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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 (5 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 (4 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 (2 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.

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