Space whales

[50gens]

Let’s do some calculations. Here are some of the ways of moving in or towards space.

	Exiting the planet	Moving between asteroids	Moving between planets
Geysers	1
Rockets	2	3	6
Solar Sails		4	7
Jumping		5

Exiting the planet is the most important part. If it can’t be done, there is no reason to discuss the other ones.^[1]

1. Geysers/plumes/fumaroles

There are two forces that act on a creature standing on a geyser, drag and gravity. Let’s assume that the speed of the plumes is constant for some length and the creature accelerates until it reaches a terminal velocity. And let’s say that the creature is 50 kilograms and it is like a spider, it can synthesize webs and knit parachutes for itself. Could it, if it lived in Enceladus, exit the planet?

terminal velocity

• Mass of the creature: 50 kg
• Gravity in Enceladus: 0.113 m/s^2
• Density of the plumes: 5.5 × 10^-11 kg/m^3
• Surface area for a large parachute: 45 m^2
• Typical drag coefficient for a parachute: 1.75
• Maximum speed of Enceladus’s plumes: 500 m/s
• Escape velocity of Enceladus: 240 m/s

Putting the numbers in, the value we get for the terminal velocity is 51078 meters per second.

That velocity is with respect to the plumes. To get the speed with respect the ground, we subtract the speed of falling(51078m/s) from the speed of the plumes(500m/s) and get (-50578m/s).

The creature can’t be lifted from the ground.

The smallest value in that formula was the density of the plumes. Barely anything is exiting the geysers. Enceladus also doesn’t have an atmosphere which can support life. If Enceladus had the same atmosphere as Saturn’s other moon Titan, and its plumes were as dense as that atmosphere, could it then be used to move into space?

• Density of Titan’s atmosphere: 1880kg/m^3

Terminal velocity now becomes 0.0087 m/s. The creature is sent with a speed of 499,9913m/s and exits the planet with 259,9913. So it is possible.

What is the density of an atmosphere that can have liquid water?

ideal gas law for density

(1)The equation is d = MP/RT, d is the density of the gas in g/L^[2], M is the molar mass of the gas in g/mol, P is pressure of the gas in ATM and R is the gas law constant

• A gas that can be high quantities in an atmosphere: Nitrogen(molar mass 28)
• Smallest temperature for liquid water: 273 kelvin
• Smallest pressure for liquid water: 0.00604 atm
• R: 0,08205

It is 7.5 x 10^-3

density comparison

• The density of Enceladus’s plumes: 5.5 × 10^-11 kg/m^3
• The smallest density needed in Enceladus’s plumes to go to space^[3]: 2.5 × 10^-6 kg/m^3
• Smallest atmosphere density for liquid water: 7.5 x 10^-3 kg/m^3
• The density of the highest geyser(91 meter) on earth^[4]: 6,4 × 10^-1 kg/m3
• Density of Titan’s atmosphere: 1,9 x 10^3 kg/m^3

If the plumes are gas, they would have the same pressure as the atmosphere, and a similar density. The smallest density in the atmosphere supporting liquid water is three orders of magnitude higher than the smallest density needed for carrying the creatures. So if there is life and geysers going to space, those geysers can lift the creatures.

But can there be such geysers in a planet with an atmosphere?

In order to be able to reach space, geysers should move faster than a planets escape velocity. Enceladus has a very small escape velocity (200m/s). Europa’s escape velocity is way higher(2000m/s) and it may also have geysers that reach space(2). So let’s take 2000m/s as the maximum speed of a geyser. But there is also the issue that geysers are slowed down if they are in an atmosphere.

