A group of scientists has proposed a unique “Moon vault” hidden inside lunar lava tubes that could preserve the sperm, eggs, and seeds of millions of Earth’s species. This special vault, also known as a gene bank, would be securely concealed within the lunar tunnels and caverns created by lava flows over 3 billion years ago and powered by solar panels.
According to researchers, it would store genetic material preserved through cryopreservation for all 6.7 million species of plants, animals, and fungi on Earth, requiring at least 250 rocket launches to transport it to the Moon.
Scientists believe that this effort could safeguard Earth’s wildlife from apocalyptic scenarios caused by humans and nature, such as a super volcano eruption or a nuclear war.
The idea was previously discussed by scientists in a plan at the IEEE Aerospace Conference.
Lead author Jekan Thanga, head of the Space Exploration Laboratory at the University of Arizona, said, “There is a tight link between us and nature. We have a responsibility as custodians of biodiversity and the means to preserve it.”
Thanga stated that the necessary technologies for this ambitious project do not exist yet, but researchers believe it could be built in reality within the next 30 years.
The primary motivation behind the “Moon vault” is to establish a secure biological diversity storage facility off-world.
Researchers have listed the following as potential threats to Earth’s biodiversity: global nuclear war, asteroid impact, pandemics, accelerated climate change, global solar storms, and global droughts.
“The environment and our civilization are both fragile. There are many truly catastrophic scenarios that could occur,” emphasized Thanga.
In fact, the concept of genetic backup to preserve Earth’s biodiversity is not a new one.
Researchers suggest that by storing genetic information in a location elsewhere in the Solar System, we could ensure its survival against any threats to Earth.
Moreover, another advantage of building a vault on the Moon is its potential to be securely hidden within lunar lava tubes. These caves and tunnels beneath the surface were formed during the moon’s early history and have remained intact since.
The lunar lava tubes would shield Earth’s gene pool from asteroid impacts and harmful DNA-damaging radiation. These lunar caverns are also believed to be excellent locations for constructing lunar cities for human civilization.
The basic design of the gene storage vault on the Moon includes cryopreservation modules hidden within the lunar lava tubes, energized by solar panels above the surface.
“Unless there is a direct impact from an asteroid or a global nuclear conflict, the vault should be safe. There could be up to 200 cryopreservation modules on the Moon,” said Thanga.
The proposed vault would consist of two main parts above and below the lunar surface. Gene samples would be stored within cryopreservation modules inside the lava tubes, connected to the surface by special elevators. On the surface, a communication array and solar panels would enable the vault to be self-sustaining.
Building this would be a significant logistical challenge, but Thanga believes that upcoming Moon missions by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) will lay the groundwork for such construction.
Thanga predicts that transporting the storage samples to the Moon will be the most challenging and costly aspect of the project.
Scientists’ calculations assume that 50 samples of each species would be required. However, reintroducing each species into the wild could take up to 500 rocket launches, meaning even more rockets would be needed.
Thanga stated, “It would cost hundreds of billions of dollars to build the vault and transport the test samples.”
In reality, for samples to be preserved through cryopreservation, they must be kept at extremely low temperatures ranging from -180 to -196 degrees Celsius. This would make it impractical to have humans sorting and collecting samples from the cryopreservation modules. Instead, robots would have to perform the task.
Researchers estimate that it would take approximately 30 years to carry out this idea, but if humanity were faced with an impending biodiversity crisis, it could be implemented much sooner.