Scientists are inspired by Noah’s Ark in a new lunar proposal they call a “global insurance policy.” They hope to send an ark to the moon, full of 335 million samples of sperm and eggs, in case catastrophe happens on Earth.
Instead of two of each animal, the solar-powered ark of the moon would cryogenically store samples of frozen seeds, spores, sperm, and eggs from some 6.7 million terrestrial species. University of Arizona researcher Jekan Thanga and a group of his students proposed the concept in a paper presented during the IEEE Aerospace Conference this week.
“Earth is, of course, a volatile environment,” said Thanga, a professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at UArizona College of Engineering. “As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago with the supervolcanic eruption of Toba, which caused a 1,000-year cooling period and, according to some, aligns with an estimated drop in human diversity. that human civilization has such a big footprint, if it collapsed, this could have a negative cascading effect on the rest of the planet. “
Thanga highlighted climate change as the main concern, mainly because it contributes to rising sea levels. A deadly global pandemic and a large-scale nuclear war are two other major possibilities that Doomsday clock researchers cite catastrophic disasters.
He Svalbard seed bank in Norway, also known as the “final trial round”, currently contains hundreds of thousands of seed samples to ensure continued biodiversity on earth. But Thanga’s team believes that storing such precious samples on our own planet is too risky.
Luckily, the moon, located just 238,855 miles away, has none of these problems.
Use lava tubes to protect samples
Establishing the ark would involve sending 6.7 million samples to the moon in multiple payloads, then storing them in a vault below the surface, where they would be safe.
The idea is to store the ark inside a network of lava tubes, about 200 of which were discovered beneath the moon’s surface in 2013. They formed billions of years ago, when underground lava flows they 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 from solar radiation, meteors or surface temperature changes.
While the moon is not hospitable to humans, its harsh characteristics “make it a great place to store samples that need to stay very cold and uncomfortable for hundreds of years,” they said.
University of Arizona
Building a “modern” Noah’s Ark
Based on some “quick and subsequent” calculations, Thanga said transporting about 50 samples from each of the 6.7 million species (a total of 335 million samples) would carry about 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 big madness,” Thanga said. “We were a little surprised at that.”
The proposal of the equipment for the ark includes solar panels on the surface of the moon for electricity, elevator shafts in the installation and Petri dishes housed in cryogenic conservation modules.
Seeds should be cooled to less than 292 degrees Fahrenheit and stem cells to less than 320 degrees Fahrenheit. For reference, the file Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is stored at less than 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
Temperatures that would cool would probably freeze the metal, so the team has introduced a type of floating shelf made up of a cryo-cooled superconducting material and fed by quantum levitation using a powerful magnet.
“It’s like they’re locked in place by ropes, but invisible ropes,” Thanga said. “When you get to cryogenic temperatures, weird things happen. Some of them just seem magical, but they are based on physics principles tested and tested in the lab, at the limit of our understanding.”
They also suggest that robots navigate the installation by magnetic tracks. Obviously, much research is still needed, including the effects of gravity on seeds and a plan for communication with the Earth.
“What amazes me about projects like this is that they make me feel closer and closer to becoming a space civilization and a not-too-distant future in which humanity will be based on the Moon and Mars,” dir Álvaro Díaz- Flores Caminero, doctoral student at the University of Arizona who directs the thermal analysis of the project. “Multidisciplinary projects are tough because of their complexity, but I think it’s the same complexity that makes them beautiful.”