Challenge: Engineer Life That Can Survive Other Worlds In The Solar System Unaided

[Spacescifi]

This is kind of a sequel to my other thread of a scenario where a billionaire company engineers scifi humanoid 'aliens'.

 

Once they enter the space race though.....

The task: Engineer useful life for humans to take advantage of  to put on other worlds of the solar system that can survive either for a limited time in the  environment or always.

Intelligence installed can be human or animal, but not beyond human.

 

Questions: What life forms could we possibly engineer to survive in natural environments?

 

Mars: Not much any atmosphere, so if the life form breathes, and it's likely it will, it must be tiny insect size to make the most of the sparse atmosphere.

Role? I dunno....there won't be anything to eat unless....we engineer another tiny insect for them to hunt and eat or perhaps let them eat dead astronauts...I cannot think of much. That sounds like it could backfire horribly though.

Europa: Nice icy moon with an ocean. This we can do. Fishy stuff.

Gas planets: Gas bag blimp creature that eats gases? Unlikely it can dive really deep as pressure kills. Most useful it's waste product is copious amounts of a gas humans can really use...like hydrogen or something.

Given how rough all these environs are, I think it moat merciful to not go beyond animal intelligence. That way humans won't feel so bad about using them as a resource.

 

Your thoughts?

Edited May 15, 2021 by Spacescifi

[kerbiloid]

1 hour ago, Spacescifi said:

Intelligence installed can be human

Done.

They stay on Earth.

[HyperDraco]

I believe that the notion that life can only exist with Oxygen and Water to be somewhat wrong. Just because it happened on Earth to such a large degree doesn't mean that it's the universal norm. Life could very well form under different circumstances. I mean, what's to say far off some civilisation doesn't exist which relies on Sulphuric Acid and Hydrogen gas to live instead of the usual Oxygen and Water. And we could probably replicate them with advanced enough techonology. Sentience could be formed in any number of ways, it doesn't necessarily require a giant brain like ours (relative to the size of our bodies) and millions of years of evolution. It could be stimulated or kickstarted kind of like and engine. And by such logic, Bioengineering could make sure that their minds never have the capability to transgress the limits of animal sentience or will not be able to mutate a larger brain. Of course this is my view and it's probably not as informed as many people who know better than me

[YNM]

Hmm...

Spoiler

 

 

[cubinator]

Most anything we scrape off a deep sea vent will thrive in any ice moon. The only "useful" reason I see for this would be putting algae in Venus' or Mars' air, followed by lichens to terraform them.

[kerbiloid]

53 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Most anything we scrape off a deep sea vent will thrive in any ice moon.

And as the ice moon underice ocean should be very salty, we'll be able to fish the fish already cooked and ready for beer.

Spoiler

 

[Kerbart]

Did we try lawyers? They’re hard to get rid off, and if they don’t survive... well, that’s a win too, isn’t it?

[Spacescifi]

5 hours ago, HyperDraco said:

I believe that the notion that life can only exist with Oxygen and Water to be somewhat wrong. Just because it happened on Earth to such a large degree doesn't mean that it's the universal norm. Life could very well form under different circumstances. I mean, what's to say far off some civilisation doesn't exist which relies on Sulphuric Acid and Hydrogen gas to live instead of the usual Oxygen and Water. And we could probably replicate them with advanced enough techonology. Sentience could be formed in any number of ways, it doesn't necessarily require a giant brain like ours (relative to the size of our bodies) and millions of years of evolution. It could be stimulated or kickstarted kind of like and engine. And by such logic, Bioengineering could make sure that their minds never have the capability to transgress the limits of animal sentience or will not be able to mutate a larger brain. Of course this is my view and it's probably not as informed as many people who know better than me

 

Oxygen is the most energetic reaction when combinef with other chemicals.

 

Meaning any other type of life will likely be less energetic pr weaker overalll.

 

Which I suppose won't matter as much of gravity is low.

[YNM]

1 hour ago, cubinator said:

The only "useful" reason I see for this would be putting algae in Venus' or Mars' air, followed by lichens to terraform them.

How much and how long do we need though ?

