tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/xenobiology-2785/articlesXenobiology – The Conversation2022-01-28T13:30:20Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1754902022-01-28T13:30:20Z2022-01-28T13:30:20ZA lunar return, a Jupiter moon, the most powerful rocket ever built and the James Webb Space Telescope – space missions to watch in the coming months<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443027/original/file-20220127-26-1wxjbed.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C263%2C4801%2C3135&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">2022 is set to be humanity's busiest year in space.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/spaceship-royalty-free-illustration/97231690?adppopup=true">CSA Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Space travel is all about momentum. </p>
<p>Rockets <a href="https://www.uu.edu/dept/physics/scienceguys/2002Sept.cfm">turn their fuel into momentum</a> that carries people, satellites and science itself forward into space. 2021 was a year full of records for space programs around the world, and that momentum is carrying forward into 2022.</p>
<p>Last year, the commercial space race truly took off. <a href="https://www.space.com/virgin-galactic-unity-22-branson-flight-success">Richard Branson</a> and Amazon founder <a href="https://www.space.com/jeff-bezos-blue-origin-first-astronaut-launch">Jeff Bezos</a> both rode on <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-a-suborbital-flight-an-aerospace-engineer-explains-164279">suborbital launches</a> – and brought friends, including actor William Shatner. SpaceX <a href="https://www.spacex.com/launches/">sent eight astronauts and 1 ton of supplies</a> to the International Space Station for NASA. The six <a href="https://theconversation.com/spacex-inspiration4-mission-sent-4-people-with-minimal-training-into-orbit-and-brought-space-tourism-closer-to-reality-167611">tourist spaceflights</a> in 2021 were a record. There were also a <a href="https://twitter.com/planet4589/status/1469685245318418437?s=20">record 19 people</a> weightless in space for a short time in December, eight of them private citizens. Finally, Mars was also <a href="https://www.space.com/mars-exploration-2021-perseverance-ingenuity-hope-tianwen-1">busier than ever</a> thanks to <a href="https://theconversation.com/perseverances-first-major-successes-on-mars-an-update-from-mission-scientists-168730">missions from the U.S.</a>, China and United Arab Emirates sending rovers, probes or orbiters to the red planet.</p>
<p>In total, in 2021 there were 134 launches that put <a href="https://nextspaceflight.com/launches/past/?search=2021">humans or satellites into orbit</a> – the highest number in the entire <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_spaceflight">history of spaceflight</a>. Nearly 200 orbital launches are scheduled for 2022. If things go well, this will smash last year’s record.</p>
<p>I’m an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OrRLRQ4AAAAJ&hl=en">astronomer</a> who studies supermassive black holes and distant galaxies. I have also written a book about <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Beyond/">humanity’s future in space</a>. There’s a lot to look forward to in 2022. The Moon will get more attention than it has had in decades, as will Jupiter. The largest rocket ever built will make its first flight. And of course, the James Webb Space Telescope will start sending back its first images. </p>
<p>I, for one, can’t wait. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of the moon over the Earth's horizon taken from the International Space Station" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443030/original/file-20220127-21-1172yb8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">NASA is planning to build a base on the Moon, and many missions in pursuit of this goal are happening this year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/51844627504/in/album-72157706698337171/">NASA Johnson Space Center via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Everyone’s going to the Moon</h2>
<p>Getting a rocket into orbit around Earth is a technical achievement, but it’s only equivalent to a half a day’s drive straight up. Fifty years after the last person stood on Earth’s closest neighbor, 2022 will see a crowded slate of lunar missions. </p>
<p>NASA will finally debut its much delayed <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/fs/sls.html">Space Launch System</a>. This rocket is taller than the Statue of Liberty and produces more thrust than the mighty Saturn V. The <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/around-the-moon-with-nasa-s-first-launch-of-sls-with-orion">Artemis I mission</a> will head off this spring for a flyby of the Moon. It’s a proof of concept for a rocket system that will one day let people live and work off Earth. The immediate goal is to put astronauts back on the Moon by 2025.</p>
