The Alliance to Rescue Civilization is a very long-term international project. It seeks to copy and continuously update the essence of Earth in its many forms for safekeeping at a manned site off the planet (the Moon or a huge station are the leading candidates.) ARC would in effect comprehensively back up Earth's collective hard drive for use in rescuing and rebuilding the planet in the event of a catastrophic disaster, natural or man-made. It would in no sense be a time capsule, but would rather be an updated record of Earth's multiple life forms, flora and fauna, and its broad spectrum of arts and sciences, history, technology and all else that constitutes the planet's collective nature and culture.

In the event of a major catastrophe, for example worldwide plague, comet impact, nuclear war or social collapse, the staff of ARC will function in a rescue capacity rather than as librarians. They will be prepared to help the survivors reestablish a functioning technological society, or in the worst instance, to repopulate the Earth themselves, and re-introduce the additionally needed biological species here. The primary mission of ARC will be to secure our tenancy of this planet, although it is fully compatible with plans to extend human settlement beyond the Earth-Moon system. ARC will provide our manned space program with the central purpose which it has so sorely lacked, linking it firmly to human survival on our home
planet and elsewhere. The ARC facility will stand as a visible and inspiring symbol of our aspirations, one which can overcome the negative connotations associated with disaster relief. With ARC in place, of course, other scientific and commercial uses of space will be facilitated. ARC can serve as an engine that pulls many freight cars.

The large scope and lengthy time span needed for ARC will require a comparable support system. Hopefully, some version of the project will continue as long as earth remains habitable - it transcends national boundaries and the lifetimes of administrations and political systems. While funding from national space agencies and the corporate sector for research and development on specific systems would be accepted, adaptive archiving technology, for example, its core sustenance will be based on private sector philanthropy. As an international, privately endowed Foundation, it could not easily be held hostage by unfavorable local circumstances. ARC will attempt to persuade a significant fraction of the human population to support its activities, but has no need to achieve a consensus. Religious groups who believe Earth is a staging ground from which we all will soon be called to the hereafter, and nihilists who feel that any effort to secure our future is futile, can simply be left alone to follow their own agendas.

A trek up a high mountain still begins with small steps. In the case of ARC, we will need to publicize the idea, attract supporters, and gather an endowment. At an early stage, a director, administrative assistants, and advisory committees will be needed. Among the matters to be considered are possible stages and timetables for project development, the compilation of lists of material to be archived, questions concerning storage and retrieval of materials, an inventory of potential hazards that threaten our existence, a consideration of the resources needed for various rescue scenarios, and the design of an initial functioning lunar facility.

As individuals, we are accustomed to insurance as a means of protecting things important to ourselves - our homes, health, cars and our very lives. As a civilization, however, we are driving blindly into the future with no insurance at all, despite the fact that we have very many precious things that we do not want to lose. The scientific advances of the last generation, in space, computers and biotechnology, have now made it possible for us to insure our civilization, and ARC is dedicated to that purpose.