(3)The problem here is this assumes all motion above the visible vent of the geyser is “ballistic”: moving under the influence of gravity alone. And that is almost certainly not the case. Entraining of air into the eruption column (‘air friction’ if you will) will reduce the plume height, so ignoring it means we’ve underestimated the exit velocities… but by how much will depend on the plume profile (does it spread? Tall and narrow, or wide?) and height (taller implies more time to incorporate more air)(…)

a ballistic approximation estimates an exit velocity for OF of 102 ft/sec, while a more proper negatively buoyant plume model estimates an exit velocity of 256 ft/sec, about 2.5 times faster

If we say that a geyser is slowed down by a factor of 2.5 in 1 atm, 2000m/s becomes 800m/s. That is the maximum escape velocity a planet can have for geyser users to be able to become space farers.

But can such a planet exist? I tried that in universe sandbox.

I placed earth 1 au away from the sun. It was 99.8% similar to Earth, and had a 97.7% likelihood of having lawk life. It was losing 10^-41 grams of atmosphere per second.

Then I lowered its mass to 0.000403 earth masses to make the escape velocity 800m/s and it the mass of its atmosphere to 0.0981 earth atmospheres to make the surface pressure 1 atm. The planet still had liquid water, an average temperature of 13 degrees Celsius, a maximum temperature of 29 degrees and minimum temperature of -273 degrees(despite an atmosphere?). The gravity was 0.0651 g’s. The similarity to earth was 52% and the likelihood of having lawk life was 0%^[5]

It was now losing 113 kilograms of atmosphere per second.

I tried increasing the magnetic field a lot or removing it completely, but it stayed between 105 and 115 kilograms per second.

The total atmosphere is 5 x 10^17 kilograms, by losing 100 kilograms a second, it would take 5 x 10^15 seconds or 158.5 million years to completely lose its atmosphere, which is a very short time.

I thought Mars lost its atmosphere because it didn’t have magnetic field, if it was inside the magnetic field of a gas giant, it could have kept its atmosphere. But turns out the magnetic field doesn’t have such a large effect. 800 m/s is a very low escape velocity, the gas atoms can exit the planet just with their kinetic energy. Geysers aren’t a viable way to exit a planet. Either there needs to be geysers faster than the ones in Europa, or somehow they need to not slow down in the atmosphere.

The only remaining option is rockets launched from a high gravity planet. So I’ll talk about that the next time. ^[6]

---

1. unless microbes in space can become multicellular and evolve one of those abilities ↩︎

2. kg/m^3 ↩︎

3. from terminal velocity formula ↩︎

4. steam(18) at 344 kelvin, 1 atm ↩︎

5. I don’t know what is the problem ↩︎

6. I seem to research at a very slow rate ↩︎

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

copied and pasted refined version of my example argument for space whales refined with the chat i made for the purpose of refining an argument for or against space whales

space whales are possible if they have their cells separated from the outside world by having a meter thick layer of melanin suspended in water that uses the atp from the melanin being hit by ionizing radiation to fix carbon using water to make oxygen surrounding the body and surrounded by an exoskeleton made of a tissue comprised of a smooth frustule encased uv transparent cell that just dies as it does not need to upkeep the frustule in the shape of interlocking scales or segments with a tough cellulose membrane keeping the melanin filled water from spilling out of the organism and that is just for the “too much ionizing radiation” and “too little pressure causing water to boil or freeze” parts.

they could have symbiotic organisms to use as any type of limb or organ that has the same uv defense mechanism as them for example an organism that it filters it’s blood through to remove toxic compounds and elements on the inside of the exoskeleton, an organism that is partially inside the exoskeleton that has a 1 meter thick layer of melanin water and an exoskeleton and has a 3 chambered mouth that has 1 chamber always filled with melanin water for crushing up the food without the risks of the UV and then it sends the food to it’s stomach where it is broken down in a solution of 30% hydrochloric acid and absorb enough to increase it’s mass by 10% is and then the rest is sent to the main organism and that’s mainly just for the “what about when it eats a toxic element/chemical” and “but where is it getting the matter from” parts.

