A “moon ark” hidden in the lava tubes of the moon could hold the sperm, eggs and seeds of millions of terrestrial species, a group of scientists has proposed.
The ark, or gene bank, would be safely hidden in these hollowed-out tunnels and caves sculpted by lava more than 3 billion years ago and powered by solar panels above it. It would contain the cryogenically preserved genetic material of all 6.7 million known species of plants, animals and fungi on Earth, which the researchers say would require at least 250 rocket launches to transport to the moon.
Scientists believe this pursuit can protect our planet’s wildlife from both natural and man-made apocalyptic scenarios, such as a supervolcano eruption or nuclear war, and ensure the survival of their genes.
The scientists presented their plans for the lunar ark at the IEEE Aerospace Conference on Sunday (March 7), which was held virtually this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There is a strong interconnectedness between us and nature,” lead author Jekan Thanga, chief of the Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration (SpaceTREx) Laboratory at the University of Arizona, told Live Science. “We have a responsibility to be guardians of biodiversity and the resources to conserve it.”
Not all of the technology needed for this ambitious project still exists, but the researchers think it can realistically be built within the next 30 years, Thanga said.
Existential threats
The main motivation behind the lunar ark is to create a safe off-world biodiversity storage facility.
“I like to use the data analogy,” said Thanga. “It’s like copying your photos and documents from your computer to a separate hard drive, so you have a backup if something goes wrong.”
Therefore, if an apocalyptic event destroyed the natural world or wiped out most of humanity, there would be a chance to “hit a reset button,” Thanga said.
In their presentation, the researchers cited the following as potential existential threats to Earth’s biodiversity: super volcanic eruption, global nuclear war, asteroid impact, pandemic, acceleration of climate change, global solar storm, and global drought.
Related: Doomsday: 9 Real Ways the Earth Could End
“The environment and human civilization are both very fragile,” said Thanga. “There are a lot of these really tragic circumstances that can happen.”
Creating genetic backups to conserve biodiversity is not a new concept. Located within the Arctic Circle in Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault contains the genetic samples of plant species from all over the world and has already been used to reintroduce certain plants into the wild.
However, that vault is still at risk of being destroyed by rising sea levels or an asteroid strike.
Only by storing the genetic information elsewhere in the solar system can we ensure that it survives all existential threats to Earth, the researchers said.
Lava tubes
The Moon was the obvious choice for an alien ark for one major reason: It’s only a four-day journey from Earth, which means transporting the monsters is much easier than taking them to Mars. Building an ark in orbit is also not safe enough because of orbit instability, Thanga said.
However, another advantage of building an Ark on the Moon is that it can be safely hidden in lava tubes. These hollowed-out caverns and tunnels below the surface were formed during the fiery childhood of the moon and have remained untouched ever since. Lava tubes are said to protect the Ark against meteor attacks and DNA-damaging radiation. The lava tubes have also been suggested as excellent places to build lunar cities for a human civilization on the moon, as Live Science previously reported.
Moon ark design with solar panels above it. (Jekan Thanga)
“Unless there’s a direct hit from a meteor or a nuclear strike, the ark should be fine,” Thanga said. “And there could be as many as 200 lava tubes that could be suitable for the Ark.”
The researchers propose to first map these tubes with specially designed robots that can autonomously explore the caves and tunnels. The hypothetical SphereX robots would resemble large “pokeballs” with a dark gray top half and a bronze bottom half, according to Thanga. The SphereX robots could hop around in the moon’s low gravity and map the tubes using cameras and LIDAR – a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances.
Once the robots have found a suitable lava tube, the construction phase can begin.
Building the base
The proposed ark would contain two main sections above and below ground. The genetic samples would be stored in cryostorage modules in the lava tubes that would be connected to the surface by elevators. On the surface, a communications array and solar panels would allow autonomous maintenance of the ark, and an airlock would allow human visitors.
An elaborate design of the ark is shown without the lava tube roof. (Jekan Thanga)
Building the ark would be a huge logistical challenge, but Thanga said upcoming lunar missions by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will lay the groundwork for these types of construction projects.
Thanga predicts that transporting the monsters to the Moon will be the most challenging and costly aspect of building the Ark, based on some “quick backward calculations,” he said.
Those calculations assume that 50 samples of each species would be required to successfully reintroduce a species. However, reintroducing each type could cost as much as 500, which would require many more missiles, Thanga said. These calculations also do not include the launches required to transport the materials needed to build the ark.
“It costs hundreds of billions of dollars to build the ark and transport monsters,” Thanga said. “But this is not entirely out of the question for international partnerships such as the UN”
Super cold robots
Yet one aspect of the lunar ark is currently out of reach.
To store the samples cryogenically, 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 it would be impractical to use humans to sort and retrieve samples from the cryostorage modules. Instead, robots should do the heavy lifting.
But at such low temperatures, the robots would freeze on the floor via cold welding, where metals fuse together at freezing temperatures. The solution, according to the researchers, is quantum levitation. This theoretical solution is basically a supercharged version of magnetism using superconducting materials to fix objects in a magnetic field.
“You can have things pinned together remotely, so you can make the robots float,” Thanga said. “It’s like you know, invisible cords or ropes are attached to it.”
Quantum levitation isn’t possible yet, but it will also be needed for other cryogenic projects such as long-range space travel in the future, so it’s only a matter of time before someone finds out how to do it, Thanga said.
The researchers say a span of 30 years is possible, but if humanity were to face an impending existential crisis, it could be done much faster, Thanga said.
“This is a project that really requires urgency to give a lot of people enough energy to go after it,” said Thanga. “I think it can be achieved within 10 to 15 years if necessary.”
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This article was originally published by Live Science. Read the original article.