<p>NASA is also working to develop the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/gateway/overview">infrastructure</a> for a lunar base, and it’s <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/content/commercial-lunar-payload-services-overview">partnering with private companies</a> on science missions to the Moon. A company called <a href="https://www.astrobotic.com/lunar-delivery/manifest/">Astrobotic</a> will carry 11 payloads to a large crater on the near side of the Moon, including two mini-rovers and a package of personal mementos gathered from the general public by a company based in Germany. The Astrobotic lander will also be carrying the cremated remains of science fiction legend <a href="https://www.space.com/moon-memorial-spaceflight-astrobotic-lunar-cremated-remains">Arthur C. Clarke</a> – as with Shatner’s flight into space, it’s an example of science fiction turned into fact. Another company, <a href="https://www.intuitivemachines.com/lunar-services">Intuitive Machines</a>, plans two trips to the Moon in 2022, carrying 10 payloads that include a lunar hopper and an ice mining experiment. </p>
<p>Russia is <a href="https://www.space.com/luna-russian-moon-lander-program-2020s.html">getting in on the lunar act</a>, too. The Soviet Union accomplished many lunar firsts – first spacecraft to hit the surface in 1959, first spacecraft to soft-land in 1966 and the first lunar rover in 1970 – but Russia hasn’t been back for over 45 years. In 2022, it plans to send the Luna 25 lander to the Moon’s south pole to drill for ice. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1802345115">Frozen water</a> is an essential requirement for any Moon base. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7CZTLogln34?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The SpaceX Starship performed a number of test flights in 2021 and is set to do its first real mission in 2022.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>All aboard the Starship</h2>
<p>While NASA’s Space Launch System will be a big step up for the agency, Elon Musk’s new rocket promises to be the king of the skies in 2022. </p>
<p>The SpaceX <a href="https://www.spacex.com/vehicles/starship/">Starship</a> – the <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/spacex-starship-update-elon-musk-compared-saturn-v-sls-falcon-heavy-january-2022-launch-1650666#:%7E:text=SpaceX%20says%20that%20Starship%20will,just%20under%20400%20feet%20tall.">most powerful rocket</a> ever launched – will get its first orbital launch in 2022. It’s fully reusable, has more than twice the thrust of the Saturn V rocket and can carry 100 tons into orbit. The massive rocket is central to Musk’s aspirations to create a self-sustaining base on the Moon and, eventually, a city on Mars. </p>
<p>Part of what makes Starship so important is how cheap it will make bringing things into space. If successful, the price of each flight will be <a href="https://www.space.com/spacex-starship-flight-passenger-cost-elon-musk.html">US$2 million</a>. By contrast, the price for NASA to launch the Space Launch System is likely to be over <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/nasa-does-not-deny-the-over-2-billion-cost-of-a-single-sls-launch/">$2 billion</a>. The reduction in costs by a factor of a thousand will be a <a href="https://caseyhandmer.wordpress.com/2021/10/28/starship-is-still-not-understood/">game-changer for the economics of space travel</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A composite image of four of Jupiter's moons." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=656&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443033/original/file-20220127-8398-h0y5by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=824&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jupiter’s moons, many of which are thought to have liquid water under their surfaces, are good places to look for life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lunarandplanetaryinstitute/4089958954/in/photolist-7eq7iG-GwNVGS-7dqX8q-QkD33k-6wYMED-PKoD8j-P5KnzF-Htr5CZ-pQLAXB-TCYVkV-LGyJhJ-7dqWN3-7dn5mt-PD8YtU-7dqWYY-22iLfNv-DtwThf-EgBWsv-NdvgbB-nbTfQq-3eR9vN-8VsgkA-HFdQtD-HaSsZA-GNxBJs-n9NEBs-nbShuQ-GnzbeP-n9NEk5-H8jrA4-qXzDsj-neGQZH-GNyg5j-ncEraG-nbQbFv-n9NEj3-PrEtkp-neK8Ay-neGRb4-Sb7oqN-n9NEog-ncEq7d-nbRayD-nbRr1P-nbQrZ4-rmzWD3-pSvetx-8VoFZ4-HwE8Uu-aChN3H">Lunar and Planetary Institute via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Jupiter beckons</h2>
<p>The Moon and Mars aren’t the only celestial bodies getting attention next year. After decades of neglect, Jupiter will finally get some love, too. </p>
<p>The European Space Agency’s <a href="https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/juice">Icy Moons Explorer</a> is scheduled to head off to the gas giant midyear. Once there, it will spend three years studying three of Jupiter’s moons – Ganymede, Europa and Callisto. These moons are all thought to have subsurface liquid water, making them potentially <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2017.1656">habitable environments</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, in September 2022, NASA’s Juno spacecraft – which has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016 – is going to swoop within <a href="https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/images/pia24970-europa-coming-closer">220 miles of Europa</a>, the closest-ever look at this fascinating moon. Its instruments will measure the <a href="https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/10/12/juno-team-planning-close-flybys-of-jupiters-moons/">thickness of the ice shell</a>, which covers an ocean of liquid water.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An artist's rendering of the fully deployed James Webb Space Telescope in space, showing the gold mirrors and sunshield below." