So I've been taking the Moons online course at the Open University (Loving it-have learned so much ) and in one of the sections it's mentioned that the Moon is hit by cosmic debris that creates small craters all the time (about 100 a year) due to not having an atmosphere. I'm thinking this is a risk to the integrity of the future LM1 archive... what ways could we protect our archive from space debris slamming into it?

100 a year! i'd actually read it was even more than this? however they are as you say fairly small.
The Moon is fairly large and I think the chance of one hitting our treasured spacecraft is pretty remote, although of course not impossible.

The archive itself once in the moon will be very secure and safe I believe (so long as the capsules are secure, robust and protective)

Yes LM-1 could well (one day) be hit but it could take many hundreds if not thousands of years to do so (unless very unlucky) before which I would like to think LM1 will have been protected and possibly turned into a day vist museum (those lucky folks in the future) who will be able to possible vist and view this archive.

Thanks for a great topic challenge!

Even though impacts are relatively rare it's well worth considering possible solutions to the challenge so here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling:

# The deeper the archive is buried the better - that said, a major impact may still compromise the data and would certainly mask the existence of the archive.

On a related note, something David Iron envisioned was to ensure a pointer/landmark to the archive was created. This would have to be self sufficient and survive extreme periods of time.

# As Paul has mentioned, the project needs to ensure the archive is housed using the strongest and lightest materials. It would be great to know what material options are available. Does any one know what materials are the lightest and strongest? Can the project use graphene? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene

# Design archive pods that can still be recognized and useful if they are separated by a heavy impact. Perhaps each pod needs a "master key", that is, a way of communicating what the pod is and how to access the data. Perhaps using a Nanotech Chip on the data storage (a micro-sized etched gold chip) which can have a key presented in binary form.

# Backup! The most effective strategy of protecting the data would be to ensure a second copy of the archive was stored in a different location on the moon. This however wouldn't occur for some considerable time, however we could have a secure backup here on earth... Think of the Svalbard Global Seed Vault: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault

Please add to the ideas!

I agree, the deeper the archive is buried, the less we have to worry about impacts and also cosmic radiation. Perhaps there is a way to have an LM1 "Mission Control" on earth from which we could continuously monitor the health of the archive?

Hi Fozia...I think they / we will send them deep enough to be both recoverable & safe.
I am sure they will use materials that will not interfere with the data chips and yet will be strong and secure.