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UA Researchers Brainstorm Placing Human Gene Bank Inside Moon

The Svalbard Global Seed Bank opened in 2008 in Norway as an effort to preserve and secure the genetic lineage of the world’s crop supply and other plant life in the event of a global catastrophe. The bank has the capacity to store two-and-a-half-billion seeds in a heavily fortified concrete bunker, in a mountain, located on a remote island in the Arctic Sea.

Researchers at the University of Arizona have been contemplating creating a similar gene bank for human beings — and to avert any threat of a planetary crisis, the team is proposing placing it in the moon.

Jekan Thanga is one of the authors of the study and an assistant professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona. 

The Show spoke with him to discuss the idea of preserving the human lineage on the moon.

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Steve Goldstein was a host at KJZZ from 1997 to 2022.