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=410&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/443035/original/file-20220127-6942-1pj06pd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=515&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The James Webb Space Telescope is built to allow astronomers to study the earliest days of the universe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasawebbtelescope/51412123217/in/photolist-2mk7z4x-2mWhv1S-2mWmfuP-axwQBC-GsY1ih-2mWcAwN-2mkd6YV-2mWi5mX-2mAM6qz-2mcN3Ua-2mSFnf5-2mTCu23-2mAQyW7-GM6cGD-2mT1CWv-2jvYcgQ-2jkUzYg-2mSXkLC-8o4Agr-2jVBAj7-2jQ9wNy-FXztuW-2jvYaP6-2mW8uen-2mVZn4p-NGz9Sg-2mSMWiG-H8g3aM-2mW7cNd-2mCo51V-axu8LV-NM7r9U-2mW4ZH2-2mWiQR6-2mWdXux-2mWdXxU-2mRMLm3-2jmhuUS-Nnc7JL-NUocrA-2mTqj3T-NGz9W4-2jQd2vT-GrFFnj-2mWiQ49-2mTfX91-FEFZhm-2mSJdoW-2mRTPsA-axwQDY">NASA GSFC/CIL/Adriana Manrique Gutierrez via Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Seeing first light</h2>
<p>All this action in the Solar System is exciting, but 2022 will also see new information from the edge of space and the dawn of time.</p>
<p>After successfully reaching its final destination, unfurling its solar panels and unfolding its mirrors in January, NASA’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/james-webb-space-telescope-an-astronomer-on-the-team-explains-how-to-send-a-giant-telescope-to-space-and-why-167516">James Webb Space Telescope</a> will undergo exhaustive testing and return its first data sometime midyear. The 21-foot (6.5-meter) telescope has seven times the collecting area of the Hubble Space Telescope. It also operates at longer wavelengths of light than Hubble, so it can <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-most-powerful-space-telescope-ever-built-will-look-back-in-time-to-the-dark-ages-of-the-universe-169603">see distant galaxies</a> whose light has been <a href="https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/What_is_red_shift">redshifted</a> – stretched to longer wavelengths – by the expansion of the universe.</p>
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<p>By the end of the year, scientists should be getting results from a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2021/mapping-the-universes-earliest-structures-with-cosmos-webb">project aiming to map the earliest structures in the universe</a> and see the dawn of galaxy formation. The light these structures gave off was some of the very <a href="https://webb.nasa.gov/content/science/firstLight.html">first light in history</a> and was emitted when the universe was only 5% of its current age.</p>
<p>When astronomers look out in space they look <a href="https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/l/lookback+time#:%7E:text=The%20time%20elapsed%20between%20when,in%20time%20we%20are%20looking.">back in time</a>. First light marks the limit of what humanity can see of the universe. Prepare to be a time traveler in 2022.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175490/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Impey receives funding from the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p>With about 200 orbital launches scheduled and ambitious missions on everything from lunar bases to the search for life in the works, there’s a lot to watch in 2022. An astronomer explains the highlights.Chris Impey, University Distinguished Professor of Astronomy, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1599912021-05-03T12:03:31Z2021-05-03T12:03:31ZMassive flare seen on the closest star to the solar system: What it means for chances of alien neighbors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397916/original/file-20210429-21-qm3fki.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C70%2C1230%2C1153&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the solar system and is home to a potentially habitable planet.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:New_shot_of_Proxima_Centauri,_our_nearest_neighbour_(10581847073).jpg#/media/File:New_shot_of_Proxima_Centauri,_our_nearest_neighbour_(10581847073).jpg">Hubble/European Space Agency/WikimediaCommons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The Sun isn’t the only star to produce stellar flares. On April 21, 2021, a team of astronomers published new research describing the <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abf14c">brightest flare ever measured from Proxima Centauri in ultraviolet light</a>. To learn about this extraordinary event – and what it might mean for any life on the planets orbiting Earth’s closest neighboring star – The Conversation spoke with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=I-dkA7UAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Parke Loyd, an astrophysicist at Arizona State University</a> and co-author of the paper. Excerpts from our conversation are below and have been edited for length and clarity.</em></p>
<h2>Why were you looking at Proxima Centauri?</h2>
<p>Proxima Centauri is the closest star to this solar system. A couple of years ago, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19106">a team discovered</a> that there is a <a href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/exoplanet-catalog/7167/proxima-centauri-b/">planet – called Proxima b – orbiting the star</a>. It’s just a little bit bigger than Earth, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature19106">it’s probably rocky</a> and it is in what is called the habitable zone, or the Goldilocks zone. This means that Proxima b is about the right distance from the star so that it could have liquid water on its surface.</p>
