Forget Noah's Ark! Scientists want to send sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million Earth species to t

[Elderberry]

Daily Mail by Ian Randall 3/10/2021

Forget Noah's Ark! Scientists want to send sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million Earth species to the MOON as a 'modern global insurance policy'

•   To protect Earth's species diversity, we presently store genetic material in vaults

•   Material including seeds and spores could be used to recover lost species

•   But gene banks on Earth are vulnerable to the catastrophes they insure against

•   US experts propose to more safely store specimens in lava tubes on the moon

•   The deposits would be cryogenically frozen and tended by levitating robots

Sperm and egg samples from 6.7 million of Earth's species should be sent to an ark built on the moon as a 'modern global insurance policy', scientists have proposed.

The lunar gene bank — which could also house seed and spore samples — is envisaged as being built under the lunar surface, in a hollow, cooled lava tube.

Specimens deposited in the ark would be kept refrigerated at cryogenic temperatures, with the facility powered by solar panels on the lunar surface.

More: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-9345693/Ark-Scientists-want-store-animal-sperm-egg-samples-MOON.html

[Sled Dog]

Where they can be destroyed by unfettered cosmic radiation?

[bigheadfred]

Where they can be destroyed by unfettered cosmic radiation?

Stored underground. I wonder how they found these lava tubes they speak of?

[Elderberry]

Stored underground. I wonder how they found these lava tubes they speak of?

@bigheadfred

Entire cities could fit inside the moon's monstrous lava tubes

Live Science by Rafi Letzter - August 15, 2020

https://www.livescience.com/lava-tubes-mars-and-moon-habitable.html


An image from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows a possible lava tube on Mars near the southern flank of the
Martian volcano Arsia Mons. (Image credit: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter/NASA)

A lava tube is a tunnel under a world's surface, formed by an intense flow of molten rock during a volcanic explosion. On Earth, they're most easily spotted when they collapse, forming long furrows in the dirt. Partial collapses sometimes form chains of "skylights" that reveal hidden lava tubes that are mostly intact. Researchers have speculated that lava tubes might exist on Mars and the moon since the 1960s, but in recent years Martian and lunar orbiters have beamed home images showing how common these formations likely are, both on the Red Planet and on our moon. Now, researchers argue in a new paper published July 20 in the journal Earth-Science Reviews, it's time to explore them in earnest.

To assess the size of lunar and Martian lava tubes, the researchers collected 3D laser scans of their counterparts — both collapsed and intact — on Earth. Then they collected all the available satellite images of collapsed lava tubes on Mars and the moon and modeled the size of the intact tubes based on the relationships between collapsed and intact tunnels on Earth.

Right now, the immediate challenge is gathering more information about the intact lava tubes on the moon and Earth. Right now, researchers can only identify them from satellite images of skylights or collapses. But differentiating a skylight from a simple hole in the ground is tricky. Researchers look for angled images of the holes that reveal the void underneath, he said, or other geological hints of a nearby cave. But nothing beats direct exploration, the researchers wrote.

[bigheadfred]

Thanks for the info. I need to research this. @Elderberry

Idaho has numerous lava tubes or caves. Some set up for a redoubt for civil defense areas. We used to hunt for them because the Indians would use them.   

I used to live by the Craters of the Moon.

[Wingnut]

Only two genders?   A Man. A women.