Wording taken from the LM1 Website:

The public archive will contain a publically assembled and authoritative digital record of life on Earth. It will cover the history of humankind and our civilisation to date, together with a species database that describes the Earth's known biodiversity and how it all fits together – from animals and plants to bacteria, from geology to atmosphere.

We want to create a truly global database and will collect information from across the world. There are several existing databases that can be merged by professionals, from the humanities to the life sciences, and they can be added to by the public and so record local information from anywhere. By establishing an editorial board with representation from across the globe, we can ensure that all information included in the archive is accurate, representative and of a high standard.

Our motivation behind the archive is as much in its creation as in the finalised records. We will be working with schools and educational institutions to use the public archive as an opportunity to promote understanding and engagement with science, technology, humanities and engineering. Through contribution to the archives there is a fantastic opportunity to advance knowledge around the world.

The archive’s technology needs to be researched and developed as the project is set up, from the way data records should be defined to the hardware it is to be stored on, from the sourcing of data to the network security of its compilation. We expect a mix of professional expertise and public engagement for all of this too. The archive’s digital capacity depends on its technology, but from the borehole volume available we can confidently expect tens of Terabytes of storage.

This archive will be available online both during development and after the mission has been accomplished. We will have laid the groundwork for future generations to develop and maintain this hugely valuable research and educational tool. Publically owned and accessible to all, this archive is a hugely ambitious plan that could only be resourced by a project of this scale.

Link to the original page here launch.lunarmissionone.com/index.php/Lun...-lunar-archives.html

What are your own ideas for the public archive?

Personally I'd like all known history, culture and religion recorded in the archive(big ask). The bad as well as the good parts. Without something like the archive to record all historic events and such then over time history would become legend and fade into myth eventually being forgotten altogether. If there was such a public archive being added to yearly then what we would call current events and cultures would still be accurate public knowledge when they would call it ancient history.

While the scientific stuff included in the archive is obviously a hugely beneficial educational tool I think in some ways accurate recording of history is just as important. We take for granted that we can study objects and places in person from 3000 years ago but they cannot exist forever. A detailed archive of what we still have of the ancient world will allow people 3000 years from now to study them as we do. Perhaps there could even be comprehensive virtual tours of iconic monuments such as the coliseum, knossos and the Vatican. Places that may not be around for long or in the same condition as they are now. This side of the archive interests me more than the more current science and education side but both are just as important.

Lee, I agree regarding the historical aspect. Who knows what will survive centuries into the future? A case in point, the destruction of ancient monuments by ISIS in the middle East, and the recent Nepal earthquake which devastated many irreplaceable and historic monuments.

What we need is a Memory Prime. Perhaps the moon could be it one day? Airlessness is a good thing when you are preserving stuff!

Yeah physical destruction is inevitable. Especially when you have things like ISIS going on destroying their own history. There is only so much you can preserve in museums. The moon sounds like a good idea for preservation but I bet it would be future artifacts that would end up there. It would seem oddly wrong if say paintings where removed from the Vatican to be better preserved on the moon. It would have to be things that belong there like lunar landers or astronaught memorabilia.

Oh no, I agree, I wouldn't want things moved from their proper place, but what if there is no more Vatican 3000 years from now? At least we'd have a record.

Yeah I believe digital preservation is the answer. If I remember correctly recently there was a cave found with 30000 year old paintings in. They did a 3d scan of the place and rebuilt the entire cave. This was a bit expensive ofcourse but something similar can and probably has already been done digitally. A kind of virtual replica would obviously never beat the real thing but included in the archive they could last indefinitely.

Well mouth Is pretty numb must be time for the tooth filling any second now :/