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Moon

Moon Landing's Payloads Include Archive of Human Knowledge, Lunar Data Center Test, NFTs (medium.com) 75

Posted by EditorDavid from the off-site-storage dept.
In 2019 a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched an Israeli spacecraft carrying a 30-million page archive of human civilization to the moon. Unfortunately, that spacecraft crashed. But thanks to this week's moon landing by the Odysseus, there's now a 30-million page "Lunar Library" on the moon — according to a Medium post by the Arch Mission Foundation.

"This historic moment secures humanity's cultural heritage and knowledge in an indestructible archive built to last for up to billions of years." Etched onto thin sheets of nickel, called NanoFiche, the Lunar Library is practically indestructible and can withstand the harsh conditions of space... Some of the notable content includes:


The Wikipedia. The entire English Wikipedia containing over 6 million articles on every branch of knowledge.
Project Gutenberg. Portions of Project Gutenberg's library of over 70,000 free eBooks containing some of our most treasured literature.
The Long Now Foundation's Rosetta Project archive of over 7,000 human languages and The Panlex datasets.
Selections from the Internet Archive's collections of books and important documents and data sets.
The SETI Institute's Earthling Project, featuring a musical compilation of 10,000 vocal submissions representing humanity united
The Arch Lunar Art Archive containing a collection of works from global contemporary and digital artists in 2022, recorded as NFTs.
David Copperfield's Magic Secrets — the secrets to all his greatest illusions — including how he will make the Moon disappear in the near future.
The Arch Mission Primer — which teaches a million concepts with images and words in 5 languages.
The Arch Mission Private Library — containing millions of pages as well as books, documents and articles on every subject, including a broad range of fiction and non-fiction, textbooks, periodicals, audio recordings, videos, historical documents, software sourcecode, data sets, and more.
The Arch Mission Vaults — private collections, including collections from our advisors and partners, and a collection of important texts and images from all the world's religions including the great religions and indigenous religions from around the world, collections of books, photos, and a collection of music by leading recording artists, and much more content that may be revealed in the future...


We also want to recognize our esteemed advisors, and our many content partners and collections including the Wikimedia Foundation, the Long Now Foundation, The SETI Institute Earthling Project, the Arch Lunar Art Archive project, Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive, and the many donors who helped make the Lunar Library possible through their generous contributions. This accomplishment would not have happened without the collaborative support of so many...

We will continue to send backups of our important knowledge and cultural heritage — placing them on the surface of the Earth, in caves and deep underground bunkers and mines, and around the solar system as well. This is a mission that continues as long as humanity endures, and perhaps even long after we are gone, as a gift for whoever comes next.
Space.com has a nice rundown of the other new payloads that just landed on the moon. Some highlights:
  • "Cloud computing startup Lonestar's Independence payload is a lunar data center test mission for data storage and transmission from the lunar surface."
  • LRA is a small hemisphere of light-reflectors built to servce as a precision landmark to "allow spacecraft to ping it with lasers to help them determine their precise distance..."
  • ROLSES is a radio spectrometer for measuring the electron density near the lunar surface, "and how it may affect radio observatories, as well as observing solar and planetary radio waves and other phenomena."
  • "Artist Jeff Koons is sending 125 miniature stainless steel Moon Phase sculptures, each honoring significant human achievements across cultures and history, to be displayed on the moon in a cube. "

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Moon Landing's Payloads Include Archive of Human Knowledge, Lunar Data Center Test, NFTs More

Moon Landing's Payloads Include Archive of Human Knowledge, Lunar Data Center Test, NFTs

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  • Copperfield (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PJ6 ( 1151747 ) on Sunday February 25, 2024 @09:08AM (#64267122)
    FFS why.

    • FFS why.

      So the future will have a damn good story as to how Earth inhabitants destroyed an entire planet by making a moon disappear, throwing an entire planet into chaos.

      Hey, don’t knock it. It’s a hell of a lot better than “narcissist greed junkies too stupid to avoid consuming themselves.”

    • I think it might be interesting to some very alien aliens.

      • I think it might be interesting to some very alien aliens.

        It might help train them to fool us.

        Probably safer than showing them our religious documents so they can pretend to be gods.