now to address the acceleration/deceleration problems… it would use hydrogen peroxide made from radioactive isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen stored in large inorganic tanks that have an average pressure of ~5 atmospheres and excreted at extremely high velocities through the type of funnel that normal chemical rockets use and it would be electrocuted to ignite it and increase thrust. this structure would be on the front and back, front for deceleration back for acceleration. “but what would happen if it ran out of radioactive hydrogen and/or oxygen” simple, it uses stable isotopes instead.

now. can photosynthesis fuel a brain, a spark plug, a mouth for eating asteroids, a circulatory system, and sensory organs, and a mechanism for gathering heavier atoms of hydrogen and oxygen and then making them into H2O2. the short answer: yes. the long answer: all a space whale like this would need is a large organ that uses fructose to fuel it’s cells and fills any space not being used by required organs or it’s circulatory system with a mixture of a protein that produces fructose or glucose with the energy from photorespiration pigments at a speed of 30 molecules per second and a set of chemicals that use all ionizing/low energy uv/visible light to produce usable energy for said water using monosaccharide production protein and has a circulatory system to take any glucose and bring it to the main body. if the oxygen content of the blood drops too low stem cells will congregate on two spots on exact opposite sides of the main body where there is optimal light and specialize into the cell types necessary for said organ if the co2 content drops too low the o2 using cells will multiply until there is a perfect energy and co2/o2 balance

“how would it be able to evolve?” it would start as a diatom adjacent organism that keeps it’s organelles inside a vacuole that the outside is just solid melanin unless touching a completely opaque surface(ex: a meteor)

“how would it get the materials to reproduce?” when touching a meteor it would move the vacuole to the edge of the cell that is the darkest and open a door on the frustule which stays closed because it only opens inwards and it always opens into a vacuole that cannot have it’s shape changed by low pressure and engulf sediment by depressurizing a gas vacuole and performing phagocytosis and then it re-pressurizes the gas vacuole to suck the cell back into the frustule and keeps the vacuole at a much higher pressure than it was originally to take in more sediment than it seems like it should be able to and closes the door. after the door is closed the cell starts producing more cytoplasm and melanin and repeat the process until both have doubled in volume. after that it starts going through the stages of mitosis but instead of performing cytokinesis it opens a door a bit and releases a small amount of cytoplasm encased in a fluid silicon encased double lipid membrane that contains mostly silicon and proteins for building a solid smooth frustule and after this frustule is built half of the melanin is dislodged and suspended in fluid which is used to move it to the other frustule and solidify it. after the melanin is a solid the door opens all the way and the gas, cytoplasm, DNA, and organelles are all distributed evenly between the frustules. once everything is distributed evenly the doors shut and the frustules separate.

“what is the gas?” a mixture of CO2, H2O and O2. “where is it getting the water from?” ice dust. “where is it getting the carbon from?” sediment.

“but melanin turns UV into heat. how does it not just boil?” it uses a protein that uses heat to rapidly fix ADP into ATP. “where is it making the ADP?” cellular processes that use ATP. “where is it getting ATP other than just recycling it?” a metabolosome using endosymbiotic protist. “how is it getting the glucose for the metabolosomes?” carbon fixing protein that does exactly what RuBisCO does but more efficiently and faster while being lighter.

“but how does the space whale not just cook itself?” same thing on a larger scale. surface area grows slower than volume
“how would it deal with toxic waste?” it would pass it through an endosymbiotic organ that can process the toxic waste
“but it would just steal resources.” … … … what do you think the definition of endosymbiote is? internal parasite? no it means internal organism that supplies it’s host with resources in return for resources and safety

“but life is not possible deep in space.” i never said it was going to ever enter deep space. deep space is outside of the Oort cloud of a solar system and it would always be in the habitable zone of a solar system.
“good luck evolving it before your star dies and all life on the planet goes extinct due to dependence on photosynthesis” red dwarves are a thing and ones created at the beginning of the universe will burn long past the day the last star is born

“but being in the goldilocks zone does not confer any benefit to regular organisms over being any closer.” it does if they are big enough and have a large volume of fluid for convection

the line that says “but wouldn’t it just steal resources” exists because of fralegend saying

@fralegend015

The issue is that there would be no use for them. They would do nothing but steal resources.

in response to

@Topcode

I dont see any fundamental issue with using an assorted collection of symbiotic relationships similar to a small ecosystem.

