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Humans will travel to Mars
within the next couple of decades.
That's according to Nasa, anyway.
The ultimate goal? To live
entirely independent of Earth.
Scientists are already developing
technology that will enable us
to travel
the incredibly long distances
and keep us alive
when we get there.
But if we really want to inhabit
other worlds,
a major issue
needs to be addressed.
Can we reproduce in space?
If humans had a base on Mars,
we couldn't keep popping back
225 million kilometres -
a journey likely to take
around seven months -
to have children on Earth.
Humans will need to have babies
in space.
But space is a hostile environment
for the human body,
with high levels of radiation,
something both sperm and egg cells
are highly sensitive to.
Nasa recently sent the first samples
of frozen human sperm to space.
The frozen cells were successfully
reactivated, but showed DNA damage
and moved differently, which would
likely reduce their chances
of fertilising an egg.
More encouragingly,
freeze-dried mouse sperm
that spent several months in space
produced a brood of healthy pups
when fertilised back on Earth.
Although the sperm DNA had changed,
the damage was repaired upon contact
with the female egg.
For a foetus to develop in space,
however,
it would need to be protected from
this harmful radiation.
Its rapid growth rate would make
a baby particularly vulnerable
to genetic mutations, increasing
the risk of childhood cancers.
And perhaps as significant
as radiation in the long term
is time spent away
from Earth's gravity.
We know that low gravity causes
astronauts' muscles to atrophy,
bones to become less dense,
and the quantity of circulating
blood in the body to decrease.
The first baby born off planet Earth
will most likely be born on Mars,
where gravity is about 38%
of Earth's, which is bound to affect
both birth and development.
But if a child was born
in microgravity,
for example on a space station,
the impacts would be
much more pronounced.
For the sake of argument,
let's imagine this happening.
It's thought that gravity helps
shape parts of the inner ear
that play an important role
in balance and orientation.
Rat pups born
after developing in space
couldn't sense which way
was up or down,
and microgravity would
continue to pose challenges
for childbirth itself.
On Earth, there is always
the option of a C-section.
But although medics
have mended rats' tails
and performed keyhole surgery
on pigs,
no-one has ever been operated on
in space.
Blood can spatter even more than
it usually does on earth,
floating around
unconstrained by gravity.
Or it can pool into a kind of dome
around a wound,
making it hard to see
what's going on.
Today, if an astronaut needs
emergency surgery,
they have to ditch their mission
and return to Earth.
But presuming the birth
was successful, a baby
growing up in microgravity
would look, move and behave
very differently to one
born on Earth.
There, a child would not learn
to crawl,
but would instead learn to float,
propelling themselves
using their arms.
Without a strict exercise regime,
it's possible their bones
and muscles would be smaller
in their lower body, yet bigger
and stronger in their upper body.
Like astronauts, fluids
in their body could travel upwards
into their chest and head,
giving them a puffy face.
As a result,
a child born and raised in space
might never be able
to live on Earth.
It's possible they might not be able
to walk, stand, or even breathe.
Earth's gravity is so important
to humans that it's been described
as the identity of mankind.
Without it,
would a human subspecies emerge
only able to survive in space?
Assuming all the physical challenges
can be overcome,
there are other issues
that would need to be considered.
What would be the impacts of raising
a child in such an isolated
and extreme environment?
While the mother may be able
to consent, the child cannot.
Is it ethical to raise human beings
who may never be able to set foot
on planet Earth?
Right now, having a baby in space
may feel like something from
a sci-fi film,
but ultimately,
it's a puzzle we have to solve
if we want to travel deeper
into our solar system.
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