An American biologist has outlined the concept of exoplanet research using genetically modified microbes that can produce equipment. article about it published in astrobiology.
Currently, scientists and engineers do not have realistic ideas for FTL travel. However, by applying more energy, you can accelerate the object by a few tens of percent of the speed of light, and then it will reach one of the nearest star systems in just a few decades. Based on this, the authors of the Starshot project propose to use probes of small chip size, equipped with a giant but light light sail. This sail will be suppressed by a laser beam emanating from the Earth, so the probe does not need to store large amounts of fuel. A major problem with this idea is the inability to land – a 1 gram device would release energy similar to a nuclear explosion in a collision at 20% of light’s speed.
In this regard, biologist George Church of Harvard Medical School suggests another way. Chips weighing a few grams can be modified with genetically modified bacteria programmed to perform specific functions. A bacterium weighs approximately one trillion grams (picograms), which will significantly reduce sail size and required laser power. It is also difficult to slow down a picogram probe when approaching a planet, but impossible for an object weighing several grams.
Once the microbial probes reach the planet, they can start building communications equipment. For example, it would be possible to use bioluminescence for this, but to create sufficiently bright flashes it would be necessary to cover a significant part of the planet with bacteria. Once the connection is established, simple information such as temperature, air pressure and pH value can be transmitted using light signals. In doing so, it will be important to ensure that microbial probes do not harm local life and limit their reproduction.
It is worth noting that although George Church is a respected biologist, he has often made unconventional suggestions in the past. For example, he talked about the possibility of detecting dark matter using DNA or the resurrection of the mammoth population.