Directed panspermia

Directed panspermia is a type of panspermia that implies the deliberate transport of microorganisms into space to be used as introduced species on other astronomical objects.

Shklovskii and Sagan (1966) and Crick and Orgel (1973) hypothesized that life on the Earth may have been seeded deliberately by other civilizations. Conversely, Mautner and Matloff (1979) and Mautner (1995, 1997) proposed that humanity should seed other planetary systems, protoplanetary discs or star-forming clouds with microorganisms. Motivations for directed panspermia often stem from panbiotic ethics and as a last resort existential risk mitigation strategy. However, more recently directed panspermia has also been heavily criticised from the perspectives of contamination and interference with indigenous life, wild animal welfare concerns, and procreative ethics, highlighting in particular, concerns about its irreversibility in the context of its uncertain ethical consequences.

Directed panspermia is becoming possible due to developments in solar sails, precise astrometry, the discovery of extrasolar planets, extremophiles and microbial genetic engineering.