“We're just at the beginning of exploring the moon,” said Leslie Tennen. (File)
Washington:
A series of unconventional, privately funded plans to exploit the moon, including as a site for human ashes and sports drink containers, have gathered steam in recent years as NASA tries to make Earth's natural satellite more accessible.
Concerns about possible gaps in U.S. surveillance and legal questions about the proper use of the moon have come to the fore.
Landers built by private companies and emerging space powers are expected to reach the moon along with the American flag and other remnants of previous programs in the coming years. Other initiatives could include using the moon as a location for capsules containing human remains, advertising sports drinks, and perhaps even a two-story Christian cross made from the dirt of the moon itself.
“We are only at the beginning of exploring the moon, and… we must be careful not to contaminate it — not just with biological and chemical contamination, but also with litter,” said Leslie Tennen, an attorney concerned with international space travel. law.
Among the cargo aboard a recent private lunar mission by US company Astrobotic – which ultimately failed to reach the lunar surface – were dozens of capsules containing human ashes and a can of Japanese sports drink Pocari Sweat. The exact purpose of the can was unclear.
Under U.S. law, these objects and anything else can go to the moon as long as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies confirm that launching a rocket from Earth “does not endanger public health and safety…the national security of the U.S. … or international obligations of the United States.”
The issue will gain more attention as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration relies heavily on private companies to lower the costs of its trips to the moon. Currently, there are no U.S. laws or standards describing what is acceptable on the surface of the celestial body. NASA envisions moon bases for the long term and hopes to foster a competitive commercial market.
Lawyers with space expertise worry that the lack of regulation could pit U.S. companies against other countries operating on the lunar surface or create international disputes over which private efforts could be viewed as land appropriation or claims on sovereignty.
Due to the lack of guidelines, some people are aware of the possibilities.
Justin Park, a Washington, D.C., entrepreneur, wants to build a Christian cross on the moon possibly as tall as a two-story building and made from hardened lunar dirt, an estimated $1 billion venture he has discussed with U.S. lawmakers and Catholic organizations. .
“No one owns the moon,” Park said. “You don't want to step on traditions, but you can't stop the rest of the world.” Overly restrictive regulations on lunar activities would, he said, “destroy an industry before it gets off the ground.”
'RELIGIOUS TEST'
Texas-based Celestis, which launches cremated human remains into space and has arranged the ashes on Astrobotic's Peregrine lander, angered the Navajo nation, which considers the moon sacred and the company's memorial mission sacrilege considers.
Celestis CEO Charles Schafer said commemorations of the dead in space are inevitable as more humans traverse the cosmos.
“We don't make decisions about space missions based on a religious test,” Schafer said. “I have a photo of 20,000 Buddhist monks celebrating our launch. So which religion rules?”
NASA officials who oversee the program that helped fund Astrobotic's mission have said they have no control over what companies put on their landers, and that standards for payloads could be created in the future.
“You'll see this evolve quite a bit over time,” said Chris Culbert, head of NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. “But I think the first step is a successful landing – that's what we care about most in these early steps.”
Some officials at NASA and space agencies from other countries have privately viewed the ash and sports drink as obstacles and waste that would set a negative precedent, according to two U.S. officials who asked not to be identified.
With another private U.S. lunar lander set to launch next month, the lack of lunar regulation threatens to bring Washington into conflict with the widely ratified 1967 Outer Space Treaty, advocates say. That pact says that countries must authorize and monitor the activities of non-governmental entities.
That raises the stakes for the space industry, the Biden administration and lawmakers who have battled for months over how to regulate new commercial space activities, with industry groups pushing back against what they call innovation-stifling regulations.
Few countries have adopted standards for moon behavior and the rules remain unclear under international law, lawyers said.
Some believe that too little has been done internationally to control lunar behavior.
“We are already late, and we must start now very urgently to discuss the moon at the international level,” said Martha Mejía-Kaiser, a Mexican-German space lawyer and board member of the International Institute of Space Law.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
