Mun is the only moon of the planet Earth. It is unusually large and thought to have formed in a unique way. It also plays a significant role in the culture of early space travel for humans. In the modern day it is under the jurisdiction of the Martian Union, and is home to the lunar extinction-reversion project (LERP).
Mun was formed very early on in the history of the Solar System. Unlike most moons, which are formed when a small object is captured by the gravity of a larger planet, Mun was formed in a unique, explosive way. It is thought to have been the result of a collision Earth had with a smaller planet; the smaller planet, known as Theia, disintegrated and mixed with debris from Earth to form Mun.
As a result of its unusual origin, Mun is significantly larger than the average moon of a planet at Earth’s size, at about a quarter of Earth’s diameter. However, it still lacks a strong magnetosphere or a dense enough atmosphere to support life. Though it can’t support life of its own, it’s presence stabilises Earth’s orbit, which helps protect Earth’s life from harm.
As the closest object to Earth, Mun was instrumental in early human space travel. The first human to walk on a different body than Earth did so on Mun, in the 20th century. Before the advent of FTL travel in the late 22nd century, it was the only place that could viably support human colonies, because it was close enough to Earth that help and resources could arrive there quickly. Though it never housed permanent inhabitants of any kind, it has been home to many research stations and tourist destinations throughout the centuries.
The LERP project is a project dedicated to restoring Earth’s ecosystems as much as possible. Hosted by a Martian government-sponsored organisation, and housed on Mun, the goal is to make Earth as close to its pre-industrial revolution environment as possible. Though there is still a ways to go, so far the project has transformed a hot, polluted planet battered by natural disasters into a temperate planet with shrinking deserts and growing rainforests.
The LERP was first established in the late 26th century. It is granted resources and funds by the Martian government, but is its own organisation, composed of many Martians and the occasional representative from a different nation. Earth’s remaining peoples also get a say in the actions of the LERP project, because they are the ones who will be directly affected. Their goals usually align with the ideas of restoring the planet to pre-industrial conditions, but not always with the methods proposed. They have been a great help to the mission, both as eyes on the ground and as help for carrying out plans.
The most important aspect of the LERP project has been geoengineering. Since the onset of the industrial revolution, Earth’s environment has been declining because of climate change and pollution. The planet heated, weather became more erratic, plastics and pollutants became present virtually everywhere, and thus quality of life for both humans and animals decreased. However, just as all this could be caused by humans, they could also reverse it.
Structures have been established for the purpose of capturing carbon dioxide and either storing it underground in solid form or transforming it into other materials. This has almost completely lowered the Earth’s temperature back down to normal levels, meaning desertified land is again becoming green and the ice caps are re-establishing themselves. Engineered weather, like water-spraying fleets of planes, have been utilised to make grasslands and forests healthier and to combat unusually destructive fires.
Airborne and waterborne pollution has also been captured and purified, though the plastic problem is still not dealt with. Though Earth’s peoples have been collecting plastic to be taken off the planet for centuries, much still remains in the soils and seas, causing health issues in people and animals where ingested. Many proposals have been put forward, including ideas of micro-organisms created to feed on plastic, but no concrete plans have been made.
The other major aspect of the project is the breeding and eventual re-introduction of endangered animal species. Mun not only houses people and technology involved in the LERP project, but several giant biodomes engineered to conserve threatened species. These artificial biomes can be tailor-made to suit any animal. Endangered species are kept here, bred to sufficient numbers, and then released back onto Earth, where their populations are monitored.
But the LERP project goes beyond boosting the numbers of endangered species: it also brings animals back from extinction. From the 21st century onward, many people had the foresight to store the DNA, sperm, and eggs of endangered animals in special freezers, where they could last for hundreds of years. Over the next few centuries, many iconic animals, like tigers, elephants, and great apes, would all go extinct. Now, with perfectly preserved genetic material, the LERP can clone these animals, and bring them back hundreds of years after their extinction.
Though the LERP has the technology to clone these animals, it still isn’t easy. Cloned animals are created with DNA that has already spent a lifetime degrading, and so clones will experience symptoms of old age when they are still very young, creating a range of health issues. Luckily, offspring of cloned animals will not have these issues. So a cloned animal must be prompted to have as much offspring as possible, as quickly as possible- if they are even fertile at all.
Though this process is not easy- and often not easy to watch, either- it has proven successful. By raising generations of animals descended from clones, once-extinct animal populations can be built up and then released into the wild. Dozens of iconic species have been brought back, and dozens more are on the way. 28 species that were once completely extinct now have normal, healthy wild populations, including American bison, raccoon dogs, black wildebeest, and Southern right whales.
One more controversial aspect of the LERP project has been its population control of invasive species, like rabbits, mice, and cats. This is of course necessary to bring Earth’s ecosystems back to where they were, but the methods used have often been criticised for being inhumane by Martians and others alike.
One relatively easy and popular method has been to genetically modify diseases to target invasive species. As well as being criticised for being inherently inhumane, this method has historically involved some level of suffering for the animals affected.
Some would go so far as to say that some or all of these species, given how much time has passed since they were introduced, should no longer be considered invasive. Though few argue that, say, livestock or feral cats should be reconsidered, it gets more complicated than that. For example, there are debates over whether dingoes, the descendants of feral dogs who’ve only inhabited Australia for a few thousand years, but still play a vital role in the ecosystem, should be considered native Australian fauna or not.
Recently, an independent terrorist organisation from the UHALE stole 3 crates of DNA, eggs, and sperm. A rescue mission managed to reclaim two of the crates, but a third crate containing the last Asian elephant DNA was destroyed, meaning the species is now gone for good. This has further increased tensions between the Martian Union and the UHALE.
A few decades ago, cloned Galápagos tortoises containing not just tortoise, but rattlesnake DNA were released onto the Galápagos Islands. The snake DNA had apparently been put in to “make them look more like real tortoises”. The LERP board was slammed by the press and they hastily recaptured and replaced the modified tortoises. A subsequent investigation did not find any other instances of this happening, however some tortoises must have escaped recapture, as rattlesnake DNA is still present in local Galápagos tortoise populations more than two decades later.
Similarly, the LERP project has often been criticized by Martians who believe that restoring the decayed DNA of cloned animals using DNA of related animals should legally count as genetic modification. Releasing genetically modified organisms into natural ecosystems is illegal in the Martian Union, and highly taboo among its citizens, however it is debated whether this legal exemption should be maintained for the sake of endangered ecosystems.
Many alien onlookers have criticized the Martian Union and other human groups for trying to restore Earth’s ecosystems. As one Giina politician put it: “If humans left Earth so it’s animals wouldn’t be tampered with, then why are they tampering with them now? The sense doesn’t fly!”