A team of scientists from the University of Arizona (USA) has come up with an interesting proposal to preserve life on Earth in the event of a global catastrophe. Experts propose to store in a kind of Noah’s ark, a vault of the end of the world not only of humanity, but also of terrestrial animal and plant life, away from the risks that our planet faces. The camera, which would conserve millions of species, would be located on our satellite, the Moon. Species could disappear from the face of the Earth and this life insurance on the Moon no longer seems so immersed in the field of science fiction.
What would this lunar ark contain?
Experts say it would contain sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million species on Earth that would have to be shipped in an ark built on the Moon as a ‘modern global insurance policy’. The lunar gene bank, which could also house seed and spore samples, is expected to be built beneath the lunar surface, in a cold, hollow lava tube. Formed billions of years ago and intact for an estimated 3-4 billion years, these caverns would provide shelter from solar radiation, micrometeorites, and surface temperature changes. There , the deposited samples would be kept refrigerated at cryogenic temperatures (the seeds at -180ºC and the stem cells at -196ºC, for example), thanks to the installation of solar panels on the lunar surface. As lava tubes on the Moon are approximately 100 meters in diameter, they also provide ample space for the millions of samples from the project proposed at the IEEE Aerospace Conference.
In the proposal. the ark facility would be accessible via two or more lift shafts to the surface, one of which would be dedicated to moving construction materials toward the base, so that it can extend along the lava tube.
Do we really need a facility on the Moon?
Volcanoes, earthquakes, civil wars, nuclear war, ice ages, rapid climate change, unpredictable pandemics … our planet has never been far from catastrophic events and there are, today, many species in danger. And more than they will be in the future.
“Earth is naturally a volatile environment,” explains Jaken Thanga, professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the Arizona College of Engineering, in a press release. “As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago with the Toba supervolcanic eruption, which triggered a 1,000-year cooling period and, according to some, aligns with an estimated drop in human diversity. Considering that the Human civilization has such a large footprint, if it collapsed, it could have a negative cascading effect on the rest of the planet . “
The Moon may not be an ideal place for this, but it does have advantages . In particular, the Moon’s lava tubes and lunar wells could be ideal locations to build this modern Noah’s Ark, similar in concept to the famous “Doomsday” Seed Vault found in Svalbard, Norway and which houses more than a million seed samples. The Moon is a safe place, as the forecast indicates that the rise in sea level in the future will cause this vault of Svalbard to be lost under the waters.
By estimates, transporting about 50 samples for each of the 6.7 million target species would require 250 rocket launches . Considering that building the ISS required 40 launches, it is not an exaggerated number.
Obstacles
Installing this Noah’s ark on the Moon comes with a few challenges. The cold and near-empty conditions of the lava tubes on the Moon could affect the metals used in this installation, as they could freeze, jam and even weld due to the cold. The solution is to use superconductors .
“What amazes me about projects like this is that they make me feel 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,” concludes Álvaro Díaz. Flores Caminero, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona who leads the thermal analysis of the project.
There is still a lot of work to do, so scientists have enough time to make this or any similar project viable on the lunar surface.
