This Scientist Proposes Hacking Human’s Genes So That We Can Live On Mars

Mars is, for now, too dangerous for humans unless scientists find out a way to protect us from the lethal cosmic radiation on the red planet.

One of the proposed solutions is better shielding astronauts on spacecraft during their year-long trips to Mars. However, Chris Mason, a geneticist at Weill Cornell University has another, bolder idea: to hack the human’s gene and add tardigrades’ DNA, which allows these little creatures to survive radiation.

The idea is undoubtedly weird but it can show us the possibility of space travel and biotechnology’s future.

Mason has been studying the effect of space travel on the human body, as reported by Space.com. As tardigrades can live in the harshest conditions in space, he hopes that their genes can help us develop the same ability.

However, Mason said that we have decades of studying and testing before the human-tardigrade gene makes it to reality. He shared that he did not plan to create gene-engineered astronauts in the next two decades. If we have around 20 years of studying, we could have a human that can put up with the conditions of Mars.

So far, scientists have found a few ways to engineer human genes to realize this ambition.

The first approach is with epigenetic engineering, which allows us to turn the genes’ expression on or off.

The second method is what we have been talking about all along, which is to combine tardigrades and human DNA to transfer the resilience of these creatures to astronauts.

While human bodies are expected to change anyway as we spend more time living outside of the Earth, it is possible to accelerate the process with science.