Siberian Federal University geneticist admitted that the Chinese will be the first colonizers of space

China was the first in the world to experiment with an artificial embryo in space. The Tianzhou 10 mission sent embryo-like structures made from human stem cells to Tiangong Station to study the effects of microgravity on early development.

Professor of the Siberian Federal University and the University of Göttingen, geneticist Konstantin Krutovsky, explained why this is needed and what China’s plans are. His opinion is quoted by the press service of the Krasnoyarsk university.

According to the scientist, the experiment has several goals: to understand how weightlessness and cosmic radiation affect cell division, tissue formation, organ formation and reproductive processes. It is also necessary to assess the risks of infertility, malformations and embryogenesis disorders during long-term space missions.

Krutovsky clarified that we are not talking about real embryos, but about artificial structures that are not capable of developing into a full-fledged person. This allows us to bypass some of the ethical restrictions.

“China openly says that it is necessary to figure out whether it is possible to establish long-term living of people in space and how human reproduction can be carried out outside the Earth. They are interested in creating autonomous extraterrestrial settlements. As far as I know, similar studies are also being conducted in other countries,” noted Konstantin Krutovsky.

Similar studies are being conducted in other countries. In the USA, Israel, Great Britain and Japan they also work with synthetic embryos. But so far only China has decided to launch them into space. There are no direct analogues of this experiment in Russia today, although research into stem cells and space biomedicine is underway.

Main photo: magnific.com

Newslab now in MAX. News is also published in OK | VK | Zen | Telegram