Speaker 0:  scientist plan, doomsday vault on the moon.

Speaker 1:  what are

Speaker 0:  you thinking about this?

Speaker 1:  so i think this is smart. the only thing is getting the sensitive, transporting the fragile supplements. right? but, for those that don't know, we do have a doomsday vault somewhere in europe, i think. northern europe. i don't even know where it is. but, so for those who don't know, doomsday vault is essentially a vault that holds, samples of seeds, of different things in case that there is some catastrophic event, extinction event, that these will survive. and so it makes sense that they would look to build a second doomsday vault on the moon given that an extinction level event could wipe out the doomsday vault on earth. i get it. that makes sense to me. so i i see where they're going with this. obviously, there's a lot of challenges that they're gonna have to overcome for sure in order to do this and build this. but, the question that i it's great that they're planning for this. but are there other things that need to get up onto the moon first before we do a doomsday vault, or does this need to be a priority?

Speaker 0:  well, depends. when you say does this need to be a priority? obviously, it's always one of those things. if you think we're gonna be destroyed, but, before those other things can be done, then, yeah, this should be a priority. but if you think, we got a few vaults. we think we'll live around for a while. we can wait another hundred years to put this vault up there.

Speaker 1:  yeah. the other thing is that this protects any doomsday vault from any terrorist here on earth. right?

Speaker 0:  yeah. so let's scientists are proposing a doomsday vault on the moon to preserve earth biodiversity. this vault would store cryogenically frozen seeds, sperm, and eggs from millions of species as a safeguard against global catastrophes. the moon's cold environment and protection from earthbound threats make it an ideal location for long term preservation. robotic systems would maintain the vault with solar providing energy. the ambitious project inspired by earth based vaults like, i'm gonna say, svalbard, faces technology technological and financial challenges, but offers a critical backup for humanity's future. so this is, you know, elon musk is trying to preserve humanity on mars, but this is a plan to say, alright. we have, these faults like you mentioned. svalbard is in the archipelago located in the arctic ocean halfway between mainland norway and the north pole.

Speaker 1:  that's the one i was thinking of, i think. or the one in norway too. there's a bunch of norway.

Speaker 0:  well, is, it is part of norway and is known, for its remote icy landscapes and polar climate. so this is the one probably because i don't think norway has two of them, but i'll tell you in a second because i've mentioned i got a rest of them here. the largest sediment long year, ben, is located on the island of spitzberg, which is where svalbard global seed vault is situated. the vault was designed to protect the world's agricultural biodiversity by storing seeds in a highly secure and cold environment, making it ideal backup for global crop preservation crop preservation. so there's a few others. there's a millennium seed bank in the uk. there's a national center for genetic resources preservation in the us that's in fort collins. there's the vavilov institute for planet or planet industry located in russia, saint petersburg. the international center for agriculture research in dry areas, icarda. it's in morocco and lebanon, and the australian plant bank in australia.

Speaker 1:  yeah. so there's a couple, throughout the world, but, it doesn't hurt to have a backup, not on earth for sure. the only question i have is, space radiation. how will they protect against that? i guess with the, enclosure, it most likely will protect it. but what about long term exposure is my question?

Speaker 0:  that's a good question. as humanity continues to blow past the key climate thresholds, the security risks threaten the longevity of repository also continue to climb. so, the fail safe site, which is the one you're talking about, it's above the arctic circle and the svalbard one we just talked about. that has more than one point three million seeds. but the arctic circle that researchers have since identified is warming six times faster than the global average. and, you know, again, i see those articles all the time. so i press x to doubt when i see this when any part of the globe is warming x times faster than the rest of the globe. because if just do a google search on any part of the world. say, two times global happening, warming two times faster than the world or whatever, and you'll see article after article, like, almost every city in the world seems to be having these. it's faster than the rest of the world. can't we just say that the ice is melting or the ice isn't melting, and that we're gonna have these problems or we're not gonna have these problems?

Speaker 1:  yeah. the other thing that scares the crop out of me, speaking of the permafrost melting, is viruses that we have no protection over that and we're obviously losing history on the history of the earth of the permafrost, but that's scary. the viruses, that scares the crap.

Speaker 0:  yeah. isn't everybody really worried about the spanish flu? is that the one they're ones worried about?

Speaker 1:  i don't know.

