美国宇航局探索转基因超级宇航员的可能性

美国宇航局探索转基因超级宇航员的可能性

As NASA gears up to send astronauts to Mars in the 2030s, scientists are brewing new ways to help them survive the trip.

随着美国国家航空航天局(NASA)准备在本世纪30年代将宇航员送上火星，科学家们正在酝酿帮助他们在火星之旅中幸存下来的新方法。

One radical option is to modify the DNA of space explorers to using controversial gene-editing technology. Much like Sam Worthington in the 2018 Sci-Fi flick “The Titan,” astronauts would be engineered to deal with the harsh toll of space travel.

一个激进的选择是使用有争议的基因编辑技术来修改太空探索者的DNA。就像萨姆·沃辛顿(Sam Worthington)在2018年的科幻电影《泰坦》(the Titan)中一样，宇航员将被设计来应对太空旅行的严酷代价。

And NASA-backed researchers have already begun to investigate the possibility, reports The Times.

据《泰晤士报》报道，美国宇航局支持的研究人员已经开始调查这种可能性。

One experiment at Cornell University is looking at taking a gene copied from a tiny but hardy creature and inserting it into embryonic human cells grown in a laboratory.

康奈尔大学(Cornell University)的一项实验正在研究从一种微小但生命力顽强的生物身上复制出一种基因，并将其植入实验室培育的人类胚胎细胞中。

The tardigrade, also known as the water bear, is smaller than a grain of table salt but has a remarkable resistance to cancer-causing cosmic radiation that astronauts would encounter exploring outer space.

缓步动物，也被称为水熊，比一粒食盐还小，但对致癌的宇宙辐射有很强的抵抗力，宇航员在探索外太空时会遇到这种辐射。

“We’ll protect the astronauts physically, we’ll protect them pharmacologically,” Dr. Christopher Mason, lead scientists on the project, told The Times.

“我们将在身体上和药物上保护宇航员，”该项目的首席科学家克里斯托弗·梅森博士告诉《纽约时报》。

“But could we protect them genetically, with armor on the inside of their cells?”

“但我们能通过在细胞内部植入盔甲来保护它们的基因吗?”

However, the technology faces huge ethical and legal hurdles and remains decades away from ever being implemented.

然而，这项技术面临着巨大的伦理和法律障碍，距离真正实施还有几十年的时间。

It involves taking the super-gene in question and using a virus to permanently weave it into a person’s DNA.

它涉及到将所讨论的超级基因和使用一种病毒将其永久地编织到一个人的DNA中。

Scientists still have no idea what the long-term effects such a change might have on someone’s mental and physical health.

科学家们仍然不知道这样的改变会对一个人的精神和身体健康产生什么样的长期影响。