Scientific American - USA (2019-07)

80 Scientific American, July 2019

MATTHEW STAVER

Getty Images

( photograph

);

P. CARRIL

European Space Agency

( illustration

)

HUMANITY FIRST WENT TO THE

MOON TO MAKE A POINT. NOW

IT’S TIME TO OVERCOME RIVALRIES

AND PITCH IN TOGETHER

By Clara Moskowitz

COME ONE,

COME ALL

Without the cold war, Apollo 11

never would have happened.

The urge to beat the Soviets to

the moon and prove U.S. techno-

logical superiority motivated

Congress to devote almost 4.5  per-

cent of the U.S. national budget to

nasa at the peak of the space race

in 1966. Yet after the first moon

landing three years later, the

agency never again received more than 2  percent of the budget,

and it has gotten around half a percent every year since 2010.

These days national prestige is not enough of an incentive

for most countries to go it alone in space. If we are to travel

again to another planetary body, it will have to be together.

This idea has perhaps been expressed most vociferously by

Johann-Dietrich (“Jan”) Wörner, director general of the Europe-

an Space Agency (ESA). In 2015 Wörner introduced his vision

for the “Moon Village,” a cooperative campsite of sorts on the lu-

nar surface. Countries, private companies, universities, non-

profits and individuals are welcome to send people, robots, and

all manner of scientific, exploratory and commercial

ventures to take part. And to back up the Moon Village’s inter-

national and collaborative bona fides, the project is officially

being organized not by ESA but by a Vienna-based nongovern-

mental organization called the Moon Village Association, which

1969

APOLLO 11

ANNIVERSARY

2019

50

years

JAN WÖRNER

ESA director general

SCIENTIFIC and commercial

activities by multiple nations

and companies could coexist

in the Moon Village.