Have you given thanks to the moon lately?
Being a giant, cratered sphere (weighing about 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 pounds) serves us very well: its powerful gravity stabilizes the Earth’s wobble and keeps it from spinning chaotically over time (like Mars), an unpleasant reality that creates climate chaos.
But apart from being habitable, having tidal forces and appearing as a spectacular celestial body, scientists are also proposing new ideas for the Moon: As wild species are increasingly threatened by five pressures: habitat destruction, exploitation, invasive alien species, pollution and relentless climate change, scientists hope to use the frigid lunar environment to naturally cryopreserve animal cells, something that is difficult to sustain artificially in our world.
“Such biorepositories would protect biodiversity and act as a hedge against biodiversity loss due to natural disasters, climate change, overpopulation, resource depletion, war, socio-economic threats, and other causes on Earth,” the researchers, including Mary Hagedorn, a senior research scientist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, wrote in the journal. Bioscience.
“Our goal is to cryopreserve most animal species on Earth,” they added.
A NASA scientist saw the first Voyager images, and he was horrified by what he saw.
To be sure, there are some well-managed cryogenic storage facilities that store tissue samples, such as the Ambrose Monell Cryocollection at the American Museum of Natural History. “However, all of these biorepositories require intensive personnel management, electricity, and a continuous supply of liquid nitrogen, making them vulnerable to unpredictable natural or geopolitical disasters,” the researchers note. “Today, many frozen collections are stored in urban centers, making them even more vulnerable to the threat of destabilization.”
“Our goal is to freeze most animal species on Earth.”
But the Moon offers a solution: The lunar south pole, where NASA plans to build a permanent base, has an area in permanent shadow that would be kept at or below minus 196 degrees Celsius (minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit), the temperature needed to completely shut down cellular and molecular activity. The biodiversity repository would not require electricity or constant monitoring.
Mashable Lightspeed
Thirteen landing sites proposed for NASA’s Artemis III mission on the moon’s south pole. Each area is approximately 9.3 miles by 9.3 miles.
Credit: NASA
Preserving life on the moon
On Earth, there is a seed biovault at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway’s Arctic, which is naturally kept at minus 18 degrees Celsius (about 0 degrees Fahrenheit), but such an endeavor on the Moon, where animal cells can be naturally preserved, faces many hurdles.
To make the lunar repository a reality, the team would first test the cryopreserved cells in space. For example, they would collect a species such as the star goby, an important species in coral reef habitats, take samples from its fins and store them in a biorepository on Earth. The cells and packaging would then be tested in a space-like environment before actually launching to the space station. The samples would then be brought back to Earth “to be analyzed for viability and DNA changes.”
But before any real journey to the lunar basement can begin, the researchers note that there are a few issues that need to be addressed:
-Package: It is necessary to develop a “robust package” that can withstand the harsh environment of space.
– Radiation: The Moon’s surface is exposed to significantly higher levels of natural radiation than Earth and, like Mars, is subject to solar storms. Introducing an “antioxidant cocktail” to protect cells during the freezing process could be helpful, as could building a physical barrier (such as a thick layer of lunar regolith, a wall of water, etc.).
– Temperature: Once on the lunar surface, the rover will need to be able to maintain extremely low temperatures to transport the samples to cryogenic storage, because during the day, temperatures on exposed parts of the moon can reach 100 degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit).
– Competition for resources: The repository would be located in a permanently shadowed region of Antarctica, which contains precious lunar ice (necessary for survival and possibly for the production of rocket fuel). The researchers note that using such areas as a repository may not be easy, because these highly sought-after locations (valued by various countries) “may be highly restricted and controlled.”
– Microgravity: In space, tissue samples may be altered by exposure to near-weightless conditions, and this effect on cryopreserved cells needs further study.
Stem cells frozen in nitrogen at -196°C.
Credit: BSIP/UIG via Getty Images
But the big takeaway from decades of work is that once preserved, the samples will require no power and will be relatively less vulnerable to environmental or societal disturbances. The first “classes” of animals to be preserved are likely to include species that are endangered, pollinators, and culturally important.
“As the number of lunar exploration facilities proliferates as a base for industry and a range of scientific research, protecting life on Earth must be a top priority,” the scientists conclude.
