Experts prepare for lunar 'Doomsday Ark'

Space & Earth science / Space Exploration

Plans are being made for the installation of an information storage bank on the moon, experts said at a science meeting Strasbourg, France.

The so-called "Doomsday ark" would provide the tools for the reconstruction of the human race in case civilization is ever destroyed, The Sunday London Times reported.

The ark's basic version, which would be buried close to the moon's surface, would include hard discs containing DNA information and instructions for growing crops and metal making, the report said.

The underground vault reportedly would transmit data to strongly guarded receivers on Earth.

"Eventually, it will be necessary to have a kind of Noah's ark there, a diversity of species from the biosphere," scientist Bernard Foing said.

The first ark, which would have a 30-year lifespan, is expected to be installed on the moon by 2020 at the latest. The completed archive should be ready by 2035, scientists said.

Copyright 2008 by United Press International

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Posted by zevkirsh 03/10/08 11:44

Rank: 3/5 after 3 votes

total nonsense. someone took the arctic seed vault one step too far.

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Posted by tomphys 03/10/08 12:33

Rank: 3/5 after 2 votes

In the event of doomsday its nice to see that someone had the forethought to put all that information in a nice accessible place

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Posted by drivin98 03/10/08 12:59

Rank: 4/5 after 2 votes

So, if we humans get caught up in a catastrophe akin to, say, Katrina, all we need to do is go to the moon for help. And bring shovels.

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Posted by DGBEACH 03/10/08 13:00

Rank: 5/5 after 2 votes

...maybe its already on the moon, from a previous civilization...on punchcards! :)

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Posted by dachpy arvile 03/29/08 07:18

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Human civilization gets decimated by some catastrophy and all technology is lost. How do we get to the moon to retrieve all that lost data? One needs food and one needs metals and/or organic composites. Even if we figured out how to get there again, would we not then need to reinvent computers to which we can connect the hard disks? And, suppose we were able to do this and the technology for the "Ark" becomes obsolete because of other advances in computer science, how does one guarantee that the data can be recovered? "Strongly guarded receivers" on earth? Suppose these get damaged if humanity decides to nuke itself out of existence? Strong EM pulses can wipe out such receiving equipment. Suppose these do manage to survive. Who will be left to access the data who can understand it? Who is paying for this again???