About PanLex Data on the Moon

As we reported in February, we were honored to contribute the entire PanLex Database to the Arch Mission Foundation’s Lunar Library™, a 30-million-page archive of civilization contained in a long-duration time-capsule that traveled to the Moon last month aboard the SpaceIL Beresheet lunar lander.

Lunar Library disc. (Image by Arch Mission Foundation.)

As we watched with great anticipation from our home planet, the spacecraft successfully entered lunar orbit, but during landing on April 11, as a result of engine failure it lost communication with mission control and is presumed to have crashed. We still await news about the time-capsule. The Arch Mission Foundation has asked NASA to use the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter to image the Beresheet impact site, and an international search has also begun. You can help! Share your thoughts using the hashtag #findthelunarlibrary.

The Arch Mission Foundation believes the Lunar Library survived the crash intact, as they note black boxes survive similar energy collisions, and this library is solid nickel. The consensus so far is that the Lunar Library is definitely on the Moon, and is likely to be intact. Now the search is on… Fingers crossed!