<p>But this star system differs from the Sun in a pretty key way. Proxima Centauri is a small star called a <a href="https://www.space.com/23772-red-dwarf-stars.html">red dwarf</a> – it’s around 15% of the radius of our Sun, and it’s substantially cooler. So Proxima b, in order for it to be in that Goldilocks zone, actually is a lot closer to Proxima Centauri than Earth is to the Sun. </p>
<p>You might think that a smaller star would be a tamer star, but that’s actually not the case at all – red dwarfs produce stellar flares <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1989MmSAI..60..263G/abstract">a lot more frequently than the Sun does</a>. So Proxima b, the closest planet in another solar system with a chance for having life, is subject to space weather that is a lot more violent than the space weather in Earth’s solar system.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photo of the surface of the Sun with a towering explosion of plasma." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=601&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397919/original/file-20210429-15-1b7x9r9.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Solar flares – like this one captured by a NASA satellite orbiting the Sun – eject huge amounts of radiation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_flare_(TRACE).gif#/media/File:Solar_flare_(TRACE).gif">NASA/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What did you find?</h2>
<p>In 2018, my colleague Meredith MacGregor discovered flashes of light coming from Proxima Centauri that <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/aaad6b">looked very different from solar flares</a>. She was using a telescope that detects light at millimeter wavelengths to monitor Proxima Centauri and saw a big of flash of light in this wavelength. Astronomers had never seen a stellar flare in millimeter wavelengths of light.</p>
<p>My colleagues and I wanted to learn more about these unusual brightenings in the millimeter light coming from the star and see whether they were actually flares or some other phenomenon. We used nine telescopes on Earth, as well as a satellite observatory, to get the longest set of observations – about two days’ worth – of Proxima Centauri with the most wavelength coverage that had ever been obtained.</p>
<p>Immediately we <a href="https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/abf14c">discovered a really strong flare</a>. The ultraviolet light of the star increased by over 10,000 times in just a fraction of a second. If humans could see ultraviolet light, it would be like being blinded by the flash of a camera. Proxima Centauri got bright really fast. This increase lasted for only a couple of seconds, and then there was a gradual decline.</p>
<p>This discovery confirmed that indeed, these weird millimeter emissions are flares.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A gray rocky planet with a pale star behind it." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/397922/original/file-20210429-19-9tx3mg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Proxima b – shown here in an artist’s rendering – is rocky and might support water or even life if the atmosphere is still intact.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.eso.org/public/images/ann16056a/">European Southern Observatory/M. Kornmesser</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What does that mean for chances of life on the planet?</h2>
<p>Astronomers are actively exploring this question at the moment because it can kind of go in either direction. When you hear ultraviolet radiation, you’re probably thinking about the fact that people wear sunscreen to try to protect ourselves from ultraviolet radiation here on Earth. Ultraviolet radiation can <a href="https://www.livescience.com/38039-what-causes-sunburns.html">damage proteins and DNA</a> in human cells, and this results in sunburns and can cause cancer. That would potentially be true for life on another planet as well. </p>
<p>On the flip side, messing with the chemistry of biological molecules can have its advantages – it <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1006596718708">could help spark life on another planet</a>. Even though it might be a more challenging environment for life to sustain itself, it might be a better environment for life to be generated to begin with.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>But the thing that astronomers and astrobiologists are most concerned about is that every time one of these huge flares occurs, it basically <a href="https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2017.1794">erodes away a bit of the atmosphere</a> of any planets orbiting that star – including this potentially Earth-like planet. And if you don’t have an atmosphere left on your planet, then you definitely have a pretty hostile environment to life – there would be huge amounts of radiation, massive temperature fluctuations and little or no air to breathe. It’s not that life would be impossible, but having the surface of a planet basically directly exposed to space would be an environment totally different than anything on Earth.</p>
