Alarmed by the increasing number of species facing extinction, a team of scientists believes the solution to this crisis might be found not on Earth, but on the moon, more than 230,000 miles away.

In a bold proposal published in the journal BioScience, researchers from the Smithsonian and an international cohort suggest moving the DNA of at-risk species off-planet to preserve them from potential global calamities. Their idea? A “cosmic Noah’s Ark” that would store DNA samples in a lunar vault.

The proposed lunar vault would operate much like the existing global seed vault at Svalbard, Norway. Situated hundreds of feet underground within the Arctic Circle, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault safeguards more than a million seed varieties to protect global crop biodiversity against potential disasters.

The new concept involves placing the DNA of threatened animals in a vault on the moon’s surface, where the subzero temperatures could keep the samples intact naturally. The moon’s shadowed craters, particularly those near the polar regions, maintain temperatures around -410 degrees Fahrenheit — cold enough to sustain cryogenically frozen animal skin and tissue indefinitely, without the need for liquid nitrogen or continuous electricity

This idea isn’t entirely unprecedented. In 2021, researchers from the University of Arizona proposed a similar “modern global insurance policy” at the IEEE Aerospace Conference. Their plan also aimed to secure the genetic material of various species beyond Earth’s immediate reach, making it safe from threats like climate change and geopolitical conflicts.

Despite its feasibility, the lunar biorepository remains a distant reality at best. If accepted globally, it could take decades before spacecraft carrying genetic samples make their way to the moon. However, the experts involved stress the urgency and necessity of such drastic measures.