13 July 2019 | New Scientist | 45to be harder than it is on Earth, says Moriba Jah,
who studies space debris at the University of
Texas at Austin. “If people don’t see it hit their
pocket, they don’t get very concerned with it,”
says Jah. “But near-Earth space, and other
planetary resources, are a commons. It belongs
to all peoples. Going by the premise of first-
come, first-served, without any regard to the
long-term sustainability of the environment,
is just not right.”
Today, the laws of space are governed by
the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which rules
that celestial bodies, including the moon, can’t
be claimed by any country or enterprise. But
the treaty doesn’t prohibit mining or other
activities. The 108 nations that are parties
to the treaty, as well as private companies,
all operate as though the moon is similar to
international waters. Two hundred nautical
miles from a coastline, the oceans belong to
everyone and no one. The countries that can
access that territory will be the first to access
its contents, and possibly get rich from it.
There is one other perspective to consider:
that of the moon itself. An average person’s
lifespan is a blip compared with the time
that has elapsed since the moon formed.
“This gives humans a very unrealistic sense
of time, with a sense of urgency to accomplish
as much as possible within those 70 years,”
wrote Vera Assis Fernandes, at the University
of Manchester, UK, in a recent essay. She argues
that a truly sustainable lunar environment
would mean leaving it alone.
“The celestial body closest to the Earth
is an important, powerful and fragile
environment that needs to be understood
and taken into consideration before we set
sail to it again,” she wrote. “Have we ever
asked why humans want to return to the
moon and then colonise it? There is a need
to acknowledge the moon as an entity
beyond ourselves that needs to be respected.”
Walkowicz says the next wave of lunar
missions can do better if we think ahead and
have inclusivity in mind. “Going to space is
hard. If it’s going to be hard in the engineering
sense, then why pretend that the human
community and inclusion is too hard?”
Walkowicz says. “If we’re going to be patting
ourselves on the back for doing the hard
things, we might as well do all of them.” ❚pole may, for instance, cross paths with radio
astronomers erecting an observatory on the
moon’s far side. From that vantage point,
the moon blocks radio transmissions and
noise leaking from Earth. This real estate is
potentially so valuable that Claudio Maccone
at the National Institute for Astrophysics in
Italy recently called for a radio-free zone on the
far side. If that is to be realised, governments
and private entities may need to establish
firmer rules for how the moon should be used.
Some argue that the moon should be treated
like a national park, with rules designed to
keep it pristine. But the legal framework for
doing this is unclear, says Sara Langston, a
space ethicist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University in Daytona Beach, Florida. “If we
want to establish some normative framework
that creates a duty of humans to the moon
as another environmental area, what does
that mean?” she says. It could be that not just
governments, but scientists and citizens
ought to have a part in setting the rules.
But recognising the intrinsic value of the
environment on the moon is probably goingRebecca Boyle is a freelance writer
in St Louis, Missouri. She is writing a
book about humanity’s relationship
with the moon“ Maybe the moon will
be a reserve where
mining is prohibited
but tourists enjoy
extreme hiking”
51 hours 49 minutes
The time it took Apollo 11 to get
from Earth to lunar orbit187,000 kg
Estimated mass of
rubbish left on the mooncrew. Named after Apollo’s sister, a Greek
goddess of the moon, the mission will include
an orbiting lunar space station enabling sorties
to the moon’s surface.
China is also developing the hardware it will
need to land its taikonauts on the moon. In
2018, the country accelerated development of
its Long March 9 rocket, similar in size to the
Saturn V that launched the Apollo missions.
Chinese officials have said the rocket will
power its first lunar surface missions in the
2030s. China’s plans may be one reason for the
sudden US interest in returning to the moon
within the next five years, instead of NASA’s
original plan for a 2028 time frame.
If the next moonwalkers aren’t Chinese
taikonauts or female NASA crew members
searching for water, maybe they will be space
miners sent by Jeff Bezos. In May, the Amazon
boss, also founder of rocket company Blue
Origin, unveiled a new lunar lander design
called Blue Moon. He said the lander would
help NASA meet Trump’s goal to send
astronauts to the moon by 2024. “It’s time to
go back to the moon, this time to stay,” Bezos
said during the announcement.
Citizens of the moon
If China, the US and private companies make
it to the moon, they might encounter an
international moon village, a plan espoused
by the European Space Agency’s director
general, Jan Woerner. Future moon citizens
could include all of the above, mixing jobs and
objectives. Taikonauts exploring at the south
NASA is among those
planning a base on the
moon, envisaging
habitations (far left) as
part of a larger complex
(left). Meanwhile, the use
of robots for lunar mining is
tested on Earth (centre left)