Skip to comments.
DARPA Wants to Create Synthetic Organisms to Terraform and Change the Atmosphere of Mars
Hacked ^
| 6/25/15
| Giulio Prisco
Posted on 06/27/2015 8:25:48 PM PDT by LibWhacker
DARPA Wants to Create Synthetic Organisms to Terraform and Change the Atmosphere of Mars
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) believes that it's on the way to creating synthetic organisms capable of terraforming Mars into a planet that looks more like Earth, Motherboard reports.
Speaking at a recent biotech conference hosted by DARPA, Alicia Jackson, deputy director of DARPAs Biological Technologies Office (BTO) said:
For the first time, we have the technological toolkit to transform not just hostile places here on Earth, but to go into space not just to visit, but to stay.
Jackson, who joined DARPA in 2010, is a researcher specialized in the integration of engineering with biology to assemble cells and inorganic materials and create self-healing, evolvable materials. The BTO is a DARPA division that aims to merge biology, engineering, and computer science to harness the power of natural systems for national security. The BTO aims to develop new products and systems that go beyond what is possible with conventional chemistry and manufacturing technologies. BTO's Living Foundries program does research on how to leverage the unparalleled synthetic and functional capabilities of biology to create a revolutionary, biologically-based manufacturing platform.
Engineering Extremophile Organisms to Change the Atmosphere of Mars
Terraforming Mars means hacking the red planet to make it suitable for the establishment of a terrestrial ecosystem and human life, and is a necessary prerequisite for the plans to colonize Mars that have been proposed by visionary thinkers like Robert Zubrin and entrepreneurs like Elon Musk. The terraforming process would need to warm-up and thicken the atmosphere of Mars, which can be accomplished with bacteria, algae and photosynthesizing plants specialized to thrive in the Mars environment.
Tweaking existing life forms to engineer new ones is the goal of advanced biotech and synthetic biology, but so far only two organisms - e. coli and yeast - have been used in synthetic biology research.
Jackson is more ambitious. "There are anywhere from 30 million to 30 billion organisms on this Earth. We use two right now for engineering biology," she said.
I want to use any organism that has properties I want - I want to quickly map it and quickly engineer it. If you look at genome annotation software today, its not built to quickly find engineerable systems. Its built to look for an esoteric and interesting thing I can publish an academic paper on.
Jackson and her team have been working on a software tool called GTA GView, or the "Google maps of genomes," which will allow geneticists to quickly search for the type of genetic material they need for an engineering project. As a result, they will be able to engineer organisms for much more specific purposes.
Future versions of the tool could could search for specific genes in organisms and know which ones to splice together for a specific purpose within a day. That would allow researchers to create extremophiles that could survive conditions in the extreme environment of Mars, and the photosynthesis from those organisms could make the planet habitable for humans.
It may seem odd that DARPA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military, does research aimed at the terraforming and colonization of Mars, but of course the same cutting edge research in synthetic biology could lead to increased process versatility and resiliency in a combat environment with extreme conditions.
TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: biology; biotech; darpa; geneticengineering; gmo; helixmakemineadouble; mars; nanobots; organisms; space; synthetic; terraform
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61 next last
To: Paladin2
Why dont the Mexicans want to infiltrate Spain?
‘Cause eets hard to get a 65 Chevy cross da ocean gringo.
Don chew know nuttin man?
41
posted on
06/27/2015 10:37:31 PM PDT
by
rikkir
(Anyone still believe the 8/08 Atlantic cover wasn't 100% accurate?)
To: LibWhacker
they can terraform it all they want, but Mars is a dead planet with no heat in it’s core and no magnetosphere.
42
posted on
06/27/2015 10:46:33 PM PDT
by
catnipman
(Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
To: LibWhacker
Isn't anyone going to ask the Synthetics what they think?
43
posted on
06/27/2015 10:49:18 PM PDT
by
PLMerite
("The issue is never the issue. The issue is the Revolution.")
To: catnipman
To: LibWhacker
Get Your Own DirtOne day a group of scientists got together and decided
that man had come a long way and no longer needed God.
So they picked one scientist to go and tell Him that
they were done with Him. The scientist walked up to God
and said,
God, we've decided that we no longer need you. Were to
the point that we can clone people and do many miraculous
things, so why dont you just go on and mind your own business?
