You may be familiar with the tale of Noah’s Ark. Now it seems scientists are plotting to create a Noah’s Space Station of sorts, and the location would be the moon.
The idea would involve the creation of a biorepository on the surface of the moon that would serve as a storage facility for endangered plants and cells from endangered animals.
Of course, the obvious question looms: Why the moon?
“There’s no place on Earth cold enough to do it,” Mary Hagedorn, senior research scientist with the Smithsonian National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute told CBS News. “Let’s imagine that, unfortunately, climate change wiped out 90 percent of the Great Barrier Reef. Well, in 100 years, we might be able to just give them back all that diversity.”
Hagedorn said she took inspiration from the Arctic Svalbard Seed Vault, a Norwegian facility that stores seeds from plants from all over the world at just below zero degrees Fahrenheit, thanks in part to the permafrost present there. The frozen atmosphere helps preserve the seeds much longer than warmer conditions would.
The project is years away from taking flight, but tests are already underway at the Smithsonian to determine whether moon storage is a truly viable option. Ten specimens of Starry Goby fish will be placed in space-like conditions. The next step would be launching them up to the space station and trying it there.