        • Probably safer than showing them our religious documents so they can pretend to be gods.

          Oh absolutely, if we showed them any of our religious documents they'd think we're just trolling them. "And then we're supposed to believe he did what?!!? With what!??!?".

    • I've seen Copperfield live. It's actually a good show.

    • FFS why.

      My first thought was - it's simply a stunt. Or that some 20-year-old intern was given the responsibility for compiling the payload (although, in which case, David Copperfield's inclusion would be even harder to explain).

      But maybe the stuff that actually should be included - Hemingway, Steinbeck, Kerouac, Tennyson, Chaucer, the Bible and Qu'ran, etc. etc. - is in the "private library" that's only mentioned in passing.

    • NFTs crashed after they went to the moon.
      NASA said "hmm, to the moon, you say! Hold my beer...."

    • It's a time capsule and I heartily approve. There was a TV programme called Survivors [wikipedia.org] in which disease caused a societal collapse and I sometimes play with Gedankens about what I would do. One thing I would like to do is bury a time-capsule containing a copy of our history and culture as a message across time. One problem with this is that barbarians might dig it up thinking it was treasure and discard it when they realised it was useless to them. Putting it on the moon ensures this wouldn't happen. If lu

  • If Copperfield is going to make the moon disappear, then how will any visitors find the library which he is part of? ;)

    • If Copperfield is going to make the moon disappear, then how will any visitors find the library which he is part of? ;)

      (Copperfield) ”Shit, my ‘gram manager told me they wouldn’t figure out how I’m not gonna give up my secrets for at least another 7 tricks and 4 delusions. Gonna have to bump the moon up to next week..”

  • Don't call it a backup (Score:5, Insightful)

    by test321 ( 8891681 ) on Sunday February 25, 2024 @09:19AM (#64267132)

    You don't keep a backup key to your car by throwing it off the Golden Gate bridge. If it's a backup, there should be a restore procedure. It's hard to imagine a scenario where we would lose the Wikipedia and all its backups, while keeping the capability and the resources for a two-way trip to the moon, followed by microscope analysis and digitizing the wikipedia back from micro-etched plates. The fact that the vault includes the secrets to a famed illusionist tells it that the contents are designed to never be found nor opened. Call it a time capsule.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by clovis ( 4684 )

      Well, there is a piece of Koons art.
      I bet that whatever advanced civilization finds it won't have anything like that.

    • It's hard to imagine a scenario where we would lose the Wikipedia and all its backups, while keeping the capability and the resources for a two-way trip to the moon

      Wikipedia is able to be edited (read modified or destroyed) by essentially a planet.

      SpaceX and NASA? Not so much.

      If you’re still struggling to imagine, I suggest good drugs. Determining just how stupid and accident-prone humans can truly be, isn’t rocket science. Wikipedia isn’t exactly sitting in NORAD protected and defended by NATO agreements. Hell, I wouldn’t be surprised if a large enough political motive could attack and destroy it. We’ve censored, attacked, and bann

      • There are full database dumps hosted in several countries https://dumps.wikimedia.org/mi... [wikimedia.org] (you can start your own). To lose that, we need accidental destruction of knowledge (sudden apocalypse, global annihilation war) or voluntary destruction of it (New World Order).

        In the first case, at the point where an accident destroyed all of our databases and the backups, it also means it's chaos and dark ages. I would not bet we get a second chance at being technologically advanced. Even if we become advanced aga

    • >. It's hard to imagine a scenario where we would lose the Wikipedia and all its backups, while keeping the capability and the resources for a two-way trip to the moon, followed by microscope analysis and digitizing the wikipedia back from micro-etched plates.

      Yep. Etch at human-readable scale into slabs of quartzite and put in a quartzite tomb in a dry and geologically stable area could conceivably survive to the end of the planet. The Canadian Shield would be good except for worries about frost cycles

  • This library needs to be discoverable in a million years by someone who doesn't expect to find it. This means massive obelisk or crater or something. Cheapest way to do it would probably be to detonate thermonuclear warhead on the moon then when the crater cools down land the probe there.
    • Wouldn't a thermonuclear warhead crater be much like all the other craters? There are 6,972 [wiley.com] craters bigger than 20km (~12 miles).

