I wonder whether there is intelligent life on other planets or moons in the Universe. If so, what is the nature of the alien race? I also wonder whether there are planets conducive to supporting intelligent life that are as yet vacant. It would be beneficial to colonize another planet in order to hedge our bets in regards to the planet Earth, which could succumb to global warming, an asteroid strike, warfare among humans, or the explosion of the Sun.
The vast distances between planets seems like an insurmountable problem when it comes to the possibility of contacting an intelligent alien civilization. If we were ever to make contact with aliens, or if we detected a vacant but inhabitable planet, the distance may be so great that a visit from us would be high risk, though not impossible.
In the case of a planet located a thousand light-years away, a space craft could transport a human female, who could clone herself multiple times for as long as needed, each time producing a perfect copy to replace her when she reached retirement age. Imagine a continuous series of women, spanning hundreds of generations, maintaining and operating the spacecraft until such time as it arrives at the destination planet.
Sending only one human, rather than a proverbial Adam and Eve, reduces costs. Everything I have ever read about space travel leads me to believe that the smaller the craft, the faster and the farther it can go. Furthermore, sexual reproduction introduces the problem of inbreeding, unless there is a population the size of a village aboard the spacecraft. Also, it must be acknowledged that wherever humans come together as a group, there is a possibility of discord, a possibility that that would be increased over hundreds or thousands of years. The smaller the group, the more cohesive, and a solitary individual might stand the best chance of all. If these difficulties are overcome through various means, then the cloning procedure mentioned above may be discarded. Admittedly, I'm charmed by the idea of a single person cloning herself for hundreds or even thousands of years. But perhaps a solo flight would be unnecessary in a nuclear-powered spacecraft. Yet another possibility is that the flight could be unmanned, and the spacecraft could carry little more than a pod containing human DNA, which a robot would then clone upon landing. But that is a less interesting scenario. I prefer to return to the solitary female astronaut.
Upon landing, the woman would set up a base camp and expand the cloning program to generate large numbers. Bonus for a planet with a water supply and oxygen-rich, breathable air. The human race could then establish itself upon its first permanent extraterrestrial outpost.
Eventually, sexual reproduction would need to be reintroduced in order to add an element of variability, which offers many advantages, such as adaptability. Is it possible to freeze sperm in a way that allows it to remain viable for thousands of years? I don't think so. Some method may be found to reintroduce the Y chromosome. Another possibility is that the cloning technique could be altered to introduce mutations on its own without the need for sexual reproduction.
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