God listened very patiently and kindly to the man. After
the scientist was done talking, God said, Very well, how
about this? Lets say we have a man-making contest.
To which the scientist replied, Okay, we can handle that!
But, God added, were going to do this just like I did
back in the old days with Adam. The scientist said, Sure,
no problem and bent down and grabbed himself a handful of dirt.
God looked at him and said, No, no, no. You go get your own dirt.
45
posted on
06/27/2015 11:06:37 PM PDT
by
MaxMax
(Call the local GOP and ask how you can support CRUZ for POTUS,)
To: MeshugeMikey
I think the article is malarkey. Mars has an atmosphere with only 1% of the barometric pressure of that of the earth. This isn't because there were never gases generated on Mars... it's because there's not a lot of gravity on Mars to hold a significant atmosphere in place. Whatever changes microbes manage to render to the Martian atmosphere, there will still never be enough air there to breathe.
Not to mention it's cold as a twitch's wit there.
46
posted on
06/27/2015 11:43:08 PM PDT
by
Oberon
(John 12:5-6)
To: LibWhacker
Send transgenders. They can colonize the entire planet and make it just the way they think it should be. Just like themselves. If you believe it enough, it just might come true.
To: Oberon
it's because there's not a lot of gravity on Mars to hold a significant atmosphere in place The core cooled and its magnetosphere petered out. Without a strong magnetic field to protect it, the solar wind stripped away its atmosphere. It's more than mass; Titan is even less massive than Mars, and it has quite a hefty atmosphere.
To: LibWhacker
49
posted on
06/28/2015 3:34:38 AM PDT
by
jimfree
(In November 2016 my 14 y/o granddaughter will have more quality exec experience than Barack Obama)
To: LibWhacker
50
posted on
06/28/2015 4:12:29 AM PDT
by
silverleaf
(Age takes a toll: Please have exact change)
To: Paladin2
Why dont the Mexicans want to infiltrate Spain?It's too long a walk.
51
posted on
06/28/2015 8:57:58 AM PDT
by
JimRed
(Excise the cancer before it kills us; feed & Ifwater the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS NOW & FOREVER!)
To: Oberon
the ARTICLE HAS ALL THE EARMARKS.... of being Trans..Atmospheric....
52
posted on
06/28/2015 11:13:46 AM PDT
by
MeshugeMikey
("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
To: BigEdLB
Yes and That freak From Vermont..Bernice Saunders...and Sharpton...a SOROS....and maybe even Brian WIlliams
53
posted on
06/28/2015 11:20:08 AM PDT
by
MeshugeMikey
("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
To: kjam22
Perhaps even our first Space-Case-American President, That Carter Guy......,and Barack Obama too?
54
posted on
06/28/2015 11:24:42 AM PDT
by
MeshugeMikey
("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
To: a fool in paradise
Synthetic Organisms ????
Dont we already have a family of them living in the Whitehouse??
55
posted on
06/28/2015 11:25:53 AM PDT
by
MeshugeMikey
("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
To: LibWhacker
Grand Ideas like this ALWAYS end well for everyone involved... except when it is actually tried...
56
posted on
06/28/2015 11:27:07 AM PDT
by
Teacher317
(We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men)
To: Jack Hammer
The Story entitled “The Shoe on the other foot”.
It is the one about all the ‘blacks’ going to Mars.
57
posted on
06/29/2015 7:04:13 AM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
To: LibWhacker
58
posted on
09/28/2015 10:37:49 AM PDT
by
SandRat
(Duty - Honor - Country! What else needs said?)
To: LibWhacker
This is idiotic, mars has no, or at least not a strong enough, electromagnetic field, so any “atmosphere” would simply get stripped away by the solar wind, just as its original atmosphere was.
If you are talking seeding the soil with bacteria so you can create an artificial enclosure that might be able to be sustainable if scaled big enough, but au natural, you can engineer a mars atmosphere without first protecting the planet from the solar wind.
To: MeshugeMikey
Same kind of people that went to The New World, and Explored The West. There are people with a spirit of adventure.
60
posted on
09/28/2015 10:43:08 AM PDT
by
discostu
(dream big and dance a lot)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20, 21-40, 41-60, 61 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson