This image shows: Astronaut Edwin E. 'Buzz' Aldrin Jr., lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, poses for a photograph beside the deployed United States flag during Apollo 11 extravehicular activity (EVA) on the lunar surface. The Lunar Module (LM) is on the left, and the footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the soil of the moon. Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. While astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin descended in the LM the "Eagle" to explore the Sea of Tranquility region of the moon, astronaut Michael Collins, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Modules (CSM) "Columbia" in lunar orbit. Scientists are planning to send a frozen fish to the Moon in a bizarre new scheme to ensure the survival of life on Earth. New research led by scientists at the Smithsonian proposes a plan to safeguard Earth’s imperiled biodiversity by cryogenically preserving biological material on the moon. Its permanently shadowed craters are cold enough for cryogenic preservation. The preservation can take place without the need for electricity or liquid nitrogen, unlike on Earth, according to the researchers. At the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology, the research team cryopreserved skin samples from a reef fish aptly, for a fish set to be sent into space, called the starry goby. The fins contain a type of skin cell called fibroblasts, the primary material to be stored in the National Museum of Natural History’s biorepository. Their paper, published in the journal BioScience, outlines a roadmap to create a lunar biorepository, including ideas for governance, the types of biological material to be stored and a plan for experiments to understand and address challenges such as radiation and microgravity. The study also demonstrates the successful cryopreservation of skin samples from a fish, which are now stored at the National Museum of Natural History. “Initially, a lunar biorepository would target the most at-risk species on Earth today, but our ultimate goal would be to cryopreserve most species on Earth,” said Mary Hagedorn, a research cryobiologist at NZCBI and lead author of the paper. “We hope that by sharing our vision, our group can find additional partners to expand the conversation, discuss threats and opportunities and conduct the necessary research and testing to make this biorepository a reality.” The next steps are to begin a series of radiation exposure tests for the cryopreserved fibroblasts on Earth to help design packaging that could safely deliver samples to the moon. The team is actively seeking partners and support to conduct additional experiments on Earth and aboard the International Space Station. Such experiments would provide robust testing for the prototype packaging’s ability to withstand the radiation and microgravity associated with space travel and storage on the moon. If their idea becomes a reality, the researchers envision the lunar biorepository as a public entity to include public and private funders, scientific partners, countries and public representatives with mechanisms for cooperative governance akin to the Svalbard Global Seed Bank. The Seed Vault in Norwaycontains more than 1 million frozen seed varieties and functions as a backup for the world’s crop biodiversity in case of global disaster. By virtue of its location in the Arctic nearly 400 feet underground, the vault was intended to be capable of keeping its seed collection frozen without electricity. However, in 2017, thawing permafrost threatened the collection with a flood of meltwater. The seed vault has since been waterproofed, but the incident showed that even an Arctic, subterranean bunker could be vulnerable to climate change. Unlike seeds, animal cells require much lower storage temperatures for preservation (-320 degrees Fahrenheit or -196 degrees Celsius). On Earth, cryopreservation of animal cells requires a supply of liquid nitrogen, electricity and human staff. Each of these three elements are potentially vulnerable to disruptions that could destroy an entire collection, Hagedorn said. To reduce these vulnerabilities, scientists needed a way to passively maintain cryopreservation storage temperatures. Since such cold temperatures do not naturally exist on Earth, Hagedorn and her co-authors looked to the moon. The moon’s polar regions feature numerous craters that never receive sunlight due to their orientation and depth. These so-called permanently shadowed regions can be −410 degrees Fahrenheit (−246 degrees Celsius)—more than cold enough for passive cryopreservation storage. To block out the DNA-damaging radiation present in space, samples could be stored underground or inside a structure with thick walls made of moon rocks. “We aren’t saying what if the Earth fails—if the Earth is biologically destroyed this biorepository won’t matter,” Hagedorn said. “This is meant to help offset natural disasters and, potentially, to augment space travel. Life is precious and, as far as we know, rare in the universe. This biorepository provides another, parallel approach to conserving Earth’s precious biodiversity.” Where: Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States When: 31 Jul 2024 Credit: NASA/Neil A. Armstrong/Cover Images **EDITORIAL USE ONLY. MATERIALS ONLY TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH EDITORIAL STORY. 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