From climate change and pollution to invasive species, Earth’s biodiversity faces several significant threats. Since 1970, approximately three million birds have vanished from North America alone, while 83% of beetles have declined in the U.S. over the last 40 years. Now, an international team of scientists has proposed a unique idea to protect the Earth’s endangered species: by creating a biorepository on the Moon.
In the journal BioScience, the researchers, led by Dr. Mary Hagedorn from the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, propose a storage facility based on the Moon with frozen samples of genetic material from the most endangered species.
The researchers believe that the Moon’s unique environment could be the perfect solution to the biodiversity crisis, providing a place where, if need be, species could be partially “resurrected” using genetic engineering.
What is a Biorepository?
Similar to a library, a biorepository or biobank acts as a secure storage area for genetic and biological material. The material can include samples of such things as tissues, cells, DNA, or other materials. These samples are usually cryopreserved, keeping them at extremely low temperatures to preserve their viability over long periods.
Biorepositories play a crucial role in protecting biodiversity by providing a way to safeguard genetic material from endangered species. This preserved genetic material can be used for scientific research, breeding programs, and even species restoration efforts.
Because the number of threatened species is on the rise, the need for biorepositories is more pressing than ever as scientists look for ways to secure the diversity of our natural world.
Why the Moon?
While there are many biorepositories worldwide, from Austria to China to the U.S., these facilities can be threatened by natural phenomena such as wildfires, hurricanes, or earthquakes. Human factors, such as war or political uncertainty, can also threaten these sites. The researchers in the BioScience paper suggest placing a new facility on the Moon, as it would be safer from similar factors and provide an ultimately secure biorepository.
Additionally, the Moon has areas near its poles that are always in shadow, where temperatures stay extremely cold, around –196 degrees Celsius. These naturally cold conditions are ideal for storing biological samples like animal skin cells for a long time without needing human intervention or electricity.
How to Build a Biorepository on the Moon
Building an entire ultra-secure biological laboratory on our Moon is no small feat. It will include not only ensuring all materials are properly frozen and stored but also multiple trips to move samples and build the site.
The first step involves properly freezing and securing all biological materials, including freezing and storing skin samples with special cells called fibroblast cells. In their paper, the researchers mention already developing methods using a small fish known as the Starry Goby as a test species and plan to expand to other species. They also plan to use samples from the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), which is already collecting biological data across the United States.
The researchers then mentioned the many challenges of transporting the samples to the Moon, including creating strong packaging to transport them to space, protecting them from space radiation, and establishing international agreements to manage the repository.
In their paper, scientists call for collaboration among countries, space agencies, and various global organizations to tackle these challenges. They also plan to conduct more tests on Earth and on the International Space Station.
“Because of myriad anthropogenic drivers, a high proportion of species and ecosystems face destabilization and extinction threats that are accelerating faster than our ability to save these species in their natural environment,” the authors write in their paper.
As space organizations like NASA and the ESA (European Space Agency) set their sights on returning to the Moon, projects like this one potentially add further significance to such future missions. Although no current plans to build a biorepository on the Moon have been solidified, the concept may come to fruition in the future as potentially rewarding effort in the face of various significant forms of ongoing ecological destruction.
Kenna Hughes-Castleberry is the Science Communicator at JILA (a world-leading physics research institute) and a science writer at The Debrief. Follow and connect with her on X or contact her via email at kenna@thedebrief.org