When we dream of space travel, colonizing other planets or sending interstellar probes, we are faced with one basic challenge: how to protect the accumulated knowledge of mankind from the merciless impact of time and cosmic dangers? Imagine we send a message to deep space, and that message has to survive not just hundreds or thousands, but billions of years. This is the kind of idea that 5D optical storage technology seeks to realize. In this article, we will consider how 5D recording works, why it is considered the technology of the future, and how exactly it can change the way of our ideas about preserving knowledge in limitless space.
How does 5D memory technology work?
Using special “memory crystals,” it is possible to store massive amounts of information — from key scientific discoveries to cultural heritage — and reliably deliver them to future colonists on Mars or even to alien civilizations, if they ever meet on the way. Such technology has the potential to turn space missions into true “libraries in interplanetary space,” minimizing the risks of data loss due to extreme conditions in space.
Unlike conventional disks, where information is encoded with two-dimensional marks (bits) on the surface, 5D technology records data in a structure inside the silica glass. The laser forms tiny nanostructures — voxels — in the thickness of the disk. Each such voxel carries information in five dimensions at once: three spatial coordinates (X, Y, Z) of the voxel location, as well as in its size and nanograting orientation. Essentially, two more optical parameters are added to the traditional 3D memory. This gives the potential for much more data to be recorded in one microscopic “ring” — for example, one voxel can store up to 8 bits of information instead of just one. Millions of such voxels can be recorded in a volume of glass, placing them in layers throughout the depth of the disk.
Data readout is carried out using a microscope and a polarizing filter. Nanostructures in glass change the polarization of light — according to the orientation and shape of the voxel — and thus, it is possible to “read” encoded 0’s and 1’s from them. This is similar to the way a laser reads the pits and protrusions in a DVD, but here the information is contained in the depth of the crystal and the way light is refracted.
Analogies and examples
Let’s imagine a piece of quartz the size of a coin with libraries of knowledge written on it. The 5D disk is often compared to the fantastic “memory crystals” from the Superman movies — hence the nickname “Superman memory crystal”. And no wonder: under laboratory conditions, such a 5D crystal has already demonstrated a capacity of up to 360 terabytes per disk with a standard diameter of 12 cm. That’s roughly 7,000 Blu-ray disks recorded on a single medium! This means that a complete collection of world literature, for example, can be stored on one small crystal.
The durability is no less impressive: quartz glass media can withstand heat up to 1000°C, extreme cold, high pressure and even cosmic radiation. Scientists from the University of Southampton note that data in the 5D-crystal can be stored for billions of years without loss — approximately 13-14 billion years. In fact, it is a perpetual digital archive, making the technology a Guinness Book of World Records entry as the most durable data storage material.
Available prototypes and achievements
Although it sounds fantastic, prototypes of 5D memory have already been created. The first successes with recording in five dimensions were demonstrated back in 2013, when it was possible to record a small text file (300 KB) in quartz glass. In early 2016, a Southampton team led by Professor Peter Kazansky recorded a range of historical documents — the Declaration of Human Rights, the Magna Carta, the King James Version, Newton’s Scientific Papers — onto 5D disks, showing that information can indeed “outlive” humanity. One of these disks was ceremonially handed over to UNESCO as a symbol of a new era of knowledge preservation.
The latest examples have not gone unnoticed either. In 2024, British scientists successfully recorded the complete human genome (about 3 billion DNA base pairs) on a tiny quartz carrier. This “genome crystal” is now stored as a temporary capsule in an Austrian salt mine as part of the Memory of Mankind project. Interesting fact: on the surface of the disk researchers engraved a special visual key — schematic clues (chemical composition of elements, the structure of the double helix of DNA, etc.), in order that in the distant future, another civilization or our descendants could understand that the genetic code is stored inside and how to reproduce it. This is similar to Voyager’s “Golden record” — that is, an attempt to ensure the readability of the message through the course of time.
Current developments and plans for the coming years
Today, 5D recording is still predominantly in laboratories, but progress is fast. Researchers have already learned how to create multilayer records: while in 2016 it was a matter of 3 layers of information in glass, more recently 100 layers of data in a single crystal have been demonstrated with 100% successful readout. At the same time, the problem of write speed is being solved — right now it’s about 8 kilobytes per second, and although that’s slow (it would take years to write 360 TB), engineers are working to speed up laser engraving and parallel writing.
