Scientists Want To Send 6.7 Million Samples, Including Sperm, To The Moon
Dhir Acharya - Mar 15, 2021
Scientists want to store them in a solar-powered vault too. They said this could help mankind repopulate in case of a catastrophic disaster.
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Scientists suggested that humanity could buy into a “modern global insurance policy” by storing 6.7 million sperm samples on the moon.
This will involve sending the ova and sperm samples of 6.7 million species on Earth to the Moon through multiple payloads. Then, the samples would be stored in a vault beneath the lunar surface.
New York Post reported that this solution is similar to the Doomsday seed vault that is holding over a million crop samples that originate from almost every country around the world.
The idea was present at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Aerospace Conference by six researchers from the University of Arizona. According to the researchers, this would protect humanity from extinction.
They said that the lunar ark could help mankind repopulate in case of a catastrophic disaster like a supervolcanic eruption, a deadly epidemic, widespread drought, a large-scale nuclear war, or an asteroid.
The study author Jekan Thangavelautham stated in his presentation, “Earth is naturally a volatile environment,” and that samples stored on the planet still remain vulnerable to massive disasters.
The scientists behind the study have also calculated and found it’s feasible to send eggs, sperm, spores, and seeds of about 6.7 million species to the Moon. Thangavelautham said that the samples can be sent to the Moon in 250 flights. To compare, building the ISS involved 40 trips.
To prevent the samples from welding together or freezing beneath the lunar surface, they suggested that the facility run on solar panels. Doctoral student Álvaro Díaz-Flores Caminero said projects like this are bringing mankind closer to achieve a space civilization and we may soon settle down on Mars and the Moon.
“Multidisciplinary projects are hard due to their complexity, but I think the same complexity is what makes them beautiful.”
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