation, along with ruptured lungs and dangerously swollen skin from the low Martian air pressure.
Gene editing is the first step
“For our evolution, natural selection works perfectly… But if we are talking about this completely new environment, it will be difficult to limit ourselves to natural selection, because it takes millions of years and large populations. (…) In space we won't have anything like that. It's a problem… that we have to solve, or we'll never be able to expand beyond Earth” – he warns.
Volodymyr Usov suggests that our biological weaknesses can be “fixed” by gene editing, which alters the genes that make life on a given planet unsurvivable.
“Gene editing adds, removes and changes DNA within the genome and is of particular interest in fighting disease. (…) Our genomes undergo mutations every day, we just don't have a direction for it”, he says, adding that the process isn't necessarily “new.”
According to Volodymyr Usov, gene editing essentially harnesses a natural process in our bodies to bypass evolution. To avoid obvious ethical concerns, adults should self-limit for this process. The next step would later be to genetically modify embryos, eggs or sperm to ensure that the new, space-travelable genes are passed on generationally.
The former president of the national space agency of Ukraine is, however, aware that his solution could give rise to many discussions related to morality and ethics and could encounter opposition, but he believes that the end goal is as ethical as possible and justifies such measures radical.
“I'm sure most people will react negatively, as they do to any radical innovation.” If you have a technology at hand that can increase your chances of survival, can increase your chances of having a better life in a different kind of environment, not doing so is actually unethical. If you can help people and save lives, but you don't, then it's unethical.” he says.
Performers “are already the result of natural genetic selection”
Volodymyr Usov refers to currently working astronauts who, like athletes and artists, have naturally enhanced levels of skills that make them fit for such work. He believes that these “they are already the result of natural genetic selection”, whose genome will be transmitted to future generations, but on a small scale. To be able to establish a new society, in a hostile environment, a very large number of people must have the skills necessary to survive outside the previous habitat.
“If we're talking about colonies where there are thousands of people, of course we couldn't get people with all these genomes in such large quantities,” explained Usov.
“That's why we should get ordinary, average people to adapt their genomes to create the new traits that will help them survive (off Earth),” he concluded his plea for the creation of “genetically modified astronauts”.
Genetic experiments related to gene editing as treatment methods and the possible eugenic effects of genetic engineering still generate many disputes from an ethical, moral, legal, but also religious point of view.
