Now researchers are working on a new way to save some animals that might otherwise die out on Earth by storing animal DNA on the Moon. It would be like making a backup copy of Earth’s animals in space. If something dire happened on Earth and the animals went extinct, we could bring them back using that DNA.
How It Would Work
They just want to provide a living space on the Moon that contains encased animal DNA; These scientists here on earth will remove a small portion of skin from such animals and freeze them splendidly. Then they will launch the frozen pieces by a rocket to the moon. These pieces will then be stored in a special building on the Moon where it would not be physically possible to get to.
Why the Moon Is a Good Place
One good destination to hold this idea would be on the Moon. Some areas on the Moon are very cold and can go down to as low as -200°C. The coldness allows one to store DNA safely for a very long time. There are always shadowed areas on the Moon that make it a good storage place. Besides, the Moon is considerably far from Earth, and in case something bad happens there, the DNA would still be safe up there.
Challenges to Overcome
There are some difficult parts to this plan, which scientists have to figure out. They need to make sure the DNA is not hurt because of the strong space radiation compared to the one on Earth. They also need to make sure it’s safe during the long trip to the Moon. Building a good storage place on the Moon is another big challenge.
Why This is Important
Such a Moon zoo would be able to preserve animals from many dangers on Earth. These include natural disasters, climate change, overpopulation on Earth, lack of food and water, wars, and other big problems. Backing up DNA samples on the Moon gives us a fallback plan in case things go wrong on Earth.
What’s Happening Now
The first steps of this big plan are already being worked on by scientists. They’re now working out the best way to save and freeze bits of animals. They will first test it on a little fish known as the starry goby. Scientists are also working hand-in-hand with big space groups, like NASA, on how to build an infrastructure to store frozen animals on the Moon. Well, at the moment, a Moon Zoo is still an idea, but would be a great booster to save Earth’s animals for the future.
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