[tabat (Waiting for ping from someone.)]

To be honest, after reading this thread… I get nostalgic about underwater civilizations.

[TristanMisja (DoubleU)]

Yup, it went the same way. So is the private thread.

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

would you like to be in the version of this thread without burgeonblas or 50gens

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

don’t forget the space whales, there are so many arguments as to why they can exist and why they can’t exist that are just circular reasoning that i can’t even count them on a post-it note using those line things, there are far fewer actually reasonable arguments as to why they can or can’t exist.

[fralegend015 (Shroudmaster)]

There are far more reasonable arguments as to why they can’t exist than as to why they can exist.

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

i’m guessing nowhere near recent?

[50gens]

Can you add me to the private thread so that I can summerise it too? I promise I won’t post there.

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

well it seems this thread was unlocked so, no but i will put the prompt thing i made here.

---

since there are definitely a lot of problems with actually getting a space whale into space, lets figure out how to make a smaller space organism, like space fungi, space moss, space porpoises, space ants, etc. and whether or not they would survive or even be able to get there in the first place

questions for people making the space organisms
first and most important question: how does it keep its internal pressure high enough to survive the vacuum of space

second question: how does it reproduce

third question: how much gaseous waste does it produce and does it have any symbiotes to recycle it

fourth question: how did it get into space

fifth question: how much heat does it produce and how does it deal with said heat

sixth question: how does it get energy and how does it get rid of waste that it can’t recycle

seventh question: how does it get water and carbon

eight question: what is its role in its ecosystem

ninth question: how does it obtain phosphorus, nitrogen, hydrogen, and everything else it needs to grow

tenth question: how does it keep its children from de-orbiting and if it is motile how does it keep itself in orbit

eleventh question: how does it keep its DNA, proteins, RNA, and enzymes safe from the light producing stellar body its planet/moon orbits directly or indirectly

twelfth question: how does it protect itself from its methods of moving that don’t require touching something or being in an atmosphere

thirteenth question: how does it defend itself from extinction

fourteenth question: did you include credible sources

instructions for finding whether or not the argument is reasonable

• find and shoot down any closed circular reasoning
• check the sources and make sure they really are credible and a source for the information used
• make sure nothing is physically, chemically, or thermodynamically impossible
• make sure there is nothing at the cellular, chemical, or structural levels that has not yet been proven possible
• make sure it would not get deleted if it was in the science category and space whale talk didn’t regularly get so heated that it got banned everywhere that’s not an environment with specific people not allowed in
• do not let this devolve into an uncivilized heated argument again

[Centarian (Alpha Centuari)]

Oh no we’ve got an AI chat bot on our hands.

[hhyyrylainen]

They’ve been showing up recently. Problematically, they are different from the usual spam in that it is not possible to tell if a real human would never make such a post.

[Centarian (Alpha Centuari)]

All I know is that is the exact language chat GTP would use to talk to someone.

