Sending animals_into_space has been occurring for several decades. https://www.space.com/33823-why-do-we-send-animals-to-space.html
https://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/9-12/features/F_Animals_in_Space_9-12.html , https://www.businessinsider.com/animals-nasa-russia-space-agencies-sent-to-space-2019-6
Then by the early 21st century a much wider variety of life forms had been sent into space. https://phys.org/news/2017-11-mice-fish-flies-animals-space.html
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/nasa-squid-space These experiments with aquatic based life have also been going on for quite a while.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20474-squid-go-into-space-for-the-sake-of-humanity
What if the earth is like someone's garden, zoo or laboratory?
"Twelve extraterrestrial spacecraft hover over disparate locations around the Earth. Affected nations send military and scientific experts to monitor and study them; in the United States, US Army Colonel Weber recruits Banks and physicist Ian Donnelly to study the craft above Montana. On board, Banks and Donnelly make contact with two cephalopod-like, seven-limbed aliens, whom they call 'heptapods'..." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrival_(film)#Plot , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCpUl7pFOBE
Imagine after the arrival of some advanced ET Cephalopods that they want to do more than shake your hand. Friend or foe? That's always been a common theme in sci-fi.
https://www.livescience.com/62594-octopuses-are-not-aliens-panspermia.html While there is no evidence of any intelligent ET cephalopods around here, what if this world is someones lab experiment? The concept and theory of panspermia in general, can't easily be dismissed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia#Proposed_mechanisms
Intelligent ET Life might not always fit into the category of benevolent or malevolent. Sometimes it might just be about its survival.
"In the near future, the unmanned Pilgrim 7 space probe returns from Mars to Earth orbit with soil samples potentially containing evidence of extraterrestrial life. The probe is intercepted by the International Space Station, whose six-member crew retrieves its samples. Exobiologist Hugh Derry revives a dormant cell from the sample, which quickly grows into a multi-celled organism that American school children name "Calvin." Derry realises that Calvin's cells can change their specialisation, acting as muscle, neuron, and photosensory cells all at once.
When Derry conducts further research on Calvin, it crushes his hand and knocks him unconscious. Calvin escapes its enclosure and it devours a lab rat, growing in size. Engineer Rory Adams rescues Derry, but is quarantined in the lab when Calvin attacks him. Adams tries to fight off Calvin, but is killed; Calvin escapes through a fire-control vent. Soon after, the station's communication system overheats, cutting off all contact with Earth." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_(2017_film)#Plot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_in_space#2020s
The Tardigrade is quite an amazing and versatile creature. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7W194GQ6fHI
https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/HWHAP/water-bears-in-space
"The moon might now be home to thousands of planet Earth's most indestructible animals.
Tardigrades - often called water bears - are creatures under a millimetre long that can survive being heated to 150C and frozen to almost absolute zero..." https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49265125
https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/a11137/tardigrades-water-bears
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade#Physiology , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nMOp49AlzM
The joke use to be that the moon was made of cheese, perhaps some day there will be mice on Mars.
https://phys.org/news/2017-08-rodents-nasa-mars.html
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-seeks-us-citizens-for-ground-based-simulation-of-life-in-space Some people want to become lab mice.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/nasa-seeks-us-citizens-for-ground-based-simulation-of-life-in-space
If this world, galaxy or universe is someones laboratory, then all sorts of things could be going on. How would people ever even know what the big picture is?
LIFE BEYOND II: The Museum of Alien Life https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThDYazipjSI
https://celestia.space , http://spaceengine.org
https://gamerant.com/metacritic-best-space-flight-simulators-games
https://www.sciencegamecenter.org/games/space-simulator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_flight_simulation_games
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/confirmed-we-live-in-a-simulation
