There can be inspiration for space exploration all over the place. John von Neumann, a computer science expert, laid out a framework for self-replicating machines in a series of lectures in 1948. Scientists and engineers have debated the advantages and dangers of such a system.
It seems like we are still a long way from having a fully functional von Neumann machine despite the fact that technology has advanced a long way. Unless you change to biology. Simple biological systems can do amazing things. George Church is the only person in the world who knows that. Over the last 30 years, the geneticist from Harvard has been at the forefront of a revolution. He wrote a paper about how biology could be used to create a system that could explore other star systems for free.
The meaning of Pico-scale is weighing on the order of a single gram. Since the smallest operational satellite ever created weighed a mere 33 grams, scaling that down to 12 would seem ambitious. That is exactly what biological systems could do.
A typical bacterium is around one-hundredth of a gram in weight. bacteria can do anything from processing waste to emitting light Dr. Church thinks they could be an excellent tool for exploration in the stars.
A combination of cost and statistics is the basis for that argument. The cost is the amount of money it takes to get something into space. Billions of small satellites could be launched at the same cost as a single one- gram satellite. That appears to be a good value proposition.
The uncertainty that comes with sending a probe to another system is dictated by statistics. It is difficult to know what chances one will have of surviving. The end of the mission is likely to be caused by an explosion the size of several nuclear bombs if a probe reaches a star in a reasonable amount of time.
With trillions of smaller probes, it is more likely that some would make it to the star system. It wouldn't have a huge impact on anything they come in contact with if they traveled at a slower speed.
There are some advantages to a small probe, but what happens when it reaches the stars? It wouldn't be interesting to push a bacterium to Alpha Centauri only to have it speed through that star system after arriving.
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A communication device that we could detect from Earth could be created by a single bacterium. The presence of either bioluminescence or reflectance is needed to do so.
It is possible to see bioluminescence on the surface of an exoplanet. We were able to detect it because the probe could be programmed to reproduce. It could send back some sort of information if it had been properly trained.
A biological phenomenon could be used to communicate using light. A communication protocol could be based on reflective and modifiable reflectance. Some biological materials can be altered based on the living creature controlling them. A von Neumann probe could send messages back to Earth if it reflected a laser aimed at the planet.
The boundaries of what is known in biology are pushed by even thought experiments about these kinds of potential outcomes. More work on this topic would make it an interesting laboratory challenge. It is an understatement, but it helps remind those who are interested that inspiration could come from unexpected places.
You can learn more.
George Church uses bioinspired engineering.
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