--- title: Israel Is Sending a 30-Million-Page Archive to the Moon description: The archive contains tens of thousands of books, the contents of Wikipedia and some Israeli songs and children's drawings canonical: https://time.com/5556583/israel-30-million-pages-moon/ author: Amy Gunia article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-22T08:38:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T23:06:37.212Z article:section: Science og:title: Israel Is Sending a 30-Million-Page Archive to the Moon og:description: The archive contains tens of thousands of books and the contents of Wikipedia og:url: https://time.com/5556583/israel-30-million-pages-moon/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17dd8fd5b9aeb16e/698947198fd2eeebff35dfcf/israel-moon-library.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: israel-moon-library og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Israel Is Sending a 30-Million-Page Archive to the Moon twitter:description: The archive contains tens of thousands of books and the contents of Wikipedia twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17dd8fd5b9aeb16e/698947198fd2eeebff35dfcf/israel-moon-library.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A 30-Million-Page Library Has Blast Off to the Moon as a 'Civilization Backup' by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Mar 22, 2019 8:38 AM UTC  A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Fla. on Feb. 21, 2019. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from pad 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Fla. on Feb. 21, 2019.Paul Hennessy—NurPhoto/Getty Images by [Amy Gunia](https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/) ## Amy Gunia Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong. Mar 22, 2019 8:38 AM UTC An Israeli spacecraft currently on its way to the the moon is toting a [30-million-page “civilization backup,”](https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/30-million-page-library-heading-moon-help-preserve-human-civilization-ncna977786?cid=sm%5Fnpd%5Fnn%5Ftw%5Fma) according to NBC News. The ‘Lunar Library’ started its journey to outer space late February on a robotic lunar lander called [Beresheet](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/beresheet/in-depth/) launched by [SpaceX](http://time.com/5535317/spacex-launch-first-private-lunar-landing-mission/). The archive, which is housed on a metal disc about the size of a DVD, was created by the [Arch Mission Foundation](https://www.archmission.org/), a Los Angeles-based non-profit. The archive is intended to preserve records of human civilization for at least 6 billion years. The 200GB of data contained on the archive includes tens of thousands of fiction and non-fiction books, the entire English-language contents of Wikipedia, textbooks, a full reference library and some Israeli songs and children’s drawings. Language translation tools and instructions on how to access and decode the information is also written onto the disc. “For the survival of our species, we need to find ways to raise our awareness of what worked and didn’t work, and we need to ensure it is shared with the people of the future,” Nova Spivack, co-founder of Arch Mission Foundation, told NBC in an email. **Read More:** [_Israeli Spacecraft Took Selfie With Earth on Its Way to the Moon_](http://time.com/5545536/israel-beresheet-moon-selfie/) The NGO has already sent a copy of the English-language contents of Wikipedia [into low-Earth orbit](https://www.archmission.org/leo-library-1) and put a copy of Isaac Asimov’s [science-fiction trilogy Foundation](http://time.com/5136400/spacex-elon-musk-tesla-space/) in the [glovebox of a Tesla](http://time.com/5137113/elon-musk-tesla-roadster-space/) Roadster which is expected to orbit the sun for hundreds of millions of years. “The Roadster is the perfect place to put an Arch library so that it can be noticed and retrieved in the distant future,” says a statement on Arch Mission’s website. The Israeli lunar lander took off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Feb. 21\. It will remain in Earth’s orbit until it gets close enough to the moon to enter its gravitational pull, which is expected to be in early April. If the landing its successful, it will be Israel’s [first touch down](http://time.com/5493033/china-lands-rover-moon-far-side/) on the moon. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5556583/israel-30-million-pages-moon/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5556583/israel-30-million-pages-moon/"},"headline":"A 30-Million-Page Library Has Blast Off to the Moon as a 'Civilization Backup'","datePublished":"2019-03-22T08:38:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T23:06:37.212Z","description":"The archive contains tens of thousands of books and the contents of Wikipedia","url":"https://time.com/5556583/israel-30-million-pages-moon/","keywords":["Space","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17dd8fd5b9aeb16e/698947198fd2eeebff35dfcf/israel-moon-library.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Amy Gunia","jobTitle":"Gunia was a reporter for TIME based in Hong Kong.","url":"https://time.com/author/amy-gunia/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17dd8fd5b9aeb16e/698947198fd2eeebff35dfcf/israel-moon-library.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"israel-moon-library","caption":"SpaceX Israel Moon Mission","creditText":"Paul Hennessy—NurPhoto/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5556583/israel-30-million-pages-moon/","name":"A 30-Million-Page Library Has Blast Off to the Moon as a 'Civilization Backup'"}}]}] ```