# A Lunar Backup Record of Humanity
## 2 Challenges  
Projects for the long-term preservation of data on Earth have been created in many locations that may be safe in a disaster, such as in mines, on mountains, and in the Arctic [14]. However, most existing projects aim to preserve information for thousands to millions of years, and they are limited by the lack of long-duration storage capabilities [14]. For example, the Memory of Mankind project is building a large, long-term storage facility in a saltmine that uses ceramic tablets as data carriers because their durability significantly exceeds that of digital systems (Source: [[https://www.memory-of-mankind.com/](https://www.memory-of-mankind.com/)]([https://www.memory-of-mankind.com/](https://www.memory-of-mankind.com/)) (accessed on 22 October 2022)).  
Another limitation of terrestrial data backup systems is that even remote locations on Earth may not be safe in the event of a catastrophic disaster. In addition, if survivors of the disaster are not aware of the backup storage systems, the systems may not be discovered for a long time. A disaster that leaves the Earth largely uninhabitable may also mean survivors in a self-sufficient lunar settlement would be better equipped to recover civilization, possibly on another celestial body.  
Previous work has described possibilities for long-duration storage systems on the moon which can survive catastrophic disasters and last millions of years, but the challenges include developing long-term storage solutions and communicating the information to future generations on Earth [15]. Our proposal follows the trend toward the establishment of base camps on the lunar surface itself. By preserving data for humans already on the lunar surface, we eliminate the need for very long duration storage solutions or the communication of information back to survivors on Earth.  
Our proposal involves the technical challenges related to data storage and data transmission capacity. The overall quantity of data in the world already exceeds the data storage capacity significantly, and transmitting and storing data on the lunar surface will be more constrained than terrestrial data storage. The total volume of data created or copied worldwide was estimated at \(6.4\times 10^{22}\) bytes as of 2020 [16], and it is expected to increase to \(1.75\times 10^{23}\) bytes by 2025 [17]. However, the global data storage capacity was only about \(6.7\times 10^{21}\) bytes in 2021 [18]. Although this demonstrates significant growth from a total storage capacity of \(2.9\times 10^{20}\) bytes in 2007 [19], it is still an order of magnitude less than the total data.  
The urgency of GCRs suggests that we should include the backup system in our earliest space settlement plans, limiting stored and transmitted data to the most important information. We suggest storing books, academic research, movies, earth imagery, and genetic information from known species. The existing databases may provide large quantities of accessible information that would be useful for civilizational recovery (see Table 1). Ongoing content curation processes can contribute further records to the system over time to promote the representation of all of humanity and ensure enough data are preserved to enable a recovery. As the system ages or our storage capabilities improve, the system can be upgraded by human or robotic operators on the lunar surface.