<h2>Is there any atmosphere left on Proxima b?</h2>
<p>That’s anybody’s guess at the moment. The fact that these flares are happening doesn’t bode well for that atmosphere being intact – especially if they’re associated with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.aa.07.090169.001053">explosions of plasma</a> like what happens on the Sun. But that’s why we’re doing this work. We hope the folks who build models of planetary atmospheres can take what our team has learned about these flares and try to figure out the odds for an atmosphere being sustained on this planet.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/159991/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>R. O. Parke Loyd receives funding from NASA. </span></em></p>Astronomers just measured the largest flare ever from Proxima Centauri, humanity’s closest neighboring star. These flares could be bad news for life trying to develop on a planet orbiting the star.R. O. Parke Loyd, Post-Doctoral Researcher in Astrophysics, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1538512021-02-04T13:12:43Z2021-02-04T13:12:43ZBringing Mars rocks back to Earth: On Feb. 18, Perseverance Rover landed safely on Mars – a lead scientist explains the tech and goals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/385145/original/file-20210218-14-1pm2m5k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=191%2C13%2C672%2C440&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Perseverance Rover's first image sent back to NASA from Mars shows the surface of the Jezero crater.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/touchdown-nasas-mars-perseverance-rover-safely-lands-on-red-planet">NASA/JPL</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: On Feb. 18, NASA’s <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/">Mars 2020 mission</a> arrived at the red planet and successfully landed the Perseverance Rover on the surface. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KR2ejsUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Jim Bell</a> is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University and has worked on a number of Mars missions. He is the primary investigator leading a team in charge of one of the camera systems on Perseverance. We spoke with him in late January for The Conversation’s new podcast, <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-its-a-big-month-for-mars-the-conversation-weekly-podcast-154326">The Conversation Weekly</a>.</em></p>
<iframe src="https://player.acast.com/60087127b9687759d637bade/episodes/a-big-month-for-mars?theme=default&cover=1&latest=1" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="110px" allow="autoplay"></iframe>
<p><em>Below are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity.</em></p>
<h2>What’s the goal of this mission?</h2>
<p>What we’re looking for is evidence of past life, either direct chemical or organic signs in the composition and the chemistry of rocks, or textural evidence in the rock record. The environment of Mars is extremely harsh compared to the Earth, so we’re not really looking for evidence of current life. Unless something actually gets up and walks in front of the cameras, we’re really not going to find that.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A topographic, top down photo with colors showing the ancient river delta in the Jezero Crater" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382059/original/file-20210202-21-xtkpmh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This color–enhanced photo shows the ancient river delta in the Jezero Crater where Perseverance will look for signs of life.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=jezero+crater+delta&title=Special:Search&go=Go&ns0=1&ns6=1&ns12=1&ns14=1&ns100=1&ns106=1&searchToken=8mo5vr95t586fpr7e67m1ighw#%2Fmedia%2FFile%3A260184-JezeroCrater-Delta-Full.jpg">NASA/JPL/JHU-APL/MSSS/Brown University</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Where is the Perseverance Rover landing to look for ancient life?</h2>
<p>There was a three- or four-year process that involved the entire global community of Mars and planetary science researchers to figure out where to send this rover. We chose a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jezero_(crater)">crater called Jezero</a>. Jezero has a beautiful river delta in it, preserved from an ancient river that flowed down into that crater and deposited sediments. This is kind of like the delta at the end of the Mississippi River in Louisiana which is depositing sediments very gently into the Gulf of Mexico.</p>
<p>On Earth, this shallow water is a very gentle environment where organic molecules and fossils can actually be gently buried and preserved in very fine-grained <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudstone">mudstones</a>. If a Martian delta operates the same way, then it’s a great environment for preserving evidence of things that were flowing in that water that came from the ancient highlands above the crater. </p>