Also how long are we staying before giving the greenlight to trash another planet ?

36 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

we'll be able to fish the fish already cooked and ready for beer.

Or just serve them freshly raw.

18 minutes ago, Kerbart said:

Did we try lawyers? They’re hard to get rid off, and if they don’t survive... well, that’s a win too, isn’t it?

You'd also need judges... then courtrooms, then since they need a lot of contact, in-person or remote, we might need some phone sanitizers...

[Spacescifi]

Just now, YNM said:

How much and how long do we need though ?

Also how long are we staying before giving the greenlight to trash another planet ?

Or just serve them freshly raw.

You'd also need judges... then courtrooms, then since they need a lot of contact, in-person or remote, we might need some phone sanitizers...

 

Mars air atmosphere is a nonstarter unless you make habitats or you build a shield to prevent atmosphere from escaping. Biggest shield ever built FYI!

Mars gravity too weak to keep an Earth atmosphere from escaping.

[HyperDraco]

1 hour ago, Spacescifi said:

 

Oxygen is the most energetic reaction when combinef with other chemicals.

 

Meaning any other type of life will likely be less energetic pr weaker overalll.

 

Which I suppose won't matter as much of gravity is low.

That is true but does life need to built on oxygen, being able to use a separate set of materials allows it live and adapt to incredibly different conditions that humans would not be able to live in. They may be less active or physically weaker but that is a trade off that may well be worth the boosted diversity. And a simple solution to lower energy is to simply increase the amount of reactants in the first place so that it's equivalent to a predetermined standard value.

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

Blade Runner?

[HyperDraco]

2 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Blade Runner?

Possibly. Bioengineering should be able to make pretty much anything. From ultra strong creatures that have built in Hydraulics in their bones (and bones capable of withstanding the required pressure) to living Exoskeletons and Humanoids that could thrive in Acid. What's not to say that they couldn't change the way they respire or even do away with it entirely?

[Spacescifi]

7 minutes ago, HyperDraco said:

Possibly. Bioengineering should be able to make pretty much anything. From ultra strong creatures that have built in Hydraulics in their bones (and bones capable of withstanding the required pressure) to living Exoskeletons and Humanoids that could thrive in Acid. What's not to say that they couldn't change the way they respire or even do away with it entirely?

 

Needless to say they could not survive Earth environment any better than deep sea creatures.

You ARE where you live.

[kerbiloid]

A barrel of a thinking goo, possessing any local creature around and making them to serve.

[SpaceFace545]

2 minutes ago, kerbiloid said:

A barrel of a thinking goo, possessing any local creature around and making them to serve.

Wouldn’t that just create a rampant xenomorph infestation?

[HyperDraco]

5 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

 

Needless to say they could not survive Earth environment any better than deep sea creatures.

You ARE where you live.

Yes, the point of this challenge is to engineer life that can live on other solar systems without our help, not make them thinking goo (which is a term I now like very much) that lives in the middle of the Marianas Trench.

They'd basically use their version of EVA suits if they wanted to go to another celestial body like Earth. Sort of like us humans going to the Moon, we need a suit to seal ourselves off from the outside, they would too.

Edited May 15, 2021 by HyperDraco

[Spacescifi]

4 minutes ago, HyperDraco said:

Yes, the point of this challenge is to engineer life that can live on other solar systems without our help, not make them thinking goo (which is a term I now like very much) that lives in the middle of the Marianas Trench.

They'd basically use their version of EVA suits if they wanted to go to another celestial body like Earth. Sort of like us humans going to the Moon, we need a suit to seal ourselves off from the outside, they would too.

 

More to the point, reason is to use intelligent life to help humans use local resources somehow.

 

Already there are far more places we cannot live in the solar system that would also maker resource extraction difficult.

Namely, Neptune,  Uranus, Jupiter, any world lacking atmosphere.

[YNM]

1 hour ago, Spacescifi said:

Biggest shield ever built FYI!

Planet Druidia would like to contest the claim.

[kerbiloid]

16 minutes ago, SpaceFace545 said:

Wouldn’t that just create a rampant xenomorph infestation?

Who cares when the goo is then-we.

With 5G.