      • Wouldn't a thermonuclear warhead crater be much like all the other craters? There are 6,972 [wiley.com] craters bigger than 20km (~12 miles).

        We humans might grow a large enough brain one day to realize global destruction 2 or 3 times over is enough warheads to satisfy the dreams of the worst dictators, and jettison the rest of our nuclear surplus all to the same spot on the moon.

        That might create a human mark we kinda deserve.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sinij ( 911942 )
        Yes, but it will also be radioactive and will be more than just impact due to high temperatures, as such more likely to stand out.

    • This library needs to be discoverable in a million years by someone who doesn't expect to find it. This means massive obelisk or crater or something. Cheapest way to do it would probably be to detonate thermonuclear warhead on the moon then when the crater cools down land the probe there.

      At one time I was thinking about whether there could have been an intelligent civilization on Earth before humans, and if there were and they wanted to leave some record of their existence, how would they do it?

      Assume that the civilization leaves the planet for some reason. They might have died out, but also there might be some compelling reason to just go somewhere else - some reason that we haven't figured out yet.

      At any rate...

      After about 5 million years there would be virtually no trace of their existen

      • Lagrange L4/L5 are 'stable' but not secure. A passing asteroid with enough mass could pull things out.

        Moon's a better choice as it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. But only if you put it under the surface. Or to play odds, have a dozen copies of this archive and throw them off as you pass over the moon surface. Odds of all 12 being destroyed are pretty low.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sinij ( 911942 )
          I don't think it is a problem for us to get something, or 12 something, to the moon. The problem how to make it obvious to someone not expecting to find anything there. Building mega structure on the moon is beyond our capabilities, but leaving a scorch mark with nuclear weapons is not. X marks the spot, where each dot is max-yield nuclear weapon maybe it will be even visible from Earth in a few million years.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by sinij ( 911942 )
            The problem is that glaciation period (snowball Earth) and continental drift will grind to dust anything and everything on the surface. We can put something into the orbit around the sun, but how to make it visible/detectable?
            • in 5 million years? Nope not gonna happen. Dinosaurs roamed on the very continents we exist on - in different arrangements sure, but the basics haven't changed.

              If you mean forever, then Mars is the only viable place right now. Earth and Moon have a significant percentage chance of ending up inside the Sun.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by stooo ( 2202012 )

      >> This library needs to be discoverable in a million years by someone who doesn't expect to find it.
      Why ?
      Nothing in it will be relevant.

  • It did not âoeland.â

    It âoeCrash Landed.â

    ENGLISH people, speak it!

    • It mooned. Or crash mooned, if you prefer.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by piojo ( 995934 )

      The non-English characters in your post are ironic.

    • The ENGLISH language doesn't include â , that must be from some foreign tongue

    • It did not âoeland.â

      It âoeCrash Landed.â

      ENGLISH people, speak it!

      If you're gonna preach about subtle language usage distinctions -- and be wrong about it as well (there is nothing ungrammatical about saying that the lander "crashed") -- then you should get your punctuation correct. Your comment does not use proper punctuation. Here are two possible correct ways to have written your comment:

      1. 1. ENGLISH, people: Speak it!

      2. 2. ENGLISH, people; speak it!

      I guess this warrants an obligatory closing with:
      ENGLISH, people: Write it!

    • It did not "land"
      It Crash Landed.

      Any landing that you can walk away from is a good landing.
      A great landing is one where you can use the plane again.

      No pilot on this one, but since it kept working after landing, I'd call it a good landing. But not a great one.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      Which English? New Zealand English, Australian English or British English? There are other variants, both valid and questionable, that it could also be.

    • NFTs crashed again after they went to the moon.
      Who would have predicted that outcome ?

  • There's no Jargon File.

  • Oh, that's why it fell over (Score:5, Funny)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Sunday February 25, 2024 @09:52AM (#64267166)
    The weight of all that knowledge.

    • NFTs crashed again after they went to the moon.
      Who would have predicted that outcome, really ?
      Market apes invented that concept, NASA said "hmm, to the moon, you say, hold my beer...."

  • Just click on the link. Oh wait, you have tentacles...sorry Eleventacles

  • Better than the aliens finding a Donald Duck cartoon.

