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Scientists Propose Lunar ‘Noah’s Ark’ to Preserve DNA of Endangered Species (gizmodo.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

21 comments fedilink hide all child comments

An idea worth pursuing I guess. My first question: in case this gets forgotten about in the distant future, how could it be marked so there's a good chance of being found?

(Link to the AIBS journal article which inspired the question: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance-article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biae058/7715645?login=false )

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

On first hearing this sounds dumb. Any advantages the moon has are surely offset by the difficulty of getting there and maintaining/resupplying the ark.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

For very long-time, high-probability safety, the surface of the Earth is constantly being re-shaped. Whole mountains can disappear in a few million years. Floods, earthquakes, ice, weather alone.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Well... the Moon's surface is also constantly bombarded with rocks... in fact it intercepts a lot of objects that would hit Earth. For this thing to be really safe it would have to buried somewhere, not just left out in the open.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Definitely underground. The temperature swings would be wild otherwise.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Also the full force solar radiation. That's probably not good for DNA samples either.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

You're right, and it's probably important to game out what the purpose of such an ark is.

Are we trying to revive a set of animals that have gone extinct on earth, but there has been continuity in civilization from the time we placed the ark to when we need it? In that scenario we could have just taken the necessary effort to protect the ark from weather events. (Or build it sufficiently protected inside a mountain or whatever)

Or is the purpose to help an alien civilization (or a newly sprouted human civilization after some disaster) to recreate extinct life? In that case, I'd argue we don't have the technology to ensure the ark is protected/intact over that time period whether on earth or the moon. It would be an extremely expensive undertaking we have no chance of ever seeing benefit from, and no way to know if another civilization would.