<p>There’s lots of things we don’t know, but there was liquid water there. There were heat sources – there were active volcanoes 2, 3, 4 billion years ago on Mars – and there are impact craters from asteroids and comets dumping lots of heat into the ground as well as organic molecules. It’s a very short list of places in the solar system that meet those constraints, and Jezero is one of those places. It’s one of the best places that we think to go to do this search for life.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=86%2C135%2C6745%2C5327&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Perseverance Rover in a NASA lab on earth." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=86%2C135%2C6745%2C5327&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382056/original/file-20210202-15-17clle0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Perseverance Rover is 90% spare parts from the Curiosity Rover but has a few new tools on board.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseverance_(rover)#/media/File:PIA23499-Mars2020Rover-FirstTestDrive-20191217a.jpg">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What scientific tools is Perseverance carrying?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/rover/">Perseverance Rover</a> looks a lot like <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/msl/home/">Curiosity</a> on the outside because it’s made from something like 90% spare parts from Curiosity – that’s how NASA could afford this mission. Curiosity has a pair of cameras – one wide angle, one telephoto.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The Mastcam-Z cameras side by side. They are cylindrical, copper colored tubes with square lenses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382063/original/file-20210202-21-1uivdco.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Mastcam-Z includes two cameras with zoom lenses allowing researchers to create three-dimensional images of the Martian landscape.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25282/ready-for-a-close-up-or-a-wide-angle/">MSSS/ASU</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Perseverance, we’re sending similar cameras, but with zoom technology so we can zoom from wide angle to telephoto with both cameras – the “Z” in <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/spacecraft/instruments/mastcam-z/">Mastcam-Z</a> stands for zoom. This allows us to get great stereo images. Just like our left eye and our right eye build a three-dimensional image in our brain, the zoom cameras on Perserverance are a left eye and a right eye. With this, we can build a three-dimensional image back on Earth when we get those images.</p>
<p>3D images allow us to do a whole range of things scientifically. We want to understand the topography of Mars in much more detail than we’ve been able to in the past. We want to put the pieces of the delta geology story together not just with two-dimensional, spatial information, but with height as well as texture. And we want to make 3D maps of the landing site. </p>
<p>Our engineering and driving colleagues really need that information too. These 3D images will help them decide where to drive by helping to identify obstacles and slopes and trenches and rocks and stuff like that, allowing them to drive the rover much deeper into places than they would have been able to otherwise.</p>
<p>And finally, we’re going to make really cool 3D views of our landing site to share with the public, including movies and flyovers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A diagram showing the sample collection tubes which are made from titanium and include a sealing mechanism." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/382064/original/file-20210202-21-1h5xf7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The sample tubes are specially built to store the rock and soil cores for future pickup.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/25483/anatomy-of-a-sample-tube-interior/">NASA/JPL-Caltech</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What else is different about this mission?</h2>
<p>Perseverance is intended to be the first part of a robotic sample return mission from Mars. So instead of just drilling into the surface like the Curiosity Rover does, Perseverance will drill and core into the surface and <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/science/objectives/">cache those little cores into tubes</a> about the size of a dry-erase marker. It will then put those tubes onto the surface for a future mission later this decade to pick up and then bring back to the Earth. </p>
<p>Perseverance won’t come back to the Earth, but the plan is to bring the samples that we collect back.</p>
<p>In the meantime, we’ll be doing all of the science that any great rover mission would do. We are going to characterize the site, explore the geology and measure the atmospheric and weather properties. </p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>How will you get those samples back to Earth?</h2>
<p>This is where it gets a little less certain, because these are all ideas and missions in the works. NASA and the European Space Agency are collaborating on a concept to build and launch a lander that will send a little fetch rover that goes and gets the little tubes, picks them up and brings them back to the lander. Waiting on the lander would be a small rocket called a <a href="https://mars.nasa.gov/resources/24764/mars-ascent-vehicle-launching-with-samples-artists-concept/">Mars Ascent Vehicle</a>, or MAV. Once the samples are loaded into the MAV, it launches them into Mars orbit.</p>
