Some people use hard drives. These guys are using blockchain on the Moon.
With serious data breaches on the rise this year – alongside increasing threats to humanity’s existence on Earth – it’s not entirely surprising that some people are looking to the skies for security.
But what is surprising is how scientists plan to do this – and who is involved. Within the next year, NASA will send a payload full of data to the Moon to test the possibility of lunar-based backup storage. This will form part of the Artemis programme.
Their collaborators? The Florida-based computing start-up Lonestar – plus the Isle of Man, the self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish sea.
These partners hope to use blockchain to ensure the data is secure and protected against tampering. And, crucially, to prove that the information stored in the archives is authentic.
Blockchain is the decentralised ledger technology used to facilitate cryptocurrency. Archive specialist Archangel is already using it in a similar way. This is the first time it will be used on the Moon.
The test mission is scheduled to launch from US soil in February 2024. After the data cube lands, the partners plan to digitally ‘frank’ the data on Lonestar’s data centre to prove its provenance on the Moon. This will then be transmitted back to Earth, where it will be assembled onto a blockchain to show the data has been verified.
“It’s a really interesting challenge, not just for us, but for NASA,” said Kurt Roosen in conversation with BBC Science Focus. Roosen is head of innovation at Digital Isle of Man – the island’s government-funded agency that supports its tech sector.
“[People often tell NASA] ‘You made up the moon missions’ and proving that they’re actually there is surprisingly difficult.”
In true small island style, the Isle of Man has enlisted its post office to help with the mission. The post office has selected stamps to use as the test data, which they will digitalise and launch on the data cube.
They’re not just any stamps. The Isle of Man is working with NASA to create stamps featuring the next person on the Moon – and they hope King Charles will authorise these (as would happen with normal stamps on Earth) as the mission is taking place.
Protecting the past, for the future
But why do we need lunar data centres at all, you ask? Well, it wouldn’t be for housing your excess photos when you’ve exceeded your phone storage. The mission hopes to protect humanity’s most important discoveries and creations from being lost to a catastrophe on Earth.
Impacts of climate change could cause one such catastrophe, says Roosen. But what the people behind the mission are particularly worried about is a situation where our planet becomes unliveable.
“In history, we’ve seen several circumstances where perceived bodies of knowledge have been lost or cultures have disappeared,” Roosen told us. The legendary Library of Alexandria in ancient Egypt, an unfathomable archive of human knowledge, is one such circumstance. It was destroyed in mysterious conditions by 500AD.
But nowadays, data is different. Rather than the papyrus scrolls of Alexandria, modern humanity’s bodies of knowledge are largely digital – and intertwined with a dependence on power.
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The question became how to protect digital data properly, and in a way that will remain relevant for thousands of years into the future. Roosen’s answer? Put it on the Moon.
But some remain sceptical. Prof Peter Bentley, a computer scientist at University College London, compared the solution to “throwing a bottle containing a thumb drive into the sea. The data is not going to get hacked, but there are a few other issues.”
Bentley also points out that there are similar conditions available on Earth, but without the hassle. “What’s wrong with an uninhabited Earth location, like the bottom of a disused mine? You don’t need a spacecraft to reach it for repairs.”
He told BBC Science Focus that keeping the equipment on the Moon would be “considerably more difficult, not to say massively more costly” than storing it on Earth. “It will be subjected to extremes of temperature and radiation and thus more likely to develop faults resulting in data corruption.”
Moon data: How secure is ‘secure’?
The lunar data cubes are not hard drives – and they’re called ‘cubes’ but they’re not that, either. They can be any shape. The one that will launch in February is a black rectangle about the size of a book, and will store a terabyte of data.
Powered by solar energy, with rudimentary processing capability and solid-state drives inside, the units do not use resources or need cooling technology. “It could sit there forever,” says Roosen. In theory, this makes them more eco-friendly than data storage on Earth.
Roosen says that it’s these same, simple qualities that make it safe from hacking and artificial intelligence (AI). As the units do not use the internet, any hacker wanting to tap into the communications would have to get through its point-to-point protocol. (This is like two people on each end of one phone line). With fewer points in the communication network, there is less opportunity for interception.
Roosen doesn’t see civilian tampering as an issue either – at least not yet. “We would hope it will be a long time before individuals can go to the Moon themselves and vandalise things,” he said.
However, Bentley disagrees. “Data breaches and hacking have nothing to do with proximity. If you can connect to it, and you can get past the encryption and security, then you can get the data.”
Hacking or viruses, then, could affect data on the Moon – unless nations keep this data ‘unplugged’, says Bentley. “But we could do that on Earth as well.”
Data’s home away from home – for national secrets
Storing national data in another country makes it subject to different legislation, including data protection laws.
While this mission will test the concept using stamps, in the future the data centres might store national data of a more sensitive kind.
This could include anything cultural information and financial records to human health – like genomics data held for pharmaceutical research. It’s the kind of data you’d want to make sure was well-protected by clear legislation.
“Governments are the biggest holders of personal data in each country – there is a real obligation to protect that properly,” said Roosen.
The project was inspired by ship registers, which make ships flying their country’s flag a floating piece of that country (in terms of legal jurisdiction). And the same is true of satellites, including those that land on the Moon.
Storing data via a satellite effectively makes that area a remote part of the country’s legal jurisdiction. When NASA’s satellite lands next year, the mission will effectively see a piece of the Isle of Man re-created on the Moon.
“It’s an intriguing combination of things, which on the face of it, seems crazy,” said Roosen. “But actually, when you line them all up, you think bizarrely there is some sense to this.”
About our expert
Prof Peter Bentley is a computer scientist and author who is based at University College London. He is the author of books including 10 Short Lessons in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics and Digital Biology.
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