The moon may be the ideal place to preserve Earth's biodiversity

What if humanity's backup was on the moon? Well, that may just be the plan. Scientists want to create a repository on the moon to preserve biological material from Earth. Lunar temperatures and the orb's overall stability make it an ideal option for long-term preservation, especially while conditions on Earth continue to change rapidly.

A vault on the moon

Creatures of the Earth could be preserved in a lunar chamber, according to a paper published in the journal BioScience. The authors of the study "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." 

With several species on Earth facing extinction due to climate change and human action, lunar preservation may be a way to save them. "Initially, a lunar biorepository would target the most at-risk species on Earth today, but our ultimate goal would be to cryopreserve most species on Earth," Mary Hagedorn, lead author of the paper, said in a statement.

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The specimens would be preserved through a process called cryopreservation which is when "biological materials (such as sperm, cells, and embryos) can be placed in a state where they are alive yet frozen, and able to be thawed out for future use," by "harnessing extreme cold," said the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI). 

While plant specimens can be preserved in Arctic temperatures, animal specimens require much colder temperatures of at least -320 degrees Fahrenheit or -196 degrees Celsius. Because such temperatures would be difficult and costly to produce on Earth, the moon may be a better option. The polar regions of the moon contain permanently shadowed craters that can reach temperatures as low as -410 degrees Fahrenheit (-246 degrees Celsius), ideal for preserving specimens.

A shot in the dark

Along with much colder temperatures on the moon, biological specimens are likely to be safer there. The biorepository idea is modeled after the Global Seed Vault located in Svalbard, Norway. The vault was placed in the Arctic Circle, and the region experienced flooding due to warmer temperatures in 2017, which posed a danger to the seeds. "If there had not been people there, flooding could have damaged the biorepository," said Hagedorn to The Guardian. "The idea of having a really secure, passive biorepository for safeguarding Earth's biodiversity seems like a really good idea." More broadly, "at approximately 238,000 miles (384,000 kilometers) from Earth, the Moon is protected from any unpredictable natural and/or geopolitical disasters that may befall our planet," said the NZCBI.

A lunar biorepository is not without its challenges, of course. The logistics of creating a safe storage vault on the moon comes with obstacles that include space radiation as well as the lack of gravity. Research still needs to be done on these factors on cryopreserved samples. Some are also worried that a project of this scale would shift priorities. "A major concern is that the cost and effort involved in establishing such a resource on the moon would be very substantial and would detract from ongoing conservation efforts including delivering existing international commitments and plans to protect nature," Rob Brooker, the head of ecological sciences at the James Hutton Institute in Scotland, said to CNN.

The biorepository could also give humanity more options. "This is meant to help offset natural disasters and, potentially, to augment space travel," said Hagedorn. "Life is precious and, as far as we know, rare in the universe. This biorepository provides another, parallel approach to conserving Earth's precious biodiversity."