“Multidisciplinary projects are difficult because of their complexity, but I think the same complexity is why they’re so good. Álvaro Díaz-Flores Caminero, a student at the University of Arizona, said: “What amazes me about projects like this is that they make me feel like we are about to become a civilization in space, and in a not too distant future if where humanity will have bases on the moon and Mars. More research needs to be done on the effect of lack of gravity on bones, reports say. The team also proposed using robots on magnetic tracks to move around the facility. The seeds were refrigerated to -292 degrees Fahrenheit and the stem cells to -320 degrees Fahrenheit. The ark includes solar panels on the moon’s surface for electricity that will be used to power features such as elevator shafts down to vaults. In comparison, the International Space Station took 40 launches to build. Thanga believes carrying millions of bones – with a total of 335m samples – will take about 250 rocket launches. “Ģ Scientists plan to store seeds and sperm on the moon Credits: Getty
Speaking in Room 104 earlier this year, Thanga said: “Hopefully when space travel costs come down, we can start taking steps here, but we really need to start sending samples to the moon in over the next 30 years or so. The ark will be stored inside a network of lava tubes – discovered in 2013 – that formed after molten streams flowed beneath the moon’s surface billions of years ago.Įxperts believe these pipes can provide protection from solar radiation as well as meteors and other surface hazards.Īnd the moon’s harsh atmosphere “makes it a great place to store samples that need to stay very cold and undisturbed for hundreds of years at a time,” the project team said. Nearly seven million samples will be shipped on the moon in multiple shipments and then stored below the surface in vaults, CBS news reports. There is a similar project on Earth – the Svalbard Seedbank in Norway, called the “doomsday vault” – which holds hundreds of thousands of seed samples.īut Thanga believes that storing samples on our own planet is too dangerous. The scientist has highlighted climate change, a global pandemic and nuclear war as possible causes of disasters. “Because human civilization has a massive footprint, if it collapses, that could have the negative impact of cascading on the rest of the planet.”
“As humans, we had a close call about 75,000 years ago of the Toba supervolcanic eruption, which caused a 1,000-year period of cooling and, according to some, coincided with the estimated decline in human diversity. He said: “The world is inherently volatile. (CNN) - Engineers want to build an underground lunar ark, filled with millions of seed, spore, sperm and egg samples from Earth's species, hidden in a network of tubes on the moon to provide a. Prof Jekan Thanga, of the University of Arizona, who suggested the idea in a paper earlier this year, said humanity should protect the world against global disasters.
Taking inspiration from Noah’s Ark, experts fear that the Earth may not be safe enough to ensure the safety of humanity – or any species. A solar-powered ark will cryogenically store frozen samples from about 6.7 million species underground.
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