    • Better than the aliens finding a Donald Duck cartoon.

      Then they arrive on Earth itself only to find that apes have overthrown their intelligent duck overlords and trashed the place?

    • Take your hands ofa me you damm stickin duck! - Taylor

  • The useless library could have been replaced with something useful like, maybe a better stabilizer for landing.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jmccue ( 834797 )

      We are heading straight into a Climate Change disaster, where it could end our civilization. I think this was a good idea in case that does happen. If our civilization does end, maybe a future one will find it.

      Too bad they could not attach that to New Horizon. Maybe it will be attached to a future mission ?

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Horizons

      • Exaggerate much?

        Anyway, if some future civilization were to find the stash, they are advanced enough not to need it. It would be a criousitg at best.

        Including random stuff like some artist's mini-sculptures shows that this us just hubris. Bragging rights for certain people. Much sound and fury, signifying nothing.

        • It’s not that the aliens will need our knowledge. It’s that they have some record that we existed and some idea what we’re about.

        • Anyway, if some future civilization were to find the stash, they are advanced enough not to need it. It would be a criousitg at best.

          Or yet another example for future civilizations of the environmental whatever that caused all current civilizations to fall?

          I swear we're seeing something like we did with atmospheric lead pollution - global symptoms of humans going haywire.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Megane ( 129182 )
      Apparently they did have something better, but someone forgot to pull the safety disable switch (to keep its frickin' laser from shooting off by accident) before putting the lander on the rocket. I guess it didn't have one of those REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT tags on it. Fortunately they noticed before landing (someone got bored and decided to test it before the final entry burn), and there was another frickin' laser in one of the payloads, which was already wired up. But it took some time to switch over, and they

  • It's an interesting concept, but depending on the purpose possibly pointless.

    If it's against the fall of civilization on Earth and bootstrapping a recovery... it's on the Moon. By the time our descendants find it, it'll be a curiosity at best as they'll obviously have reached our level of technology again. Beyond that, a complete fall of civilization back to barbarism would probably be 'it' for us, as we've more or less stripped the surface of the planet of easily accessible resources. It would be far mor

    • By the time our descendants find it, it'll be a curiosity at best as they'll obviously have reached our level of technology again.

      Because all that matters is technology? What about . . . illusion ?

    • What's the line between historic cultural data and technology? We even have the payroll records for some Egyptian pyramids, but are still guessing at construction methods and the reason for some design decisions.

      We know Columbus just ignored inconvenient well know science to get his impossible expedition to Asia funded because we preserved plenty of older and contemporary records discussing the size of the world.

  • What a bunch of pompous BS. I assume they fixed it up to be diverse and inclusive.

    • Humanity's cultural heritage is diverse, and any record of it should be inclusive.

      You think a record that only includes European + American males actually tells the whole story of the Earth? Heck, you can't even talk about European history without including Jesus and Mohamed.

  • Golan Trevize, Janov Pelorat, and Bliss discover the Lunar Library - and assume that David Copperfield must've been Earth's dictator at the time of the launch.

  • Maybe we should crowd fund a retrieval mission? Then we can read the secrets to all of David Copperfield's greatest illusions.
  • “Some of the notable content includes: The Wikipedia. The entire English Wikipedia containing over 6 million articles on every branch of knowledge.

    Wikipedia June 2019 [archive.org] “although Windows NT and its successors are designed for security (including on a network) and multi-user PCs, they were not initially designed with Internet security in mind as much, since, when it was first developed in the early 1990s, Internet use was less prevalent.”

  • The entire English Wikipedia containing over 6 million articles on every branch of knowledge.

    While many consider Wikipedia the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate.

    (with apologies to Douglas Adams)

  • Thank goodness they'll be preserved *somewhere*!

  • Why didn't they send all of the Internet [youtube.com]?
  • That way, aliens would understand we weren't complete idiots most of the time.

  • Just how is anyone in the future supposed to read this thing?

    "Wow, ancient earthers left us a bunch of 1's and 0's..."
    "...jerks."

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Astfgl ( 203296 )
      Well, duh, it'll be UTF-8, and all they have to do is look it up in Wikipedia. Er...wait...

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