How does space travel affect our concept of the biosphere?

Question

How does space travel affect our concept of the biosphere?

Answer 1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_trave...

Answer 2

I'm not really sure that it does.  The biosphere is the imaginary shell that encompasses every area on Earth in which living organisms exist.  That includes all oceans, the top few meters of soil, and a short distance into the atmosphere.  The only way that space travel could affect our concept of the biosphere is if we were to find living organisms way up in the upper reaches of the atmosphere.  That would greatly extend the range of what we think of as the biosphere.  However, to the best of my knowledge, that has never happened.

There is one other possibility, but it's a bit of a stretch.  Since the biosphere includes all of Earth's living organisms, I guess it does stretch up higher whenever there are humans in orbit.  But I sincerely doubt that any biologist would be so pedantic about it.

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