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A “moon arch” hidden inside the moon’s lava tubes could preserve the sperm, eggs and seeds of millions of Earth’s species, a group of scientists have proposed.
The ark, or gene bank, would be safely hidden in these tunnels and caves dug by lava over 3 billion years ago and would be powered by solar panels above. It is believed to contain the cryogenically preserved genetic material of all 6.7 million known species of plants, animals and fungi on Earth, which would require at least 250 rocket launches to be transported to the moon, according to researchers.
Scientists believe this venture could protect our planet’s wildlife from natural and human doomsday scenarios, such as a supervolcano eruption or nuclear war, and ensure the survival of their genes.
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Scientists presented their lunar arch plans on Sunday March 7 to the IEEE Aerospace Conference, which took place virtually this year due to COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s this strong interconnection between us and nature,” senior author Jekan Thanga, head of the Space and Earth Robotic Exploration Lab (SpaceTREx) at the University of Arizona, told Live Science. “We have a responsibility to be the stewards of biodiversity and the means to preserve it.”
All the technology needed for this ambitious project does not yet exist, but researchers believe it could realistically be built within the next 30 years, Thanga said.
Existential threats
The main motivation behind the Lunar Arch is to create a secure storage facility out of the world for biodiversity.
“I like to use the data analogy,” Thanga said. “It’s like copying your photos and documents from your computer to a separate hard drive, so you have a backup in case something goes wrong.”
Therefore, if an apocalyptic event destroyed the natural world or wiped out most of humanity, there would be a chance of “clicking a reset button,” Thanga said.
In their presentation, the researchers listed the following as potential existential threats to biodiversity on Earth: supervolcanic eruption, global nuclear war, asteroid impact, pandemic, climate change acceleration, global solar storm and global drought.
Related: Doomsday: 9 Real Ways Earth Could End
“Both the environment and human civilization are very fragile,” Thanga said. “There are a lot of these really tragic circumstances that could happen.”
Creating genetic safeguards to preserve biodiversity is not a new concept. Svalbard Global Seed Vault, located in the Arctic Circle in Norway, holds the genetic samples of plant species from all over the world and has already been used to reintroduce certain plants into nature. However, this vault is still at risk of being destroyed by sea level rise or an asteroid attack.
Only by storing genetic information elsewhere in the solar system can we make sure it survives all existential threats on Earth, the researchers said.
Lava tubes
The moon was the obvious choice for an out-of-the-world ark for one main reason – it’s only a four-day trip from Earth, which means transporting samples is much easier than taking them. on Mars. Building an ark orbiting the Earth is also not secure enough due to the instability of the orbit, Thanga said.
However, another benefit of building an ark on the moon is that it can be safely hidden in lava tubes. These caverns and tunnels dug beneath the surface were formed during the moon’s fiery childhood, and have remained intact ever since. The lava tubes are said to protect the ark from meteor attacks and DNA damaging radiation. Lava tubes have also been suggested as great places to build lunar cities for human civilization on the moon as well, as previously reported by Live Science.
“Unless there is a direct hit from a meteor or nuclear attack, the ark should be in good shape,” Thanga said. “And there could be as many as 200 lava tubes that could fit the ark.”
The researchers propose to first map these tubes using specially designed robots capable of autonomously exploring caves and tunnels. The hypothetical SphereX robots would look like large “pokeballs” with a dark metallic gray upper half and a bronze lower half, according to Thanga. SphereX robots would be able to jump into the hollow of the moon gravity and tube mapping using cameras and LIDAR – a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances.
Once the robots identified a suitable lava tube, the construction phase could begin.
Building the base
The proposed arch would have two main sections above and below the ground. The genetic samples would be stored in cryopreservation modules inside lava tubes that would be connected to the surface by elevators. On the surface, a communication network and solar panels would make it possible to maintain the arch independently and an airlock would allow human visitors.
Building the arch would be a huge logistical challenge, but Thanga said upcoming NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) lunar missions will lay the groundwork for these types of construction projects.
Thanga predicts that transporting the samples to the moon will be the most difficult and expensive part of building the ark, based on some “quick and background calculations,” he said. .
These calculations assume that 50 samples of each species would be required to successfully reintroduce a species. However, reintroducing each species could actually take up to 500, which would mean a lot more rockets would be needed, Thanga said. These calculations also don’t include the launches needed to transport the materials needed to build the ark in the first place.
“Building the ark and transporting the samples will cost hundreds of billions of dollars,” Thanga said. “But this is not totally out of the question for international collaborations like the UN”
Very cold robots
Even so, one aspect of the Lunar Ark is currently out of reach.
For samples to be cryogenically stored, they must be stored at extremely low temperatures between minus 292 and minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 180 to minus 196 degrees Celsius). This means that it would be impractical to use humans to sort and retrieve samples from the cryopreservation modules. Instead, the robots should do the heavy lifting.
But at such low temperatures, robots freeze to the ground by cold welding, where metals fuse under freezing temperatures. The solution, the researchers say, is quantum levitation. This theoretical solution is essentially a supercharged version of magnetism using superconducting materials to fix objects in a magnetic field.
“You can have remote things that are pinned together, so that you can levitate the robots around,” Thanga said. “It’s like you know, they have invisible strings or strings attached to them.”
Quantum levitation is not yet possible, but it will also be necessary in the future for other cryogenic projects such as long-haul space travel, so it’s only a matter of time before someone don’t know how to do it, Thanga said.
Researchers say a 30-year delay is possible, but if humanity faces an impending existential crisis, it could be done much faster, Thanga said.
“This is a project that would require real urgency for a lot of people to be motivated enough to pursue it,” Thanga said. “I think it could be achieved within 10 to 15 years if necessary.”
Originally posted on Live Science.
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