Spreading life into other worlds

[kiwiak]

Lets assume that we dont discover any alien life in our solar system, so there are no concerns of protecting local biosphere of alien worlds.

What do you think of deliberately sending special geneticly engineered lifeforms to these worlds? Im not thinking particurally about some terraformation, just plant some life in europa oceans, mars decerts, maybe even some designed to live in clouds of gas giants? Or even inside rocks of airless worlds?

Just because. Maybe someone done something similar in the past to our planet?

[Nibb31]

"Just because" is rarely a good reason to do anything. The drawbacks and benefits would be pretty unpredictable, so it might be a recipe for disaster.

[Comrade Jenkens]

As long as those planets didn't contain life of their own then there isn't a reason not to. And for once humanity would be bringing life rather than destroying it.

[trash0551]

Lets assume that we dont discover any alien life in our solar system, so there are no concerns of protecting local biosphere of alien worlds.

What do you think of deliberately sending special geneticly engineered lifeforms to these worlds? Im not thinking particurally about some terraformation, just plant some life in europa oceans, mars decerts, maybe even some designed to live in clouds of gas giants? Or even inside rocks of airless worlds?

Just because. Maybe someone done something similar in the past to our planet?

I think such a project is currently underway

[lajoswinkler]

You can't be sure they are sterile, and even then, lifeforms, if they find the alien environment nice and cozy, will wreck valuable geological and geochemical data. It would be an immeasurable environmental disaster.

Edited January 11, 2014 by lajoswinkler