• threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Neat idea. I’d be worried about degredation from radiation though. I guess it would need to be underground?

    Do we have these on Earth yet? Are the black-footed ferret cells and such frozen in Svalbard or something?

    • db2@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      On the dark side it would probably be easier to shield it long term, provided it didn’t get hit by space poop.

      • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        The moon has no permanent “dark side”. Which half of the moon is in the shade gradually changes over the course of the lunar month. The only permanently shaded regions are deep craters at the poles, and even then there would still be radiation from cosmic sources other than the sun.

    • kalkulat@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      Svalbard’s a ‘seed vault’ only, there must be something for extinct animal species. Another question I thought of: if stored on the moon, who among the finders will know enough to even know that they’re looking at? let alone to make purposeful use of it?

      • threelonmusketeers@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        Yeah, if it is intended to be used by a different society than the one who set it up, it will be difficult to communicate what it is or how to use it. Sounds like a more difficult version making a “nuclear waste buried here, do not dig” sign, and we haven’t come up with a surefire solution to that puzzle.

        • deafboy@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          0
          ·
          3 months ago

          I feel like this one would be easier than the nuclear waste site. You don’t need to signal an intent, nor protect the site from non technological societies. Just include a picture of the archived organism. They will eventually figure it out.

          I assume the hypothetical future society would share the same evolutionary tree as us. It’s pretty unlikely that any series of events would eradicate ALL forms of life on earth, forcing the evolution to basically start again, using entirely different processes and building blocks.

          Now storing such archive on a celestial body famous for its massive craters and the lack of radiation protection is entirely different problem.

  • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    On first hearing this sounds dumb. Any advantages the moon has are surely offset by the difficulty of getting there and maintaining/resupplying the ark.

    • kalkulat@lemmy.worldOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      For very long-time, high-probability safety, the surface of the Earth is constantly being re-shaped. Whole mountains can disappear in a few million years. Floods, earthquakes, ice, weather alone.

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        Well… the Moon’s surface is also constantly bombarded with rocks… in fact it intercepts a lot of objects that would hit Earth. For this thing to be really safe it would have to buried somewhere, not just left out in the open.

      • LesserAbe@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        0
        ·
        3 months ago

        You’re right, and it’s probably important to game out what the purpose of such an ark is.

        Are we trying to revive a set of animals that have gone extinct on earth, but there has been continuity in civilization from the time we placed the ark to when we need it? In that scenario we could have just taken the necessary effort to protect the ark from weather events. (Or build it sufficiently protected inside a mountain or whatever)

        Or is the purpose to help an alien civilization (or a newly sprouted human civilization after some disaster) to recreate extinct life? In that case, I’d argue we don’t have the technology to ensure the ark is protected/intact over that time period whether on earth or the moon. It would be an extremely expensive undertaking we have no chance of ever seeing benefit from, and no way to know if another civilization would.

  • downpunxx@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    too close, our suns going nova eventually, make it an ark, then send it off, hell make a million of em

    • downpunxx@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      3 months ago

      well, eventually … the sun going NOVA is gonna swallow the moon juuuuuuuust a bit before it does the earth

  • Zier@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    3 months ago

    Yes, let’s do something scientific based on a myth from a book about myths that never happened. Sounds like a great plan.