Smithsonian researcher Mary Hagedorn has, and her idea is wild—in the best way possible. After dealing with the heartbreak of losing biobanks due to human error and fragile setups in places like Hawaii, she’s come up with a failsafe plan: a biobank near the lunar South Pole. Why there? Because the temperature naturally hangs around that of liquid nitrogen, making it perfect for storing biomaterial. It’s like nature’s own deep freezer, just 238,855 miles away.
Imagine this: a backup of our planet’s entire biodiversity, safely tucked away on the moon, far from human reach, ready to help us out if things go sideways here on Earth. It’s not just science fiction; it’s a visionary step toward future-proofing life as we know it.
In case you're curious to hear more about this mind-blowing idea. Mary breaks it all down in the latest episode of the Space Café Podcast.
What do you think? Could this be the future of conservation?
Ever thought about backing up Earth’s biodiversity… on the moon?
byu/therealhumanchaos inFuturology
4 Comments
You want a giant corpse freezer on the moon, like Noah’s Zombie Ark? That’s rather insane. The most to try to move that much mass and then maintain it on the moon makes the idea dumber vs more affordable.
It would be cheaper to build it here on Earth, even if you had to pay to cool it, but wouldn’t preserving them in something like resin or amber make more sense and wouldn’t just having a database of their DNA be good enough… especially considering there is no remote chance in hell we can really afford such a big cost for near zero return.
Like the chance you need that is near zero and the costs are enormous no matter how you do it. It’s a very bad idea, imo.
What does backup mean? How do you restore lost coral from this?
>this mind-blowing idea.
This word used to have a meaning.
Wouldn’t radiation be a problem? Radiation levels on the moon can be up to 150 times higher than on earth. Why wouldn’t we just bury a biobank in Antarctica? McMurdo Station is already a functional research facility.