<p>Then you’ve got this grapefruit- to soccer-ball-sized canister up there, and NASA and the Europeans are collaborating on an orbiter that will search for that canister, capture it and then rocket it back to the Earth, where it will land in the Utah desert. What could possibly go wrong?</p>
<p>If successful, that’ll be the first time we’ve done that from Mars. The scientific tools on the rovers are good, but nothing like the labs back on Earth. Bringing those samples back is going to be absolutely critical to getting the most out of the samples.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on Feb. 4. The editor’s note was updated to reflect the successful landing of the Perseverance Rover on Mars.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/153851/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jim Bell receives funding from NASA for his work on the Perseverance rover mission.. He is also an unpaid member of the Board of Directors of The Planetary Society, engaging in activities including education and advocacy of space exploration with elected officials.</span></em></p>NASA’s Mars 2020 mission has arrived and landed the Perseverance Rover on the red planet. The rover’s goal is to collect rock and soil samples to be brought back to Earth in the future.Jim Bell, Professor of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1299802020-01-19T18:59:43Z2020-01-19T18:59:43ZNot bot, not beast: scientists create first ever living, programmable organism<p>A remarkable combination of artificial intelligence (AI) and biology has produced the world’s first “living robots”. </p>
<p>This week, a research team of roboticists and scientists <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/01/07/1910837117">published</a> their recipe for making a new lifeform called xenobots from stem cells. The term “xeno” comes from the frog cells (<em>Xenopus laevis</em>) used to make them.</p>
<p>One of the researchers <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonchandler/2020/01/14/worlds-first-living-robot-invites-new-opportunities-and-risks/#379ef46c3caf">described the creation</a> as “neither a traditional robot nor a known species of animal”, but a “new class of artifact: a living, programmable organism”. </p>
<p>Xenobots are less than 1mm long and made of 500-1000 living cells. They have various simple shapes, including some with squat “legs”. They can propel themselves in linear or circular directions, join together to act collectively, and move small objects. Using their own cellular energy, they can live up to 10 days.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">This time-lapse video shows cells being manipulated and assembled to create xenobots. (Original video: Douglas Blackiston, Tufts University)</span></figcaption>
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<p>While these “reconfigurable biomachines” could vastly improve human, animal, and environmental health, they raise legal and ethical concerns.</p>
<h2>Strange new ‘creature’</h2>
<p>To make xenobots, the research team used a supercomputer to test thousands of random designs of simple living things that could perform certain tasks.</p>
<p>The computer was programmed with an AI “evolutionary algorithm” to predict which organisms would likely display useful tasks, such as moving towards a target. </p>
<p>After the selection of the most promising designs, the scientists attempted to replicate the virtual models with frog skin or heart cells, which were manually joined using microsurgery tools. The heart cells in these bespoke assemblies contract and relax, giving the organisms motion.</p>
<p>The creation of xenobots is groundbreaking.</p>
<p>Despite being described as “programmable living robots”, they are actually completely organic and made of living tissue. The term “robot” has been used because xenobots can be configured into different forms and shapes, and “programmed” to target certain objects – which they then unwittingly seek.</p>
<p>They can also repair themselves after being damaged. </p>
<h2>Possible applications</h2>
<p>Xenobots may have great value.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/f/615041/these-xenobots-are-living-machines-designed-by-an-evolutionary-algorithm/">Some speculate</a> they could be used to clean our polluted oceans by collecting microplastics.</p>
<p>Similarly, they may be used to enter confined or dangerous areas to scavenge toxins or radioactive materials.</p>
<p>Xenobots designed with carefully shaped “pouches” might be able to carry drugs into human bodies.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-welcome-killer-robots-not-ban-them-45321">Why we should welcome 'killer robots', not ban them</a>
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<p>Future versions may be built from a patient’s own cells to repair tissue or target cancers. Being biodegradable, xenobots would have an edge on technologies made of plastic or metal.</p>
<p>Further development of biological “robots” could accelerate our understanding of living and robotic systems. Life is incredibly complex, so manipulating living things could reveal some of life’s mysteries — and improve our use of AI.</p>
<h2>Legal and ethical questions</h2>
<p>Conversely, xenobots raise legal and ethical concerns. In the same way they could help target cancers, they could also be used to hijack life functions for malevolent purposes.</p>