11 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

reason is to use intelligent life to help humans use local resources somehow.

Who needs humans when you can stay safe and possess any other body.

***

Or construct it.

Spoiler

 

[HyperDraco]

  

20 minutes ago, Spacescifi said:

 

More to the point, reason is to use intelligent life to help humans use local resources somehow.

 

Already there are far more places we cannot live in the solar system that would also maker resource extraction difficult.

Namely, Neptune,  Uranus, Jupiter, any world lacking atmosphere.

Yes that is true however unless we make something like a living balloon, I don't think Jupiter or Saturn would be very viable.

If we grant them consience akin to humans and a close enough intellect while keeping them as servant races (highly questionable ethically but this is KSP and by now I should be a certified war criminal but minor details we won't touch upon). Neptune has oceans of Liquid Water (If memory serves me correctly) and frozen fluids such as Methane, Helium and Hydrogen. Which will mean that we'd literally need Mermaids and Mermen (Merdudes?) to do next to anything. However the mainly fluid composition of Neptune sparing it's core means that it's only good for Cryogenic fuels which may not be as common as possibly Nuclear propulsion, Passive methods (Solar Sails) or Electrical methods of propulsion such as Ionic propulsion or even some other more advanced technology. Uranus is literally Jupiter's wild younger brother. Mostly an Ice Giant (well more like a Gas Superplanet), its fluid body and really extreme atmosphere is gonna make sure next to nothing survives which makes it virtually uninhabitable. Jupiter could be inhabited by birds or some aerial based creature that never needs to land, well because there is no land. Therefore their muscle fibers will need to be able to operate under high stress for long periods of time without stopping (a glider-style creature would be the best as these muscles must last their lifetime, mainly because they directly control it) therefore something like the muscles which make up our heart like the Myocardium tissue or muscles comprised of such a cell which would be engineered to run not on Oxygen and ATP (or conventional energy). But something like Hydrogen or Helium which comprise a lot of Jupiter's atmosphere. They must be resistant to pressure too, so strong but lightweight bones may be needed. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by HyperDraco

[SOXBLOX]

So, first you gotta find an energy source. The Sun and geothermal are the two we see on Earth. Next, you need working fluids which are liquid at space temperatures and pressures. Maybe doable for Mars, but, say, Sedna? Triton? Nah. All I can see working are bacteria. Maybe.

Oh yeah, and tardigrades. They're even more indestructible than lawyers.

[KSK]

It's terribly boring but if you're engineering organisms to help you with resource extraction then you're probably better off going for simple (in the morphological rather than biochemical sense) plants, and microorganisms.  Bacteria are hardy, versatile, and can live on just about anything. Check out the Wikipedia pages for biomining, bioremediation, and extremophiles, for more detail.  In a fictional setting, you could assume that genetic engineering allows you to combine whatever features you need into whatever bug you need for plot purposes.

Seed your planet with the required bugs and send down a mechanical harvester to gather up the extracted resources once they're done. Much easier than trying to engineer an intelligent organism to do the same thing.

 

[magnemoe]

18 hours ago, Spacescifi said:

 

Mars air atmosphere is a nonstarter unless you make habitats or you build a shield to prevent atmosphere from escaping. Biggest shield ever built FYI!

Mars gravity too weak to keep an Earth atmosphere from escaping.

Correct Mars gravity too weak to keep an atmosphere from escaping over geological time. 
Focus on the geological time part, you can always refill every 10 million years. 

Mars has two other problems: none magnetic field and its geological dead so no volcanoes adding gases. 
 

[magnemoe]

19 hours ago, kerbiloid said:

And as the ice moon underice ocean should be very salty, we'll be able to fish the fish already cooked and ready for beer.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Life should be possible under the ice shell moons.  Not fish however as fish require oxygen in the water. 
One problem with the ice shell moons is that the biomass will be tiny as its only at the vents. its also low energy because an lack of oxygen so no largish animals moving around. 
The tiny low energy ecosystem will also give an slower evolution as its fewer organisms dividing slower. 

But yes something living an vents on earth could probably live there, not very useful however. 

I say building an self replicating robot would be easiest way to solve this