In 2016, Claudius Gros, a professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, published a paper in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science detailing what a real-life Genesis Device might look like.
In the movie Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a fantastic new technology called the Genesis Device was introduced. It was capable of terraforming dead planets into lush, livable worlds almost instantly. It would explode like a bomb and release a spray of highly bioengineered DNA. As this super DNA spreads to all corners of the planet, the cells would take root and dense jungles would form until the whole planet was terraformed within a matter of days.
In 2016, Claudius Gros, a professor at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, published a paper in the journal Astrophysics and Space Science detailing what a real-life Genesis Device might look like. He predicts that a primitive version will be possible in fifty to one hundred years. First, scientists on Earth would have to carefully analyze the ecology of the lifeless planet. The temperature, soil chemistry, and atmosphere would determine which types of DNA should be introduced. Then, fleets of robotic drones would be sent to the planet to deposit millions of nano-sized descent capsules carrying an array of DNA. When these capsules release their contents, the DNA, engineered precisely to thrive in the planet’s environmental conditions, would latch onto the soil and begin to germinate. The contents of these capsules are designed to reproduce by creating seeds and spores on the barren planet and use the minerals found there to create vegetation.