<p>Some argue artificially making living things is unnatural, hubristic, or involves “playing God”.</p>
<p>A more compelling concern is that of unintended or malicious use, as we have seen with technologies in fields including nuclear physics, chemistry, biology and AI. </p>
<p>For instance, xenobots might be used for hostile biological purposes prohibited under international law. </p>
<p>More advanced future xenobots, especially ones that live longer and reproduce, could potentially “malfunction” and go rogue, and out-compete other species.</p>
<p>For complex tasks, xenobots may need sensory and nervous systems, possibly resulting in their sentience. A sentient programmed organism would raise additional ethical questions. Last year, the revival of a disembodied pig brain <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01216-4">elicited concerns about different species’ suffering</a>.</p>
<h2>Managing risks</h2>
<p>The xenobot’s creators have rightly acknowledged the need for discussion around the ethics of their creation.</p>
<p>The 2018 scandal over using CRISPR (which allows the introduction of genes into an organism) may provide an instructive lesson <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614761/nature-jama-rejected-he-jiankui-crispr-baby-lulu-nana-paper/">here</a>. While the experiment’s goal was to reduce the susceptibility of twin baby girls to HIV-AIDS, associated risks caused ethical dismay. The scientist in question <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/30/gene-editing-chinese-scientist-he-jiankui-jailed-three-years">is in prison</a>.</p>
<p>When CRISPR became widely available, some experts called for a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/13/scientists-call-for-global-moratorium-on-crispr-gene-editing">moratorium</a> on heritable genome editing. Others <a href="https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/crispr.2019.0016?utm_source=miragenews&utm_medium=miragenews&utm_campaign=news&">argued</a> the benefits outweighed the risks. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/chinas-failed-gene-edited-baby-experiment-proves-were-not-ready-for-human-embryo-modification-128454">China's failed gene-edited baby experiment proves we're not ready for human embryo modification</a>
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<p>While each new technology should be considered impartially and based on its merits, giving life to xenobots raises certain significant questions: </p>
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<li>Should xenobots have biological kill-switches in case they go rogue?</li>
<li>Who should decide who can access and control them?</li>
<li>What if “homemade” xenobots become possible? Should there be a moratorium until regulatory frameworks are established? How much regulation is required? </li>
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<p>Lessons learned in the past from advances in other areas of science could help manage future risks, while reaping the possible benefits.</p>
<h2>Long road here, long road ahead</h2>
<p>The creation of xenobots had various biological and robotic precedents. Genetic engineering has created genetically modified mice that become <a href="http://www.understandinganimalresearch.org.uk/news/research-medical-benefits/glowing-mice/">fluorescent</a> in UV light. </p>
<p><a href="https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/4/e1500077">Designer microbes</a> can produce drugs and food ingredients that may eventually <a href="https://solarfoods.fi/">replace animal agriculture</a>. </p>
<p>In 2012, scientists created an <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/brainwaves/what-would-it-take-to-really-build-an-artificial-jellyfish">artificial jellyfish</a> called a “medusoid” from rat cells.</p>
<p>Robotics is also flourishing. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/310613/original/file-20200117-118352-15ylufw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Nanobots are tiny robots that carry out specific tasks. In medicine, they can be used for targeted drug delivery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Nanobots can <a href="http://news.mit.edu/2013/nanotechnology-could-help-fight-diabetes-0516">monitor people’s blood sugar levels</a> and may eventually be able to <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/tiny-robots-can-clear-clogged-arteries-180955774/">clear clogged arteries</a>. </p>
<p>Robots can incorporate living matter, which we witnessed when engineers and biologists created a <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/07/robotic-stingray-powered-light-activated-muscle-cells">sting-ray robot</a> powered by light-activated cells.</p>
<p>In the coming years, we are sure to see more creations like xenobots that evoke both wonder and due concern. And when we do, it is important we remain both open-minded and critical.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/129980/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Xenobots have been called the world’s first “living robots”. They are made entirely of living tissue, and can be programmed to move towards a certain object.Simon Coghlan, Senior Research Fellow in Digital Ethics, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of MelbourneKobi Leins, Senior Research Fellow in Digital Ethics, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.