Space explorers will become part-cyborg to adapt, Astronomer Royal says

 It’s a question that has sent many a space fanatic into orbit: How will humans survive on other planets?

Now one of the country’s leading astronomers believes the answer could be even more out of this world – by making future explorers part cyborg.

Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, said modern space pioneers could try to modify themselves and become a mix of ‘flesh, blood and electronics’.

Referencing entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, Lord Rees told the Hay Festival: ‘These intrepid explorers on Mars will be out of the clutches of the regulators and they will have every incentive to modify themselves because they are very badly adapted for Mars.

‘They will use all these techniques to adapt themselves. Within a generation or two they could become a quite different species.

‘We don’t know what mixture they will be of flesh and blood and electronic, but if they become electronic then of course they could be near immortal. If that is the case they would be able to make a very long interstellar voyage, hibernating for millennia.’

However, he warned that it would be a ‘dangerous delusion’ to think humans could emigrate en masse to Mars and added that dealing with climate change would be a ‘doddle’ in comparison.