Emily Chan
In the long history of our planet, countless species have gone extinct, and many more are facing the same threat.
To protect Earth’s biodiversity, a team of researchers has proposed the idea of building a lunar biorepository, which is essentially a vault on the Moon.
The proposal is being led by Dr. Mary Hagedorn of the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
The aim is to create a “passive, long-lasting storage facility” to hold some of Earth’s most at-risk animal species.
The samples will be cryopreserved, a process that preserves biological materials by freezing them at low temperatures.
The Moon is an ideal place for the plan, as it contains naturally cold regions near the poles that never see sunlight. In those areas, the temperatures always remain below -321 degrees Fahrenheit.
This allows the samples to be stored for an extensive period of time without human intervention or power supplies, which are two factors that Earth-based repositories require to keep running.
On Earth, vaults are built in stable areas that are difficult to access. It reduces danger but does not eliminate it altogether.
For example, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault had to be refurbished after the surrounding permafrost thawed unexpectedly, causing water to leak into the entrance tunnel.
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