SPACE TECHNOLOGY
❱❱ SpaceX interplanetary system lander docking at the International Space Station and, inset, a blend of space technologies will distribute human knowledge across the solar system
billions) of years – even in extreme environments like space, or on the distant surfaces of far-flung planetary bodies. Called an Arch (pronounced ‘Ark’), this tiny
storage device is built for long-term data archiving, holding libraries of information encoded on a small disc of quartz crystal, not much larger than a coin. According to Arch Mission Foundation, the Californian non-profit company behind the technology, these Archs could “preserve and disseminate humanity’s knowledge across time and space, for the benefit of future generations”. The Arch looks like a shrunken-down DVD
or Blu-ray, but its potential for data storage goes way beyond any optical discs you have in your home. The technology, developed by physicist Peter Kazansky from the University of Southampton in the UK, can theoretically hold up to 360 terabytes of data, about the same amount as 7,000 Blu-Ray discs. But even more impressive than the data capacity is the
physical longevity of the medium – the first two discs, called Arch 1.1 and Arch 1.2, are said to be two of the longest-lasting storage objects ever created by humans, theoretically stable for up to 14 billion years, thanks to 5D data storage inscribed by laser nanostructuring in quartz silica glass. The Arch 1.2 disc currently making its way through space on
Musk’s Tesla Roadster at a cruising speed of some 12,908 km/h (8,021 mph) has been loaded with Issac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy – a seminal sci-fi classic, similarly concerned with the concept of preserving human knowledge and culture in a vast, unforgiving universe. It’s a mission perfectly aligned with the goals of the Arch’s developers, who have named this maiden disc launch the Solar Library. “The Solar Library will orbit the Sun for
12 /// Environmental Engineering /// March 2018
billions of years,” explains co-founder Nova Spivack. “Think of it as a ring of knowledge around the Sun. This is only the first step of an epic human project to curate, encode and distribute our data across the Solar System, and beyond.” Subsequent launches are planned for 2020
and 2030, with the Lunar and Mars Arch libraries intended to send curated backups of human knowledge to the Moon and Mars – with the latter disc hoped to serve as a useful aid for colonists on the Red Planet, helping them to “seed” a localised internet on Mars. If that all sounds pretty ambitious, the
ultimate goal is even more fantastic. “By eventually connecting the Arch Libraries, and the Arch storage devices they contain, through a decentralised read-write data sharing network that spans the solar system, we can begin to grow and share a collective decentralised library of everything humanity learns, on every planet in our solar system, and even beyond, as we spread,” Spivack says.
POSTSCRIPT Pushing back the frontiers of space is a business fraught with risks. The 6 February launch was no exception. The central booster of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket, intended to be a reusable rocket, in fact crashed into the ocean at 300mph, damaging two of the drone ship’s thrusters and showering the deck with shrapnel. The core rocket was lost at sea. The Falcon Heavy’s two other booster rockets landed safely on land. The information was released by Musk during the subsequent news conference. However, in the livestream in front of
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millions of viewers, the crash of the main rocket was not mentioned, and only the success of putting a car in space was emphasised. EE
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