This story is both interesting – particularly if you are interested in science – and concerning. It might even be very worrying to some people. The lead author of this report, Mary Hagedorn, a marine biologist at the Smithsonian institution in Washington DC, has suggested that initially the frozen tissue of endangered animal species on planet Earth should be transported to the south pole of the moon in order to preserve genetic material of the species for posterity and in order to protect them for the future.
She has suggested this because she sees a storage vault for this material on the planet as vulnerable to nuclear war and climate change. She sees the possibility of such a storage vault even in the most remote place such as Norway where there is a seed vault, as being potentially insecure.
The south pole of the moon is very cold; an ideal place for the storage of frozen material. The plan suggests storage at -196° Celsius. Obviously, there are practical difficulties in transporting the samples to the moon but she believes that space travel has recently developed to such an extent that her proposals are now a viable programme of the infographic explains the rest.
Scientists want frozen samples of animal species stored on the moon by Michael BroadIn the face of potential catastrophic ecosystem loss, such as coral reefs from climate-related warming, we propose the creation of a lunar biorepository to maintain samples in a cryopreserved state with little human intervention. – The study
Earth’s biodiversity is increasingly threatened and at risk. We propose a passive lunar biorepository for long-term storage of prioritized taxa of live cryopreserved samples to safeguard Earth’s biodiversity and to support future space exploration and planet terraforming. – The Study.
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The report is called: Safeguarding Earth’s biodiversity by creating a lunar biorepository. Link: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae058
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