Orbit Microbiology

Experiments with radically engineered microbiology may be too dangerous to perform on Earth. Whether current fears of genetic modification are overblown, it is possible that very advanced future experiments may be extremely risky, and even a tiny chance of reproducing biological material escaping confinement could have world-destroying consequences. Again, it is very unlikely that we will be able to perform such experiments soon, but we should have safe places to perform them.

Two safer places to perform these experiments are in lunar orbit (for "unintelligent" experiments) and deep Jupiter orbit (for potentially malicious "intelligent" experiments). These locations are "shielded" from Earth by gravity wells and "delta V", requiring high energies and reaction mass for dangerous objects to return to Earth.

"ΔV to Earth" is the estimated velocity change needed to reach Earth from a low orbit around either body. Assume that malicious AI can rebuild itself with the materials at hand, and provide "spoof" telemetry, but not violate physical law, spoof external radar about its location, or resist a nuclear interceptor arriving at high speed. An AI might escape to the lunar surface and build a means of escape, but the Jovian atmosphere seems a very unlikely place to build objects capable of escaping into the solar system.

While nothing is 100.0000% escape proof, lunar and jovian orbits seem more escape resistant than a lab on Earth, and a better place for such extremely dangerous experiments. I will not belabor the Jupiter case, or attempt to construct concrete examples; I will leave that for philosophers and other adolescent individuals to argue about among themselves. Please do not bother me with your speculations unless you can provide detailed CAD drawings, material suppliers, and construction procedures; I have more important things to do. From here on, I will focus on lunar labs and the opportunities for mid-term (within a century) experimental biology.

Lunar Orbit Labs

A lunar orbit microbiology lab will be capable of synthesizing DNA and inserting it into a synthetic microbe, then observing the results. It will have solar panels, some power storage, minimal shielding for radiation protection and thermal inertia, and high bandwidth laser/optical communication to Earth. Transfer vehicles from Earth may add new modules, replenish materials, or remove, arc-sterilize, and deorbit old modules into a designated "dumping ground" on the Moon.

Extreme caution is the first priority - the only thing leaving the lunar lab will be information, which can be used for similar experiments on Earth, after they have proven safe in the lunar lab.

• I Am Not A Biologist (IANAB). When you see IANAB, that means that if an imaginative biologist (say, George Church) is sure that what I say is impossible BS, they are right and I am wrong. OTOH, many very-narrow-focus biologists do not think technologically, or beyound the limited horizons of the tools in their labs in 2016. I work on silicon; we make 14 nanometer lines and spaces with 193 nanometer light, and we are developing tools for extreme ultraviolet lithography using 13.5 nm light; perhaps 1 nanometer devices will become possible. I do not pretend to guess what 7 billion clever people can do with these tools, beyond the likelihood that it will be awesome. I want to make it easier for them to do cheap awesome safely.

Orbit: The radius of the Moon is 1740 km, and the Earth-Moon L1 Lagrange point is 58000 km towards Earth. While orbits closer than 100 km, may be unstable due to uneven gravity from mass concentrations ("mascons"), orbits with inclinations of 27°, 50°, 76°, and 86° are stable "frozen" orbits. A microlaboratory at 200 km altitude (1940 km radius) and 27° inclination will be semi-stable for a long time, above the usual Lunar mission parking orbits, and have relatively low closing velocities for entering and exiting missions. The Moon's standard gravitational parameter is 4.90487e12 m³/s², so orbital velocity is 1590 m/s and orbital period is 97 minutes.

Beginning tasks for this laboratory:

• 1) Synthesize DNA de-novo, and insert it into artificial cells.

• 2) Synthesize DNA-2.0, recoded DNA with a new set of transfer RNA that use different DNA codon triplets to select the same amino acids. Such lifeforms will be recombinant- and virus-incompatible with normal Earth DNA.

• 3) Synthesize DNA-3.0, recoded DNA which uses extra amino acids not found in nature, produced by reactions (temperatures, pressures, reagents, elements) not compatible with biological life. Such lifeforms cannot replicate without artificial support.

• 4) Synthesize Checksum DNA-4.0, DNA that synthesizes RNA indirectly, using the DNA-3.0 sequences scrambled with a checksum of the entire DNA string. Any changes to the DNA string will result in garbage proteins; these artificial lifeforms would not be able to successfully mutate; their sequences must be generated with cryptological calculation. They can evolve, but only with the help of powerful computers.

• 4a) Self-repairing DNA-4.0, with tools to detect and correct DNA errors. This DNA can be conditionally immortal, and with additional tools for repairing cells, or cellular disassembly and rebuilding, the cells can be too.

Starting with these tools, lifeforms that cannot evade their programming, we can start working on important tasks for human health and space travel.

DNA/methylization damage repair:

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• Lunar mascons, 0.5% gravity increase

• Lunar orbit

• high stability "frozen orbits"