University to launch tiny lunar museum

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University plan to place a tiny museum on the moon next year for discovery by humans in the distant future—who have very strong magnifying glasses. The MoonArk has four chambers about 2 inches high and wide and weighs only about 8 ounces in total. But it carries nanoscale samples of poetry, music, art, and samples from Earth’s surface. About 18 universities and organizations, 60 team members, and 250 other contributors—from artists to scientists and engineers—collaborated on the mini-museum. It is set to launch aboard Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander in 2021.

What does the MoonArk say about humanity? It includes artistic depictions of natural phenomena such as the migration of humpback whales and the orbits of the Earth and moon. It tries to give a snapshot of human life on Earth with five years’ worth of images that a husband and wife sent to each other over text messages of things like the birth of their baby, meals they ate, and places they visited. The creators of the MoonArk left out any mention of religion or even humans’ belief in God, giving future scholars a tilted view of the beliefs that motivated so much of human art and engineering throughout history.

Dig deeper: Keep updated on the MoonArk’s progress and find out where it’s on display on its Twitter feed.