By 
March 2nd, 2025
Image credit: Firefly Aerospace
“There is a Pyramid on the Moon – We’ve Landed.”
That’s the word from Ben Haldeman, founder of LifeShip, based in Carlsbad, California.
Now planted on the Moon within Mare Crisium, courtesy of the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost lunar lander, the Pyramid carries the complete genetic code for a human, etched into Cerabyte ceramic to last a billion years.
The tiny Pyramid carries:
- The seeds of life – including plant seeds, plant DNA, and the entire human genome, etched into ceramic to last a billion years.
- The stories, art, and messages of 100,000 people, many etched into NanoFiche to last essentially forever.
- A knowledge archive, including all of Wikipedia and a Language Primer.
Image credit: LifeShip
Information-rich
“Throughout history, our ancestors have built pyramids across Earth,” Haldeman notes in the group’s post-landing message.
“Now, we as a species have created a pyramid on another celestial body that is more information-rich than any pyramid built before and will outlive the rest,” Haldeman added.
“This is a profound milestone in the evolution of life—one that even the greatest civilizations of the past, those who built pyramids, monuments, and cathedrals, would be in awe of,” said Haldeman.
Ups and downers
The group has been busy over the last few years.
LifeShip’s first DNA Seed Bank launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in April 2022, tucked away onboard a SpaceX Crew-4 mission. The capsule has the DNA of 500 species and over a thousand humans.
Later that year, in October, LifeShip’s second successful mission launched to the ISS on NASA’s Crew-5 mission. The capsule contained DNA from thousands of humans and 500 species representing plants native to 6 continents and 100 of Earth’s common food crops.
Image credit: LifeShip
LifeShip’s first mission to the Moon took place in early 2024, part of the Arch Mission Lunar Library II. But the flight of that Astrobotic private lunar lander was thwarted by a fuel leak, then ultimately and purposely targeted for reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.
The recently deployed AstroForge Odin spacecraft – meant to spearhead asteroid mining, also carries a LifeShip payload. But that probe now appears to be in trouble and its destination is doubtful.
Scheduled for delivery
An upcoming event is LifeShip onboard Astrolab’s Flex Lunar Innovation Platform (FLIP) Moon rover, scheduled to land at the lunar south pole as part of Astrobotic’s Griffin Mission 1.
That Astrobotic mission, originally meant to carry the NASA VIPER payload as part of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services initiative, is scheduled for delivery at the end of 2025.
Image credit: Astrolab/Astrobotic
For more information on LifeShip, the group’s objectives, its missions and various partners, go to:
Posted in Space News
