50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 849 The Seed Vault of Doomsday

However, Sun Zhiwei didn't need to go that far this time. His target was 340 kilometers north of the Svalbard Islands, in the northwestern part of the Barents Sea, on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

That afternoon, Sun Zhiwei's scheduled flight from Oslo arrived at a small airport outside Longyearbyen.

Longyearbyen Airport is located on a gentle slope not far north of Longyearbyen city.

The airport is very small, with only one runway. The two-story building next to the runway is the control tower, and the airport radar is installed on the roof of the two-story building.

There isn't even a wall around the entire airport; there's only a fence around both sides of the runway to prevent children and animals from accidentally wandering in and causing danger.

Because the airport is slightly higher than the town, Sun Zhiwei could see the entire town of Longyearbyen from the runway after getting off the plane.

It's already December, and the town of Longyearbyen is located within the Arctic Circle, right in the middle of the annual polar night.

Sun Zhiwei saw that the town of Longyearbyen below was already ablaze with lights. The lights from every household in this snowy world stretched to the horizon, like stars adorning the night sky.

Light snow was falling from the sky, and looking into the distance, beautiful aurora borealis occasionally flashed by.

Snow, cabins, lights, and the aurora borealis combine to create a fairytale-like scene in the Arctic night.

Sun Zhiwei had never seen such a beautiful scene before, and he was momentarily stunned.

Fortunately, the cheerful noises from the passengers who got off the plane with him woke him up.

The other passengers were mostly residents of the town, people who usually work away from home. They had returned to this remote Arctic town to spend Christmas with their families.

Thinking of Christmas reminded him of his plans to go home for the Chinese New Year this year. The Spring Festival in 1987 was on January 29th, which was much earlier than in previous years.

With only one month left, he needed to finish his work quickly so he could arrange for his family to go home for the Chinese New Year.

After talking about his two little ones at home for a while, Sun Zhiwei let out a heavy sigh of relief, picked up a large suitcase, and strode towards the beach.

Everything that needs to be prepared is ready, so there's no need to waste any more time in town. Now that we're here, let's get started.

After leaving the airport along the hillside, Sun Zhiwei walked towards the distant town in the wind and snow.

Although he could see the frozen sea right next to him, he was currently on a mountain and had to go down to the edge of the town to reach the sea level.

He hadn't gone far when he saw a strange building on the mountainside to his right. It was triangular in shape, sloping downwards into the ground, with a heavy steel gate at the entrance.

Sun Zhiwei deployed his spatial probe and saw that behind the gate was a long passage, hundreds of meters long, extending far into the mountain.

At the end of the passage, in the middle of the mountain, lies a closed underground space containing many ventilation, dehumidification, and temperature control devices.

The space wasn't large, but it was divided into small rooms, each filled with thick layers of ice. In the middle of each room were shelves with rows of sealed boxes.

Sun Zhiwei had already seen that these sealed boxes contained plant seeds.

Seeing the logos and text printed everywhere on the space and the boxes, he already knew what this place was.

This should be the Nordic Gene Bank, established in 1979 by the Agricultural and Horticultural Plant Genetic Resources Service. It stores seeds of various plants from the Nordic region, especially seeds of various crops.

This organization was jointly established by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and is mainly responsible for collecting, organizing, registering and preserving plant genetic resources in the Nordic region.

This system ensures that crop diversity is protected from threats such as climate change and pests by systematically preserving and managing plant seeds and genetic information.

This is the legendary "Doomsday Seed Vault," but it is a regional seed vault that only preserves plant samples and seeds from the Nordic region.

Building a seed bank like this is not cheap. This one looks like a small seed bank, but it cost more than $100 million. The various permanent equipment inside alone is worth a lot of money.

Because preserving seeds is not simply a matter of freezing or vacuum sealing.

Seeds can be vacuum-preserved, but conditions such as moisture content and temperature must be strictly controlled, otherwise germination ability may be affected or the seeds may deteriorate.

Most seeds require trace amounts of oxygen to maintain their basic metabolism, and a completely anaerobic environment may inhibit their activity; vacuum preservation requires balancing low oxygen levels with the physiological needs of the seeds.

If the moisture content of seeds is too high, they are prone to mold and rot in a vacuum. If the moisture content is too low, it will damage their germination ability. The ideal moisture content should be controlled at around 8%.

This conflict between oxygen and water requires artificial equipment to maintain a balance in order to preserve seeds for longer periods.

Ten years from now, another "doomsday seed vault" will be built in the sandstone mountains of Spitzbergen, Norway—the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

There, 4.5 million copies of nearly 23 billion seeds will be stored, which can be preserved for up to 19,000 years. That will be humanity's Noah's Ark in the face of global crises.

Looking at the various seeds inside, Sun Zhiwei surprisingly did not feel any greed.

Let these seeds stay underground in this permafrost. He probably won't need them in his lifetime, but who knows what the future holds, given how fast humans are tempting fate.

Half an hour later, Sun Zhiwei had descended the small hill where the airport was located and arrived near the town's dock.

The sea was completely frozen over at this point, and if it weren't for the space that allowed him to probe underground, he wouldn't have been able to distinguish between the seawater and the land.

After looking around and confirming that no one was nearby, he released the modified "Kharkovchaka 2" special vehicle from his spatial storage.

He had just used space to probe the thickness of the sea ice. The ice had frozen all the way to the seabed, and even further away, although there was still flowing seawater under the ice, the ice layer was more than 1 meter thick.

According to old Jürgensen's experience, a 2-ton passenger vehicle can drive on 15 centimeters of ice, and a heavy truck can drive on 30 centimeters of ice.

The ice here is now 1 meter thick, which is more than enough to support the 35-ton tracked "Kharkovchaka 2" aircraft.

Sure enough, when he placed the "Kharkovchaka 2" on the ice, it stood firmly on the ice, and the solid ice below showed no sign of being unable to support it.

Sun Zhiwei happily entered the carriage, put his luggage bag in the back compartment, and then started the engine.

After a brief roar, the Kharkivchaka 2, like a giant beast, awoke on the Arctic ice.

(End of this chapter)