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

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on every subject, including a broad range of fiction and non-fiction, textbooks, periodicals, audio recordings, videos, historical documents, software sourcecode, data sets, and more.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. '

Read more of this story at Slashdot.