The Isle of Man is posting stamps to the Moon as part of a ground-breaking mission to explore the possibility of space as an ultra-secure, extra-planetary storage location.

Lonestar, who provide premium secure storage to customers from the world’s ultimate off-site backup locations, are teaming up with the Isle of Man to conduct pioneering research into the use of space as a secure ‘vacuum-gapped’ location to securely store and transfer data.

Together with the Isle of Man Post Office, Digital Isle of Man – an executive agency within the Department for Enterprise – has used the expertise in the island’s blockchain industry to digitise exclusive stamps that will be posted to the moon and back, working via Lonestar’s lunar data centre.

The stamps are the first digital stamps ever used by the Isle of Man Post Office, and will feature different versions of the famous Triskelion flag, representing each of the secondary schools on the island.

Tim Johnstone MHK, the Minister for Enterprise, said: ‘This is an incredible opportunity for the Isle of Man to build on its long history of innovation in the space sector and launch a truly unique space mission.’

He added: ‘It is yet another example of how the island is leading the way in pioneering new developments for businesses.’