I have a weird idea about how space travel will change mankind forever.....see inside for more details?

Question

Ok i was thinking genetically altering colonists to be able to live in a planets atmosphere would be like 100 times cheaper than terraforming the planet or building huge domed cities, now it doesn't matter if these colonists have been genetically altered or not because humans from earth and humans from other planets will all end up evolving into different species of humans, with some looking like normal humans but with others looking more like aliens than humans, so in the long run our voyages to other planets and moons could change humanity on more than just one level.

What do you think, am i over thinking this whole idea?

Answer 1

Well, that's so out-of-the-box I don't even know where to start.

Clearly if we have isolated breeding stocks we'll develop genetic distinctions.  But I doubt those distinctions will be very significant.  I think you'd have to consider Darwinian time scales to see any group-wise changes.

The problem with genetic alteration is that you probably can't consider it a magic bullet to all problems of habitat acclimation.  How do you genetically engineer, for example, against ionizing radiation?  How do you genetically engineer homo sapiens to breathe methane instead of oxygen?  How do you engineer him to survive below the freezing point of water?  You're talking about fundamental changes in biology that go beyond simply humanity and extend to all life as we know it.

Great ideas for blue-sky thinking, but not very practical as I see it.

Answer 2

Did you ever consider how LONG it would take to genetically alter a human to live in an atmosphere?   Anyway, your claim to cost has no valid basis; the need to terraform arises from the inability to feed these colonists by sending rockets full of food, and cost of building a dome over a city would not be all that much greater than the cost of building the city.  

You haven't overthought the idea, you have not thought it through.  

Answer 3

Their biochemistry places certain limitations on how much these genetically engineered people can endure.  The atmospheres and temperatures on these planets go way outside of what could possibly be engineered for a human.  However, it might be possible to engineer some hardy microbe to withstand some of the conditions and over time, maybe they could change the atmosphere.  Mars is the only possibility here.  Venus is too hostile for any organism.

Still, you're going to need water for any kind of life form and Mars just doesn't have enough to sustain any kind of life.

Answer 4

I think that's a pretty cool idea...would probably be cheaper as you said, too. It sucks that this stuff won't happen tell after we're long dead, huh...

Answer 5

a good thought to have - out of the box as mentioned.....

i like it...

however though- playing devil's advocate .....in theory a colonist has to land first on the new planet/ moon lets say europa..

how can they be genetically altered on earth? or can they?

of course it will be much cheaper they building domes or terraform.....

but maybe it takes years and years for a species gen tics to adapt to one s environment....

maybe the first stage is to take the domes over there for earth like being to inhabit

but maybe these earth like inhabitants, of lets say europa, may have children whose children start adapting and changing genetically many years down the line....