Jekan Thanga, head of the Space and Terrestrial Robot Exploration Laboratory (SpaceTREx) at the University of Arizona, said the Moon was the obvious choice for an extraterrestrial ark for one main reason. (Read: Preserving Humans, Scientists Want to Send 6.7 Million Sperm and Eggs to the Moon)
Scientists consider it only takes a four-day trip from Earth, which means transporting samples is much easier than bringing them to Mars. “Building the ark in orbit around Earth is also not safe enough because of the instability of the orbit,” Thanga told Live Science.
However, another benefit of building the ark on month is the ark can be safely hidden in a lava tube. These caves and tunnels perforated beneath the surface were formed during the fiery infant month, and have remained untouched ever since.
The lava tubes will protect the ark from meteor attacks and radiation damaging DNA. Lava tubes have also been suggested as an excellent place to build a city on the moon for human civilization on the Moon. (Also read: Facts about Finding the Golden Mountain in Congo, the Eufurat River and the End Times)
“Unless there is a direct impact from a meteor or a nuclear strike, the ark will be fine,” said Thanga. “And there may be as many as 200 lava tubes suitable for the ark.”
Thanga proposes to map these tubes first using specially designed robots capable of exploring caves and tunnels independently. The hypothetical SphereX robot would resemble a large “pokeball” with a dark metallic gray top half and bronze bottom.
The SphereX robot will be able to jump around month with low gravity and mapping the tube using a camera and LIDAR – a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure distances. (Read also: Warning to Earth’s Residents, the Number of Threatening Asteroids Increases by the Thousands)
Once the robot has identified a suitable lava tube, the construction phase can begin.
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