Lately I’ve been writing so much about Mars that I’ve almost forgotten about another familiar face in the sky: the moon. Our constant companion, the subject of poetry, music and other religions throughout human history. In 2021, scientists looked at our sweet sister solar system and thought, “Man, he could use some semen.”
Well, semen and eggs, but eggs are not as funny.
This is a serious science, so you know it will actually be equally amazing and depressing parts. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) held its annual aerospace conference over the weekend. One of the presentations came from the University of Arizona and was entitled: “Monthly pits and lava tubes for a modern ark. “The presentation shows that we are willing to store a catalog of Earth plant seeds on a remote Arctic island. Should not be our do precious body fluids receive similar treatment?
from Vice:
[…] the essence of their proposal is that they want to build a sperm bank under the dusty rule of the lunar surface, for storage.
This “insurance policy” for the future of humanity and all species of the Earth would be a repository of reproductive cells, including sperm and eggs. They propose that the bank can act as an ark, such as seed safe in Svalbard now in case of disaster.
[…]
The University of Arizona team’s plans for a heavenly sperm and an egg cup involve storing cells inside the monthly pits. The moon is marked with 200 of these pits, which have a depth of 80 to 100 meters, where lava flowed on the moon. They can protect against dramatic changes in temperature, asteroids or radiation.
See? Sending sperm a month only makes good ecological sense. The team did not know clearly what the genetic material that will reach the moon will be, but I have a modest proposal.
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The team behind the Modern Ark concept is not inclined either. Jekan Thanga, who presented for the team, leads the Space and Terrestrial Robotic Exploration Laboratory (SpaceTREx) and the ASTEROIDS (Science, Technology and Asteroid Exploration Laboratory Organized by Inclusive Education Systems) laboratory at the University of Arizona. He reminded the audience that sending genetic material to the moon It’s not just funny to the world’s immature bloggers, it could be vital to biodiversity in the event of a major catastrophe or simply an old climate change.
The whole reason why we should consider sending human and animal sperm and eggs to the moon is that the Earth is an increasingly risky place for life, mainly due to our humans. From the video description of the discussion:
It would serve as a comprehensive insurance policy. Earth faces the likelihood of danger due to various natural disasters and human threats, such as the global nuclear war, which could destroy a large number of species in a short time. The monthly lava tubes were discovered in 2013 and are likely to have remained clean for 3-4 billion years. I’m only 4-5 days from Earth. They are an excellent shelter against temperature fluctuations of the lunar surface, cosmic radiation and micro-meteorites.
We humans could make the Earth so lifeless that the only hope of life would be to hide in underground tunnels on a barren moon. See? I knew we could turn something as rock as a blog about sperm per month into something depressing. Science!