There is no planet B for us. Not today. But there are several plans underway in case the end of the world comes and the opportunity to save something of ours is given. Although the best known is the Global Vault of Seeds of Svalbard, which seeks to preserve seeds of all species of plants and crops in the world, there is nothing like it to store our knowledge. At least not for the end of the world.
The problem with the end of the world is that it is quite likely that it will also take with it, precisely our world, so the only solution to safeguard part of our civilization is to do it outside. Where? The last idea as crazy as it is necessary is to do it on the Moon.
The CEO of Lonestar, the company to which it occurred the idea, has given some details about it. The plan is to store human knowledge on servers on the Moon… buried in tunnels created by old lava formations. His company already has the Intuitive Machines IM-1 underway, a private mission that will place a lander on the moon to perform an initial software test, storing a small amount of data on the lander for two weeks or one lunar day.
Servers on the Moon and Lava Tubes
They then plan to ship a first payload of full data servers on Intuitive Machine’s IM-2, with which they will carry out loading and unloading tests. The idea is that future servers can communicate with Earth, as well as store information that we don’t want to lose for many years.
The main problem, beyond the costs and the size needed in terms of servers to store “all human knowledge”, if it can be done at all, is the temperature. On the Moon it fluctuates between 106 °C (222.8 °F) during the day to -183 °C (-297.4 °F) at night. And then there is the problem of cosmic radiation, more aggressive than on Earth, where we have the protection of our atmosphere.
This is where the aforementioned lava tubes come in., which would have a dual purpose: a more stable temperature, in addition to preventing radiation from reaching the servers. It is perhaps the most science fiction part of the whole project and the one that is most unlikely to be carried out, at least as of today.
Another additional problem is the transport of the servers, the maintenance and how effective the long-term preservation of the data will be. If you also have to set up an infrastructure with lava tubes, and set up space stations, things get complicated.
And then the most controversial. Who is going to pay for the party, who will be able to store data and, above all, who will have access to those dice. Or what will be the selection that includes the knowledge of humanity. A very interesting and necessary plan, but tremendously complex to carry out today.