About

Project Transcendence originated in 2018, when U.S. Air Force officers Dr. David Stuckenberg, Lt Col; Gabe Arrington, Lt Col; Brandon Taylor, Lt Col; Erick Frahm, Lt Col; Justin Chandler, Lt Col; and Ryan Hinkley, Maj, and Dr. Tony Contento, who served as Dean of Agricultural Sciences at SUNY Oswego,  identified a critical vulnerability: Earth’s seed banks—already at risk from climate change, conflict, and natural instability—required a secure, off-world safeguard. With the support of Lt Gen Steven Kwast, then Commander of Air Education and Training Command, the team partnered with the Global Crop Trust, USDA, Airbus, and Lockheed Martin to explore a bold concept: extending Earth’s biosphere beyond the planet by establishing a lunar seed vault within the Moon’s naturally cryogenic, ultra-stable environments.

This effort represented the first substantive attempt to create a true “backup to the backup” for Earth’s genetic heritage. Reactivated in 2025 after a period in cold storage, Project Transcendence now aims to deliver and secure critical biological samples on the lunar surface by 2035, establishing a resilient, multi-generational repository for humanity’s biodiversity.