Plans to save civilization from doom by sending people and important documents into space in a 21st Century Noah's Ark may get a boost from heightened fears of bioterrorism.

Psychologists, terrorism analysts and some space-settlement enthusiasts interviewed by SPACE.com said fear is the wrong motivation for any effort to colonize the cosmos. But it might just work, others indicated, as the pie-in-the-sky dream of moving to another planet meets the reality of biological terrorism on this planet.

Expect to pay your way to survival, however, at least in the short run.

Robert R. Butterworth, a psychologist versed in society-wide crises, calls the idea of leaving the planet "a 21st Century response to an age-old threat."

Butterworth recalls a similar sense of dread that developed late in the last century. "During the Cuban missile crisis the only reaction was to dig down and build fallout shelters in the face of a nuclear threat," he said. "Now instead of digging down we're talking about flying out?"

To consider current threats as a motivation to leave the planet means "we've resigned ourselves to the fact that the bad guys are going to win," Butterworth said. "That's not a very hopeful reason to do anything."

One idea for an Ark is actually called ARC, for the Alliance to Rescue Civilization. And if it flies, everything from DNA to important architectural drawings would make their way to the Moon, a futuristic spaceport, or some other safe haven. A select group of individuals would go, too, to maintain the monumental archive and to round out, with live bodies, what is billed as a way to save civilization no matter what happens on Earth.

It's the sort of scheme that since the dawn of the nuclear age has driven the desire to colonize space.

Yet the desire has long been scoffed at, generating what proponents acknowledge as a significant societal giggle factor tied to the sci-fi images conjured by such an endeavor. These proponents have fought an uphill political and financial battle to get the notion of sending humans beyond Earth orbit back on NASA's agenda.

They have yet to succeed. The space agency has no firm plans to send astronauts beyond the International Space Station.

So in recent years, many of the movement's most vocal supporters have given up on NASA. Private enterprise is the only hope, they say, and the almighty dollar will drive any serious effort to put people on the Moon, Mars or anywhere else.

ARC is the brainchild of William E. Burrows, author of This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age, and several other books about space, who is also a New York University journalism professor. He's been hatching the concept for more than a year.

"It's a deadly serious idea," Burrows said in a telephone interview.

"It's not a time capsule," he explained, "but a continuously fed system by which we would in effect back up the planetary 'hard-drive' system." It would involve sequestering people, genetic codes, important engineering and historical documents, photographs and cultural items. "Everything we can get out of here."

Burrows is not counting on any governmental agency to support his plan. Nor does he expect the current threat of bioterrorism to compel average citizens to jump aboard, two-by-two.

"Space is an elite undertaking," he said. "Not everyone came out to say goodbye to Columbus. Most people want three square meals a day and a roof over their heads."

"We are developing a possible project with [Burrows]," Tumlinson told SPACE.com. He said the parties are discussing how to fund the necessary buildup for the ARC program, preliminary steps that would, if carried out, lead to eventually placing the first documents and people on the Moon or elsewhere in space.

No agreement has been reached.

"Going to space requires the cumulative effect of a lot of desires and activities," he said.

While Tumlinson's goal is to popularize space and to make it accessible to everyone, he acknowledges that money will largely control who goes and who stays in the near future.

Ultimately, in Tumlinson's view, free enterprise would bring the cost of space travel down so average citizens could get a new, totally cosmic address.

We're talking decades down the road, however, even by optimistic estimates.

Meanwhile, Tumlinson said a silver lining could emerge from the current cloud of terrorism and anthrax scares that have raised fears among Americans.

"If this makes people think about mortality ... then in a way this ugly, terrible thing has done something good," he said. "If we begin to put mechanisms in place to insure the survival of civilization, then there is a rainbow in this storm."