Speaker 0:  because it's got birds and everything. we had seen movies where the birds or whatever get animals who had it get picked with the birds as they thaw, and those birds carry those things and start to plague.

Speaker 1:  oh, okay.

Speaker 0:  that's what we've seen in some of these movies, or i have anyway. yeah. so, yeah, i'll look up the radiation thing. i didn't wanna ignore that question. i just didn't have the answer in front of me. so i'm gonna take a look, about that. the moon is ideal in that is remote. it's safe from these disasters. and if we could pull this off, we think it would work. so i'm not sure of the cost. i'm trying to see that here. no place on earth is cold enough to have a repository that must be held at or below, negative a hundred and ninety six degrees celsius or prerequisite for long storm storage of cryopreserved living cells. yeah. so this could, you know, be a better bank than what we've had?

Speaker 1:  yeah. i don't know. yeah. it

Speaker 0:  can maintain the, temperatures that they need. use cases for lava tubes that were discovered in the moon two thousand ten, which could provide much needed shelter for human presence on the moon, including a biorepository like the agadorn and company have proposed or a lunar arc as fagnon's team has proposed. so, there's a lot of people trying to do this.

Speaker 1:  yeah. well, that's good. i do think they're they're right to be concerned about permafrost melting and climate and all that sort of stuff. so i guess the only other option would be build something that's floating in space, which would be closer to earth. but, again, you're still in space. so

Speaker 0:  yeah. you're definitely still in space, and i'm gonna find out about, the space radiation that you were talking about. nasa was about to launch a probe to go sorry. lunar lander that was, going to check the, north and, would have a first rover to explore the pole in part because of technical issues. it was canceled. it's one of the ironic things. it's nearby earth, but perhaps one of the most extreme places in the entire solar system. so they're trying they're actively working on exploring the areas where they would put this unit.

Speaker 1:  yeah. so i just did a quick search. there's there definitely effects of space radiation on food. nutritional degradation, chemical changes, shelf life, like, there's just,

Speaker 0:  there's radiation is a significant concern for any long term structures on the moon, including, you know, the doomsday vault. the moon lacks any protective atmosphere, and magnetic field like the earth, meaning that its surface is constantly bombarded with harmful cosmic rays, solar winds, and solar flares.

Speaker 1:  yeah. the only thing that really protects us a lot well, not the only thing, but one of the things that protects us is our ozone layer, and there's not that on mars. and they're even saying that, techniques like the radiant resistant or radiation resistant packaging, freeze drying, all that sort of stuff, they have limits. so

Speaker 0:  well, and that's why they're proposing the lava tubes because, apparently, there are two, primary types of space radiation that pose a threat, the galactic cosmic rays and the solar particle events. but to mitigate the effects of space radiation, one solution is to place the doomsday involved inside a lunar lava tube or beneath the lunar surface. these naturally occurring underground tunnels formed by ancient volcanic activity would provide natural protection from cosmic radiation similar to how earth's atmosphere shields us. additionally, using advanced materials and robotics designed to withstand or repair radiation damage would be essential essential for long term maintenance. interesting. so a space radiation is a challenge, but it can be managed, through strategic placement and robust engineering. at least we think. then we pull this off and we

Speaker 1:  well, yeah. what happens yeah.

Speaker 0:  i mean, i think a planet, with the sperm and whatnot eggs that were in there and all of a sudden we're not the same.

Speaker 1:  yeah. exactly.

Speaker 0:  also, you know, putting it on the moon means aliens can come and just grab it instead of coming to here.

Speaker 1:  yeah. well, they would come here for our atmosphere. right?

Speaker 0:  i guess. it depends what they wanted.

Speaker 1:  potential. yeah. yeah.

Speaker 0:  so good idea, bad idea?

Speaker 1:  good idea. just needs to be, really, really, really more thoroughly explored.

Speaker 0:  the final price tag will nonetheless end up in the billions of cost, which for some may be better spent, more certain solutions here on earth.

Speaker 1:  yeah.

Speaker 0:  so interesting. interesting. again, there's an article on toronto starts dot com. the doomsday vault on the moon safeguarding earth biodiversity that talks about this, what it means, unique challenges, opportunities, how the vault will operate, global need for biodiversity, lunar versus earth based solutions. it's where the podcast will be, so go check it out.