Commercial giants are also showing interest. Microsoft has launched Project Silica, which explores data storage in quartz glass for cloud archives. In collaboration with Warner Bros. Studios, they had already recorded an entire movie — the original 1978 Superman — on glass and successfully counted it back in. This experiment confirmed the workability of the technology outside of academia. In the next 3-5 years it is expected that such solutions will move to the stage of industrial samples: devices for writing and reading 5D disks will appear, possibly special optical drives compatible with computers or archive systems. Companies see this as a path to long-lived data centers where backups won’t need to be constantly migrated to new media every few years.
Startups are also working on the technology. Specifically, a team of inventors from Southampton has founded SPhononix (5D Memory Crystal), which already offers long-term data archiving services on quartz crystals. They focus on both corporate clients (museums, state archives) and private customers who wish to preserve a “time capsule” with their photos or documents for their descendants. This shows that the technology is gradually moving beyond laboratories.
Application of 5D carriers in the space field
One of the most interesting applications of 5D crystals is space, where the requirements for reliability and durability of carriers are extreme. Here are a few areas where such a memory could be revolutionary:
Interplanetary and planetary archives. If humanity were to develop bases on the Moon or Mars, there would be a need to keep large amounts of information in place — from scientific data to libraries of knowledge — in case of isolation or cataclysmic events. 5D disks buried in the ground or hidden in a module could store this data for millions of years until the next explorers arrive. For example, there are projects like Lunar Library and Lunar Codex to store cultural and scientific archives on the Moon; in the future, they may be replaced by quartz carriers that are much more resistant to radiation and temperatures.
Interstellar Messages. In 1977, the Voyager 1/2 probes sent the famous “Golden Records” — copper disks with images and sounds of Earth. Their contents are limited to a few dozen photos and hours of audio, but they are designed to survive billions of years in space. A 5D crystal could hold much more information — whole encyclopedias, genomes, multimedia messages for potential other civilizations. A symbolic step in this direction has already been taken: in 2018, a Falcon Heavy rocket sent a tiny 5D disk containing a record of Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy in Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster electric car. This “space library crystal” was created by Prof. Kazansky in collaboration with the Arch Mission Foundation, and it can survive even the space environment and billions of years of travel.
On-board archives for space missions. In space, conventional electronic memory gradually deteriorates from harsh radiation. It is common for vehicles to lose data or malfunction due to memory failures caused by cosmic rays. NASA notes that an “indestructible” backup carrier could save multi-billion dollar missions and astronauts’ lives in the event of a computer failure. 5D crystals are the best fit here: they are not sensitive to radiation and store data without additional power supply. Let’s imagine that on a spacecraft flying to Mars, all critical software and knowledge base are duplicated on a quartz disk — even in case of a serious solar storm or failure of communication systems, the crew will not lose access to information. Small in mass and size quartz archives are convenient for spacecraft, where every gram is as good as gold.
Archives at space observatories. Modern telescopes collect huge amounts of data. Usually this data is transmitted immediately to Earth, but there is always the risk of signal loss or transmitter failure. Built-in 5D archive in a telescope (in orbit or on a lunar station) would allow all primary science data to be stored locally. If something happens to the unit, future missions will be able to physically take the quartz disk and recover the invaluable information. It’s like a “black box” for a telescope — the data will be safe even in the event of a failure. Moreover, such carriers could be used to duplicate data on long-distance missions (e.g., an automated station on Europa or Titan could store research results while waiting to be picked up).
5D optical memory today is at the intersection of science and fiction, but is rapidly moving towards practical realization. A simple quartz crystal becomes an endless book of human history, safely hidden from time and the elements. This technology could fundamentally change the approach to archiving: instead of constantly rewriting data to new media every few years, we get a medium that will live through both us and our civilization. What remains to be solved is “just” the issue of accessibility: create convenient write/read devices and make 5D disks mass-produced. If these obstacles are overcome, in the near future our most valuable knowledge — from national archives to cosmic messages — will be stored on small glass disks that will stand the test of time and space. This gives hope that the memory of our planet will not fade even after billions of years, because 5D-crystals can protect it literally “for eternity”.
