A joint team of researchers addresses the possibility for future lunar inhabitants to construct a backup data storage system of human activities in the case of a global disaster on Earth, which may be utilized to reestablish human civilization on a post-catastrophe world in a new study. This comes as NASA's Artemis missions prepare to return humans to the moon for the first time since 1972, as well as current world events such as the continuing coronavirus epidemic and the Ukraine War, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, recently threatening nuclear war. Given the current situation of the globe, how critical is it to construct some sort of off-world data backup?
According to Carson Ezell, an undergraduate at Harvard University, the Director of Space Futures Initiative, and the study's principal author, the COVID-19 pandemic reminded us how vulnerable our globe is to large-scale calamities due to its expanding interconnectedness. Nonetheless, catastrophic dangers are overlooked in the political debate because they are unexpected and, for the most part, unprecedented. An off-world data backup would be a significant step toward enhancing our capacity to recover from a terrible disaster, as well as recognizing our common human identity and our obligation and capability to safeguard it if we make the effort.
Dr. Alexandre Lazarian, a co-author of the study and a professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, compares the study's backup data storage system to that of an airplane's black box, also known as a flight data recorder, which investigators later use to determine the cause of a plane crash or accident.
According to Dr. Lazarian, they cannot save the lives of those on the plane, but they can save the lives of those on other flights. In many situations, for example, it was not the hardware that caused the crash, but a rather human mistake.
Along with Artemis, the report mentions other ambitious human spaceflight plans to both the moon and Mars, not only from the US but also from China and the commercial space business, SpaceX, with the researchers wanting to make use of this chance to develop their data backup system.
Dr. Avi Loeb, a co-author of the study and a Professor in the Department of Astronomy at Harvard University, stated that once a lunar base for humans is established, an important priority should be to endow it with a computer system that backs up all the information required to restart life on Earth. This comprises genetic information on all terrestrial life as well as information on all human inventions, such as literature, music, and internet material. The lunar data repository would serve the same purpose as the backup and recovery solution I recently acquired for my new PC from a 'cloud' computing and storage company. The moon would appear to be the perfect 'cloud' for data storage on a clear night.
The researchers highlight how advances in laser communications and data storage might allow for the establishment of such a system on both the moon and Mars. They believe that the total quantity of data recorded in books, journal articles, films, genetic information such as the number of species on Earth and the human genome, and Earth imagery is around 1.07 x 1016 bytes and that all of this data may be moved to a suitable hub within a year or two.
According to Dr. Lazarian, the goal of this backup system is not because we will be destroyed, but because we may be destroyed. He emphasizes that the goal of this initiative is to warn people, particularly politicians, that we are a very weak and delicate society, and that we are living in a very dangerous moment because we have the ability to kill ourselves.
But what kinds of threats does mankind confront in terms of self-destruction?
The absence of signs of existing civilizations on exoplanets may show that civilizations are fragile, according to Dr. Lazarian. It indicates, Dr. Lazarian, that civilizations do not live long. They do it when they reach the sophisticated industrial level and when they can destroy themselves. The absence of signs of existing civilizations on exoplanets may show that civilizations are fragile, according to Dr. Lazarian. It indicates, Dr. Lazarian, that civilizations do not live long. They do it when they reach the sophisticated industrial level and when they can destroy themselves.
Journal Information: Carson Ezell, Alexandre Lazarian, Abraham Loeb, A Lunar Backup Record of Humanity. arXiv:2209.11155v1 [physics.soc-ph], arxiv.org/abs/2209.11155