Wanna Be A Rocket Man?

Afraid that this planet is doomed? Before global warming sets in, how about shooting a sample of your DNA into outer space? For a mere $87 you have the chance of being immortalized. Maybe your genes will drift back down to earth in a couple of billion years when the earth has calmed down. Or maybe you can take root on another planet?

A Tel Aviv University astrophysicist says it’s balderdash, but the Israeli visionary Agmon David behind this BeInSpace fantasy adventure (it’s an NGO!) disagrees:

“As an intelligent being we have an obligation to spread life to other planets,” says David who emphasizes, “Someday, somehow, life on earth will come to an end, perhaps due to wars, floods, diseases, or the expansion of the sun to a red giant. Our role as a civilization should be to help preserve life beyond earth.”

“This is the only thing that would remain of us, and it can sprout life on a new fertile planet,” says Solomon Byron, an excited user, that sent his DNA with hopes that it would last forever.

Francis Crick, a Nobel Prize winner for the co-discovery of a double helical structure (DNA) published a paper suggesting that life may have arrived on Earth through a process called “Directed Panspermia.”

The Panspermia hypothesis suggests that the seeds of life are common in the universe and can be spread between worlds. He also suggested that other civilizations could have sent it to earth. Does that mean we are aliens?

BeInSpace will collect DNA (genetic information) with participatants receiving a simple kit for collecting their own DNA. Once the kit is returned to BeInSpace, they will separate the DNA from the cell, encapsulate it, and send it to outer space.

“By sending our DNA into space, we will be protecting the millions of years of evolution that are folded within each of our cells, and assuring a part of life will float in deep space far into the future,” says Agmon.

“It’s like buying a lottery, it allows you to fantasize,” says Noam Permont, 28, a web media manager based in Tel Aviv. “Perhaps, one day an alien will find my DNA, and make me again.”

With our planet in peril, who wants to take the risk?

::BeInSpace

Author: Karin Kloosterman

Karin Kloosterman is an award-winning journalist, innovation strategist, and founder of Green Prophet, one of the Middle East’s pioneering sustainability platforms. She has ranked in the Top 10 of Verizon innovation competitions, participated in NASA-linked challenges, and spoken worldwide on climate, food security, and future resilience. With an IoT technology patent, features in Canada’s National Post, and leadership inside teams building next-generation agricultural and planetary systems — including Mars-farming concepts — Karin operates at the intersection of storytelling, science, and systems change. She doesn’t report on the future – she helps design it. Reach out directly to [email protected]