James Woodford in New Scientist:
A backup of life on Earth could be kept safe in a permanently dark location on the moon, without the need for power or maintenance, allowing us to potentially restore organisms if they die out.
Mary Hagedorn at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute in Washington DC and her colleagues have proposed building this lunar biorepository as a response to the extinctions occurring on Earth.
The plan has three main goals: to safeguard the diversity of life on Earth, to protect species that might be useful for space exploration, such as those that could provide biomaterials for food or filtration, and to preserve microorganisms that may one day be needed for terraforming other planets.
More here.
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