The Preservation of Biodiversity: A Lunar Biorepository

Could the Moon soon serve as a storage site for frozen biological samples of endangered species? In a recently published paper in the journal BioScience, researchers from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute present a futuristic idea: the establishment of a biorepository on the Moon. The scientists aim to utilize naturally occurring cold spots on the Moon, some of which have not seen sunlight for billions of years, to preserve Earth’s biodiversity. This would involve storing DNA and tissue samples of endangered species on the Moon.

It is estimated that there are up to eight million species on Earth, with over one million threatened with extinction. It is likely that many species will become extinct before they are even identified. The increasing threat to Earth’s biodiversity due to climate change and habitat loss motivated the researchers to propose the creation of a lunar biorepository.

The scientists believe that humans alone may no longer be able to sufficiently protect species on Earth. Therefore, they see it as necessary to protect endangered animals and plants from the impacts of climate change and potentially catastrophic terrestrial events such as nuclear war by moving these samples to a safer environment – the Moon.

Why the Moon?

If species cannot be fully saved, at least some samples can be preserved through cryopreservation, which could potentially be used for cloning. Cryopreservation is a process in which cellular material is deep-frozen and placed in a state of “suspended animation.”

Biological samples are already cryopreserved here on Earth, but storage has proven to be challenging. The reason is that there are no naturally occurring places on Earth that are cold enough for passive cryopreservation storage, requiring technology (and money) to keep samples frozen.

The Moon offers unique conditions that are ideal for the preservation of biological samples. In some regions, temperatures drop to -196 degrees Celsius, providing an excellent environment for cryopreservation. Particularly, the permanently shadowed lunar craters offer stable and extremely cold conditions that are perfect for long-term storage of biological samples.

This cool repository of cellular material would ultimately preserve animal skin samples with fibrous cellular material that supports and connects other tissues or organs, called fibroblast cells, from the world’s endangered species.

Challenges and initial successes

To make a lunar biorepository a reality, scientists must overcome several challenges. One of the biggest hurdles is safely transporting cryopreserved samples to the Moon. Another complex task is ensuring safe storage on the Moon, protecting the samples from the elevated radiation levels there.

In fact, Hagedorn and her colleagues have already started research for the project using the starry goby (Asterropteryx semipunctata). They have successfully cryopreserved living cells of this carnivorous, blue-speckled fish at extremely cold temperatures. These fish play a crucial role in coral reef ecosystems, and their preservation is vital both for endangered species and for the food chain.

Next steps

The vision of a lunar biorepository is a long-term project requiring the collaboration of many nations, cultural groups, agencies, and international stakeholders. The near-term next steps include expanding the partnership base, particularly involving laboratories and agencies engaged in space research.

Additional steps involve extracting and cryopreserving fibroblast cells from the cryopreserved fish fins and testing their storage under space-like conditions on Earth. Furthermore, support for testing on the International Space Station (ISS) will be sought, and methods for collecting and banking samples for partners on Earth will be developed.

Call for participation

To secure a positive shared future, the researchers are calling for participation in this decades-long program. The realization of a lunar biorepository requires the collaboration of a broad array of stakeholders to preserve Earth’s biodiversity for future generations and support future space exploration and planetary terraforming projects.

This groundbreaking idea could not only make a significant contribution to the protection of biodiversity but also pave the way for new scientific discoveries and technological advancements that reach far beyond our planet.