[BurgeonBlas]

@willow

first and most important question: how does it keep its internal pressure high enough to survive the vacuum of space

It would have a tough skin/epithelium covering its body to maintain pressure. This could be similar to the inner tissue of bladderworts, though it would likely be more stable as it is in tension and would not have to deal with changes in pressure differential. Certain structures (i.e. mouths or cloacas) may be more similar to the bladderwort’s arrangement of an interior hollow space, but it is clear from reality that such organs can survive

@willow

second question: how does it reproduce

It would release many eggs/fragments as a form of broadcast spawning. Instead of sexual reproduction, they would reproduce asexually and absorp DNA from other sources, similarly to Bdelloid rotifers

@willow

third question: how much gaseous waste does it produce and does it have any symbiotes to recycle it

If its synthesis and respiration cycles are properly balanced, then it shouldn’t have any waste in the strict sense. In reality we see both organisms that synthesise more matter than they respire, and those that respire more than they synthesise, so a balance isn’t unreasonable

@willow

fourth question: how did it get into space

It evolved on a large moon that fell into its planet and collapsed into a ring system

@willow

fifth question: how much heat does it produce and how does it deal with said heat

It wouldn’t need to produce much more heat than a plant or maybe a primitive insect. What little heat it does make could be lost via radiator-limbs that are shielded from the sun by its leaves

@willow

sixth question: how does it get energy and how does it get rid of waste that it can’t recycle

It would be photosynthetic and get its energy from the sun. There wouldn’t be any waste it couldn’t recycle: Unlike planetary life, it is adapted specifically for recycling its products as it cannot easily regain those elements

@willow

seventh question: how does it get water and carbon

Some bacteria can secrete cell walls made out of quartz, which just so happens to be a rather good material to make electrets out of. There are also a few microbes capable of generating a small amount of electricity, which could allow for materials to be electrically polarised. It’s reasonable that, if the secretory system is complex enough, it could secrete a chunk of electretic quartz. If this can be achieved, then such an organ could be used to draw in dust and other materials which have an electric charge

@willow

eight question: what is its role in its ecosystem

Producer

@willow

ninth question: how does it obtain phosphorus, nitrogen, hydrogen, and everything else it needs to grow

See question 7

@willow

tenth question: how does it keep its children from de-orbiting and if it is motile how does it keep itself in orbit

It makes a lot of children so that at least a few are likely to find an orbit

@willow

eleventh question: how does it keep its DNA, proteins, RNA, and enzymes safe from the light producing stellar body its planet/moon orbits directly or indirectly

It would have special DNA repair mechanisms similar to Deinococcus radiodurans or other dessication-resistant organisms

@willow

twelfth question: how does it protect itself from its methods of moving that don’t require touching something or being in an atmosphere

It doesn’t move

@willow

thirteenth question: how does it defend itself from extinction

By not dying

@willow

fourteenth question: did you include credible sources

D. radiodurans can survive in space
Bladderworts can survive low-pressure over its skin
Quartz can form electrets

[fralegend015 (Shroudmaster)]

@BurgeonBlas

@willow

thirteenth question: how does it defend itself from extinction

By not dying

Bro really just said:

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

@willow

first and most important question: how does it keep its internal pressure high enough to survive the vacuum of space

a thick glass shell with a similar composition to a prince rupert’s drop with no tail to prevent gas loss and destruction by micrometeorites and other space debris but if it is hit too hard by something too big it goes boom

@willow

second question: how does it reproduce

it has a lidded hole in said shell that it uses for internal fertilization and excreting their young, the lid is significantly less durable than the rest of the shell due to less and the hole contains a limb to facilitate gamete exchange that doesn’t involve rapid decompression

@willow

third question: how much gaseous waste does it produce and does it have any symbiotes to recycle it

it produces a lot of CO2 that is sent to bulb like structures at the base of its “leaves” to be used as a carbon source for electrosynthesis which is the use of electricity by cells to make useful compounds(in this case glucose through a modified form of RuBisCO that uses electricity directly and through nanowires instead of indirectly and through energy molecules, like, for example, ATP in thrive once carbon fixation becomes its own process in it), all its other gaseous waste is recycled in the digestive tract by endosymbiotic relatives of it that its last common ancestor with them is the space diatom-dinoflagellate-amoeba thing

