Simulated Planet

[Cyberman]

I recently had a thought, it is very difficult to study life on other planets because we haven't found any yet. All we have is conjecture about extreamophiles and the possibilty of similar life forms existing on planets with similar conditions.

 

I wonder, how difficult would it be to create a large enclosed structure that would simulate the chemical composition, atmosphereic pressure, temepeature, and light levels of different planets in our solar system and just drop different exreamophile bacteria that have favorable traits into the enclosure and monitor their survival and/or death. We could observe the different qualities or lack there of that cause them to either live or die in the simulated environment.

 

By experimenting over and over again it coud help one grasp exactly what is neccisary for alien life to exist on ther worlds.

[ecoli]

Because evolution comes down to, in part, random factors, the possible variations that life can come to are enourmous.

 

The problem with the experiment you propose is mostly time. It would be hard to try and find funding for such a project when the results are so iffy. And then, the results may be meaningless anyway.

 

 

though, ironically, I wrote a sci-fi short story that deals with this theme somewhat. The time scale was in the millions of years.

[Aardvark]

though' date=' ironically, I wrote a sci-fi short story that deals with this theme somewhat. The time scale was in the millions of years.[/quote']

 

If you were to use micro organisms with very short life spans then useful results could be gained in a relatively short period of time. This would be useful in giving us information about the capacity of life to adapt to different environments rather tahn giving us any specific information about any alien ecosystems.

[Edtharan]

In a way these experiments are already being done. Experiments done in orbit are simulating low (or zero) gravity environments and collecting infomation about how organisms react to this situation. They haven't yet (to my knowledge) simulated the chemical and teperature conditions of other planets and moons (Europa and Titan) but it would be posible to do so.

 

It is posible to piggyback a small satalite in a larger mission and so somehting like this could be done fairly cheaply. Also the sub orbital flights that will be starting in a few years might also offer a way to studdy organisms in environment that simulate other planets. All these will be able to bring the costs of such experiemnts down.

[woelen]

Currently, truly simulated environments are built in computer systems. Of course, these do not simulate at the level of the chemistry of the environment, these are more behavioral studies, but they nevertheless are attempts to see effects of evolution of "life" over long periods of time. In a computer system, time can go much faster than in a real world.

[Dr. Dalek]

It is posible to piggyback a small satalite in a larger mission and so somehting like this could be done fairly cheaply. Also the sub orbital flights that will be starting in a few years might also offer a way to studdy organisms in environment that simulate other planets. All these will be able to bring the costs of such experiemnts down.

Intentionaly sending organisms into space would be a gross violation of Nasa's "No Contamiation" policy. In the search for exteraterrestrial life they don't want accidently have any organisms in a space ship escape and multiply on an acctual planet, because finding them years later would get everyone exited about finding exteraterrestrial life only to have them let down by the fact that it is just an accidental human transplant.

This is the reason that one Jovian probe was made to crash into Jupiter rather than let drift in orbit. It may crash into Europa, or Titan and contaminate tham with Earth organisms. Or worse radio active plutonium which may effect any life that is already there.

If you were going to simulate the conditions of a planet it could be done on Earth, better yet if you were just using single celled extreamophiles, you would not need a very large enclosure to house them. The simulated planet could probably be about the size of a desk.

[Edtharan]

ntentionaly sending organisms into space would be a gross violation of Nasa's "No Contamiation" policy.

Sorry, I probably didn't explain my self properly. I was meaning experiements done in orbit of earth, not on other planets. It is posable to send a desk sized lab into orbt (or even include one in the ISS - if they don't have one already).

[gib65]

I recently had a thought' date=' it is very difficult to study life on other planets because we haven't found any yet. All we have is conjecture about extreamophiles and the possibilty of similar life forms existing on planets with similar conditions.

 

I wonder, how difficult would it be to create a large enclosed structure that would simulate the chemical composition, atmosphereic pressure, temepeature, and light levels of different planets in our solar system and just drop different exreamophile bacteria that have favorable traits into the enclosure and monitor their survival and/or death. We could observe the different qualities or lack there of that cause them to either live or die in the simulated environment.

 

By experimenting over and over again it coud help one grasp exactly what is neccisary for alien life to exist on ther worlds.[/quote']

 

The only problem with this that I see is that you'd have to get bacteria from Earth, and therefore it would be fit to survive in Earthly conditions. That's not to say that we couldn't learn anything from this, but it would still leave questions like "What is the nature of life endigenous to other planets?" unanswered.

 

Ecoli, what's your short story like. Is it worthy of publicity?

[DaveC426913]

Ecoli, what's your short story like. Is it worthy of publicity?

It's sh*t.

 

Oh come on! Someone had to say it! It was begging for it!

[Cyberman]

It's sh*t.

 

Oh come on! Someone had to say it! It was begging for it!

Wow this got off track fast . . . . .

 

Anyway putting organisms into orbit could be useful for studying the possibility into exterraterrestrial life, however it be easier to just do it on the ground. You could do the same basic experiment on Earth, but without the hassle of "piggy backing" it to another mission or dealing with tha hassles of space travil like radiation, or cosmic rays which exist in much smaller quantities on the surface of any planet with an atmosphere.

[ecoli]

Ecoli' date=' what's your short story like. Is it worthy of publicity?[/quote']

 

I posted it on the sci-fi comp. thread... and most probably not. The science is probably pretty flawed.

[Edtharan]

Anyway putting organisms into orbit could be useful for studying the possibility into exterraterrestrial life, however it be easier to just do it on the ground.

However the effects of gravity on the organisms could be important. It is hard to simulate lower gravity here on earth than it is in orbit. A centrifuge would be needed to simulate the different gravityies of the other planets and moons.

[Cyberman]

However the effects of gravity on the organisms could be important. It is hard to simulate lower gravity here on earth than it is in orbit. A centrifuge would be needed to simulate the different gravityies of the other planets and moons.

Oh, didn't think about that.

And by using selective levels of sheilding you could mimic the planets exact surface radiation levels that may be higher or lower than that of Earth.

[Edtharan]

And by using selective levels of sheilding you could mimic the planets exact surface radiation levels that may be higher or lower than that of Earth.

You could even simulate environments similar to waht Earth its self is though to have been like during earlier periods in it history. Or completely alient environemnts (could life get started in 0 gravity? - or otehr questions could be answered).

 

I think the push for cheap space flights for tourism could have great benifites for science as the market forces due to the competition between areospace companies will bring down the costs of getting materials into low earth orbit (but it does create other problems like space junk, polution and such). But if we can get an organisms to thrive in hydrocarbons, like what would be found on Titan, we might be able to get them to mop up the poluting hydrocarbons (from oil) here on Earth.

[Dr. Dalek]

But if we can get an organisms to thrive in hydrocarbons, like what would be found on Titan, we might be able to get them to mop up the poluting hydrocarbons (from oil) here on Earth.

Arn't there already critters like that on Earth?

[[Tycho?]]

Arn't there already critters like that on Earth?

 

Probably. There are bacteria for damn near everything.