A Dutch entrepreneur has warned that human beings may need to learn how to reproduce in space.
Egbert Edelbroek runs the pioneer company SpaceBorn United, which researches reproduction and birth in partial gravity settings such as Mars. The challenges, as Edelbroek admits, are astronomical, but he is optimistic about seeing a human conceived in space within his lifetime.
"If you want human colonies beyond Earth that can be independent, you have to tackle the problem of reproduction," he remarked. Humanity should therefore "become a multi-planetary species," he emphasised to AFP.
Dealing with the monumental challenges of potential sexual relations in space — primarily the lack of gravity pulling couples apart — SpaceBorn United's initial goal is forming an embryo in space. Ethically, they are first focusing on mouse reproduction before considering sending human sperm and egg cells to outer space. In this effort, they have developed a disc that combines cells.
The device is like a "space station for your cells," summarises Aqeel Shamsul, CEO of the UK company Frontier Space Technologies, which is working collaboratively with SpaceBorn United on the project.
The embryo will then be frozen cryogenically to halt development and ensure safe return under strenuous conditions, enduring turbulence and gravitational forces.
A launch with mouse cells is expected for the end of next year. Production of a human embryo in space will take at least "five or six years," according to Edelbroek.
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However, taking the gigantic ethical leap to allow such an embryo to be implanted in a woman and a space-conceived child to be born is yet another hurdle.
"It's a delicate subject. You're exposing vulnerable human cells, human embryos, to the dangers of space, for which embryos were never designed," warns Edelbroek.
The sensitivity of these issues has led to space reproduction research generally being undertaken by private companies rather than NASA, he conceded.