@willow

fourth question: how did it get into space

it got into space by getting yote by a dominant species into orbit as an experiment to test a hypothesis about their biological knowledge, that species ended itself the way humanity almost has several times in the last few decades, that species also modified it from their analogue of a diatom to be comparable to a cross between a vacuum capable amoeba, a dinoflagellate, and a really big diatom with holes in each face and a contractile gas bladder before yeeting it up there with a really strong spin yeeter

@willow

fifth question: how much heat does it produce and how does it deal with said heat

not nearly as much as an earth animal its size would, it produces about as much heat per second as an elephant and it just uses leaves modified to have fluid circulation to get rid of it when needed

@willow

sixth question: how does it get energy and how does it get rid of waste that it can’t recycle

the leaves the carbon fixation bulbs are at the base of extend through the shell and can be shed and often are due to damage such as being hit by a large rock and snapped off, instead of being the site of carbon fixation like in most earth photosynthesizers, the leaves on this creature are merely to acquire energy to make glucose via the same mechanisms as solar panels, the leaves grow by first making their own prince rupert’s glass(the material the rest of the shell is made of) shells with a single, extremely large, cell that uses the same energy mechanisms as the bulb and then making the semiconductors required for a photodiode and turning them into sheets along the inside of the shell until the leaf has no room left for the leaf making cell and the leaf is connected to the bulb, when that happens the cell retreats back into the bulb until the leaf next needs to be regrown. to get rid of waste it can’t recycle it simply makes a leaf using a bulb that can’t properly connect to the leaf and is always located on the back near the thruster and shoves the waste in there since most waste it can’t recycle is toxic metals like lead, fluorine, and other toxic metals that can’t be used to make nanowires or radioactive filaments in the leaves, after that the waste leaf is shed as if it were damaged.

@willow

seventh question: how does it get water and carbon

if it can encounter comets frequently enough it simply catches them and eats them by engulfing them with a cell specifically for engulfing prey(mostly rocks) or if it can’t it makes root-like things from a specialized bulb located on the underbelly that contains several extremely long vascularized strings with multiple chambers for pumping blood to prevent blood going down and not coming back up, skin that gets thinner as the atmosphere gets thicker, and a form of photosynthesis more akin to what you see on earth plants that get pulled out when the skin over the end of the bulb gets eaten due to malnutrition gets ejected into the atmosphere of the planet below. this only happens before maturity is reached or when dehydrated, with the exception of repairing wounds and growing new leaves

@willow

eighth question: what is its role in its ecosystem

motile large tanky rock eating autotroph

@willow

ninth question: how does it obtain phosphorus, nitrogen, hydrogen, and everything else it needs to grow

eating asteroids, or occasionally, eating the corpses and leaves of members of its own species

@willow

tenth question: how does it keep its children from de-orbiting and if it is motile how does it keep itself in orbit

it produces hydrogen gas and oxygen gas via electrolysis and separates them into two bladders that connect at the tail end of the organism where they get ignited with a spark as they exit, it also yeets its children once they grow their first shell by using their rock eating cell as a throwing appendage

@willow

eleventh question: how does it keep its DNA, proteins, RNA, and enzymes safe from the light producing stellar body its planet/moon orbits directly or indirectly

high melanin density in the tissue directly under the shell, the energy from this is used for carbon fixation to produce necessary amino acids and vitamins after being turned into glucose through thermosynthesis before the excess heat is shed through vascularized leaves, the melanin makes their “skin” below their shells pitch black because of the density but this is caused by a need to use camouflage to evade predation from things that can punch hard enough to break their shells and have no regard for their own limbs, not light intensity.

@willow

twelfth question: how does it protect itself from its methods of moving that don’t require touching something or being in an atmosphere

not letting the gasses that are highly explosive together mix outside the explosion chamber and having one way valves in said explosion chamber to prevent anything going the wrong way

@willow

thirteenth question: how does it defend itself from extinction

camouflage against the vacuum of space, energy storage for the side of the orbit where there is no light, extremely durable shell, reproduction, yeeting hot gas out its back end to increase its velocity, yeeting sufficiently developed children to give them a higher orbit and speed, water absorption tendrils that go down into the atmosphere and are shed when no longer needed, etc.

