Directed Panspermia
Hypothesis (and proposed action) in which an intelligent civilization deliberately seeds the habitable zones of other star systems with microbial life via engineered capsules or piggyback payloads on natural objects.
Per src-loeb-panspermia-impact-survival-2026-03, avi-loeb proposes humans could attach a microbe-and-nutrient-and-power capsule to an interstellar object like 3i-atlas on a trajectory toward another star’s habitable zone — an act Loeb characterizes as more consequential than Voyager’s Golden Record (which carries information only).
Loeb places the proposal in continuity with natural panspermia: “What started as a random fluke of nature, panspermia, may come full circle as a deliberate transfer of life on technological equipment, directed panspermia.”
Related arguments
- deinococcus-radiodurans tolerance of impact-pressure pulses and interplanetary radiation underwrites the survival assumption.
- The companion trappist-1 system is cited as a worked example: tightly-packed rocky planets likely already exchange life via natural impact-spallation transfer.