Scientists want to send 335 million samples of seeds, sperm and eggs to the moon to create a lunar Noah’s ark

Scientists are taking inspiration from Noah’s Ark in a new lunar proposal they call a “global insurance policy”. They hope to send an ark to the moon, filled with 335 million sperm and egg samples, in case a disaster is happening on Earth.

Instead of two from each animal, the solar-powered Lunar Ark cryogenically stored samples of frozen seeds, spores, sperm and eggs from approximately 6.7 million terrestrial species. University of Arizona researcher Jekan Thanga and a group of his students proposed the concept in an article presented at this week’s IEEE Aerospace conference.

“Earth is naturally a volatile environment,” said Thanga, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the UArizona College of Engineering, in a press release. “As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago with the supervolcanic eruption of Toba, which caused a cooling period of 1,000 years and, according to some, corresponds to an estimated drop in human diversity. Because human civilization has such a large footprint, if it collapsed it could have a cascading negative effect on the rest of the planet. “

Thanga highlighted climate change as the main concern, especially as it contributes to sea level rise. A deadly global pandemic and full-scale nuclear war are two other major possibilities that End of the world clock researchers cite catastrophic disasters.

The Svalbard Seed Bank in Norway, also known as the ‘doomsday vault’, currently holds hundreds of thousands of seed samples to ensure the continuity of biodiversity on earth. But Thanga’s team believes that storing such precious samples on our own planet is far too risky.

Fortunately, the moon, located just 238,855 miles away, has none of these issues.

Use of lava tubes to house samples

Establishing the ark would involve sending the 6.7 million samples to the moon in multiple payloads and then storing them in a safe below the surface where they would be safe.

The idea is to store the ark in a network of lava tubes – about 200 of which were discovered below the moon’s surface in 2013. They formed billions of years ago, when lava streams undergrounds formed massive caverns over 300 feet in diameter.

These tubes have remained intact for three to four billion years, and scientists suggest they could provide much-needed protection against solar radiation, meteors, or temperature changes on the surface.

Although the moon is not hospitable to humans, its harsh characteristics “make it an ideal place to store samples that must remain very cold and undisturbed for hundreds of years at a time,” they said.

Building a “modern” Noah’s ark

Based on some “quick math, back of the envelope,” Thanga said transporting around 50 samples each of 6.7 million species – totaling 335 million samples – would require around 250 rocket launches. This is more than six times more than it took to build the International space station, which required 40 rocket launches.

“It’s not a big deal,” Thanga said. “We were a little surprised about this.”

The team’s proposal for the ark includes solar panels on the moon’s surface for electricity, elevator shafts in the facility, and Petri dishes housed in cryogenic storage modules.

The seeds should be cooled to minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit and the stem cells to minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is stored at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.

Cold temperatures would likely freeze the metal, so the team introduced a type of floating shelf made of a cryo-cooled superconducting material and powered by quantum levitation using a powerful magnet.

“It’s like they’re locked with ropes, but invisible ropes,” Thanga said. “When you get to cryogenic temperatures, strange things happen. Some of it looks like magic but is based on principles of physics that have been proven and tested in the laboratory to the limit of our understanding.”

They also suggest that the robots navigate the facility on magnetic tracks. Obviously, a lot of research is still needed, including the effects of a lack of gravity on seeds and a communication plan with Earth.

“What amazes me about projects like this is that they give me the impression that we are getting closer to becoming a space civilization and to a not too distant future where humanity will have bases. on the Moon and Mars, ”said Álvaro Díaz-Flores Caminero, a PhD student at the University of Arizona who is leading the thermal analysis for the project. “Multidisciplinary projects are difficult because of their complexity, but I think the same complexity is what makes them beautiful.”