@willow

fourteenth question: did you include credible sources

yes, here they are: (Prince Rupert's drop - Wikipedia) (Microbial electrosynthesis - Wikipedia) (RuBisCO - Wikipedia)
(Nanowire - Wikipedia) (SpinLaunch - Wikipedia) (Solar panel - Wikipedia) (Photodiode - Wikipedia) (Lead - Wikipedia) (Fluorine - Wikipedia) (Electrolysis - Wikipedia) (Thermosynthesis - Wikipedia) (Check valve - Wikipedia)

[starfire (Starfire the Dragoness)]

We’ve actually shown it is possible. There’s been tests with tardigrades, and it’s been found that in their dormant state, they can survive in space, which lends a ton of feasibility to an evolved panspermia option at least. And a few generations in space showed they could make it through the evolutionary bottleneck. So not only are animals living in open space not only possible, it’s a thing that has happened. After that, it’s just a matter of evolutionary selection over thousands of years until you get something that outright survives off of starlight, cosmic rays (some kind of super-chlorophyll) , and space dust.

Heck, we could probably genetically engineer tardigrades and lichen together, if money and projects were so inclined, to make plants that would grow on a targeted barren asteroid.

[TwilightWings21 (Death From the Shadows)]

But without genetic engineering, and following the normal principles of evolution, would it develop? Even with the tardigrades example, they simply remain dormant, and they can’t breed (and hence evolve) in a dormant state. They survive, but don’t Thrive.

Anyway, if you wish to continue these discussions, you should probably review what has already been discussed in that linked thread and continue the discussion there.

[willow (they/her or yours are was/were)]

they would survive and be able to breed if they were sent to a water planet and they would merely need to have a few thousand sent to each planet assuming absolutely everything goes right, they get dehydrated first, they have a parachute to make sure they don’t obliterate themselves with adiabatic compression, the water is actually water and not toxic, they produce their own oxygen, etc. but they definitely can’t live in space, survive in a state of biological inactivity? yes, reproduce? definitely not.

[starfire (Starfire the Dragoness)]

The tardigrade proves evolving to survive in a space environment is possible (it may be dormant and inert until reaching the right target, but it is possible). This is the crack in the wall through which the rest of the evolutionary process can take it. Because if something with a double-sided membrane can do it, something with a rigid membrane might be able to, in other words, plant life. We have yet to test all plant life to see how it survives in a vaccume, but considering seeds can be freeze dried and used later, it’s very likely they can survive the vaccum of space nearly as well or even as well as a tardigrade can. At this point, the main concerns are light (which is available in orbit), air, and nutrients.

For air, an internal air sac with an internal biome could potentially meet this need. That just leaves nutrients. Nutrient-wise, the surface of the Moon isn’t that far off from the rock fields in Iceland, which are growing lichen.

So, lichen with an internal biome, and you have the start a space-living-capable plant species. If that species evolved on a moon around a gas giant, and has an impact, some could survive, and then you have it evolving in an asteroid field. Flora, in turn, gives opportunity for fauna.

Now it traveling between solar systems? That’d be unlikely.Mainly just do to low probably of encountering more resources in the deep vastness of empty space. In truth, this would be a very unlikely evolution (though not impossible), and if it did happen, it would likely be limited to a single asteroid field. It wouldn’t have the maneuverability to really navigate between planetary bodies, let alone celestial bodies.

Honestly, the more I think about it, even if space whales that fed on lichen are theoretically possible, I don’t see how they could get from that state to an actually interstellar species. Although advanced construction methods are available in zero-g in the properly controlled environments, they just wouldn’t have the ability to jump multiple technical hurdles needed to reach advanced technology once they reached this point.