An Israeli organization called “Torah on the Moon” is reportedly in talks with the Barcelona Moon Team, one of the teams entered into the Google Lunar X Prize, a competition to successfully land a robot on the lunar surface.
The group seeks to place a halakhically kosher Torah scroll on the surface of the moon.
According to Israel Today, “Torah on the Moon” said it wants to deposit a Torah scroll in order to “celebrate the ancient book’s innumerable contributions to morality, justice, education, culture, art and sciences.”
There has been a Christian Bible on the moon since 1971, when Apollo 15 Commander David Scott left behind a copy of what Christians call “the Old Testament” together with the “New Testament” on the mission’s lunar rover.
According to the journal New Scientist, the European Space Agency has confirmed that it was commissioned to test a capsule meant to carry a Torah scroll to the moon. The capsule would protect the delicate scroll from radiation and severe temperatures for up to 10,000 years.