Colonization of the Moon
Colonization of the Moon is a process
Laying claim to the Moon has been declared illegal through international space law and no state has made such claims,[5] despite having a range of probes and artificial remains on the Moon.
While a range of proposals for missions of lunar colonization, exploitation or permanent exploration have been raised, current projects for establishing permanent crewed presence on the Moon are not for colonizing the Moon, but rather focus on building moonbases for exploration and to a lesser extent for exploitation of lunar resources.
The commercialization of the Moon is a contentious issue for national and international lunar regulation and laws (such as the
History
Colonization of the Moon has been imagined as early as the first half of the 17th century by John Wilkins in A Discourse Concerning a New Planet.[7][8]
Colonization of the Moon as a material process has been taking place since the first artificial objects reached the Moon after 1959.
The landing of U.S. astronauts was seen as a precedent for the superiority of the
After U.S. missions in the 1990s suggested the presence of lunar water ice, its actual discovery in the soil at the lunar poles by Chandrayaan-1 (ISRO) in 2008–09 renewed interest in the Moon.[13] A range of moonbases have been proposed by states and public actors. Currently the U.S.-led international Artemis program seeks to establish with private contractors a state run orbital lunar way-station in the 2020s, and China proposed with Russia the so-called International Lunar Research Station to be established in the 2030s and aim for an Earth-Moon Space Economic Zone to develop by 2050.[14]
Current proposals mainly have the goal of exploration, but such proposals and projects have increasingly aimed for enabling exploitation or commercialization of the Moon. This move to exploitation has been criticized as
Missions
Far from being a colony, the temporary Tranquility Base of the first crewed mission to the Moon in 1969, as well as its successor camps of the Apollo missions, has been the closest to a colony on the Moon so far.
Before and since then a permanent
The pursued purpose of such moonbases is broad, but is mostly for space exploration, but also for exploiting and commercializing the Moon and advocating for a lunar and cis-lunar infrastructure, economy and settled society.
The most advanced contemporary missions share this spectrum of purpose, between exploration and exploitation. For example, the leading
These bases are planned to be crewed, but only eventually permanently. Commercial proposals though have suggested building and use of moonbases for tourism and possibly settlement.
Law
Although
The 1967
The 1979 Moon Agreement was created to elaborate, and restrict the exploitation of the Moon's resources by any single nation, leaving it to a yet unspecified international regulatory regime.[26] As of January 2020, it has been signed and ratified by 18 nations,[27] none of which have human spaceflight capabilities.Since 2020, countries have joined the U.S. in their Artemis Accords, which are challenging the treaty. The U.S. has furthermore emphasized in a presidential executive order ("Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.") that "the United States does not view outer space as a 'global commons'" and calls the Moon Agreement "a failed attempt at constraining free enterprise."[28][29]
With Australia signing and ratifying both the Moon Treaty in 1986 as well as the Artemis Accords in 2020, there has been a discussion if they can be harmonized.[30] In this light an Implementation Agreement for the Moon Treaty has been advocated for, as a way to compensate for the shortcomings of the Moon Treaty and to harmonize it with other laws and agreements such as the Artemis Accords, allowing it to be more widely accepted.[31][32]
In the face of such increasing commercial and national interest, particularly prospecting territories, U.S. lawmakers have introduced in late 2020 specific regulation for the conservation of historic landing sites[33] and interest groups have argued for making such sites World Heritage Sites[34] and zones of scientific value protected zones, all of which add to the legal availability and territorialization of the Moon.[35]
In 2021, the Declaration of the Rights of the MoonCritique
Space colonization has been discussed as postcolonial[42] continuation of imperialism and colonialism,[43][44][45][46] calling for decolonization instead of colonization.[47][48] Critics argue that the present politico-legal regimes and their philosophic grounding advantage imperialist development of space,[46] that key decisionmakers in space colonization are often wealthy elites affiliated with private corporations, and that space colonization would primarily appeal to their peers rather than ordinary citizens.[49][50] Furthermore, it is argued that there is a need for inclusive[51] and democratic participation and implementation of any space exploration, infrastructure or habitation.[52][53] According to space law expert Michael Dodge, existing space law, such as the Outer Space Treaty, guarantees access to space, but does not enforce social inclusiveness or regulate non-state actors.[47]
Particularly the narrative of the "New Frontier" has been criticized as unreflected continuation of settler colonialism and manifest destiny, continuing the narrative of exploration as fundamental to the assumed human nature.[54][55][44][49][45] Joon Yun considers space colonization as a solution to human survival and global problems like pollution to be imperialist;[56] others have identified space as a new sacrifice zone of colonialism.[57]
Natalie B. Trevino argues that not colonialism but coloniality will be carried into space if not reflected on.[58][59]
More specifically the advocacy for territorial colonization
More generally space infrastructure such as the Mauna Kea Observatories have also been criticized and protested against as being colonialist.[62] Guiana Space Centre has also been the site of anti-colonial protests, connecting colonization as an issue on Earth and in space.[42]
In regard to the scenario of extraterrestrial first contact it has been argued that the employment of colonial language would endanger such first impressions and encounters.[47]
Furthermore spaceflight as a whole and space law more particularly has been criticized as a postcolonial project by being built on a colonial legacy and by not facilitating the sharing of access to space and its benefits, too often allowing spaceflight to be used to sustain colonialism and imperialism, most of all on Earth instead.[42]Economic prospecting and development
For long-term sustainability, a space colony should be close to self-sufficient. Mining and refining the Moon's materials on-site – for use both on the Moon and elsewhere in the Solar System – could provide an advantage over deliveries from Earth, as they can be launched into space at a much lower energy cost than from Earth. It is possible that large amounts of cargo would need to be launched into space for interplanetary exploration in the 21st century, and the lower cost of providing goods from the Moon might be attractive.[63]
Space-based materials processing
In the long term, the Moon will likely play an important role in supplying space-based construction facilities with raw materials.
Exporting material to Earth
Exporting material to Earth in trade from the Moon is problematic due to the cost of transportation, which would vary greatly if the Moon is industrially developed. One suggested trade commodity is helium-3 (3He) which is carried by the solar wind and accumulated on the Moon's surface over billions of years, but occurs only rarely on Earth.[65] Helium-3 might be present in the lunar regolith in quantities of 0.01 ppm to 0.05 ppm (depending on soil). In 2006 it had a market price of about $1,500 per gram ($1.5M per kilogram), more than 120 times the value per unit weight of gold and over eight times the value of rhodium.
In the future 3He harvested from the Moon may have a role as a fuel in
In 2024, an American startup called Interlune announced plans to mine Helium on the Moon for export back on Earth. The first mission plans to utilize NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program to arrive on the moon.[68]
Exporting propellant obtained from lunar water
To reduce the cost of transport, the Moon could store
Lunar water ice
Lunar scientists had discussed the possibility of water repositories for decades. They are now increasingly "confident that the decades-long debate is over" a report says. "The Moon, in fact, has water in all sorts of places; not just locked up in
It is estimated there is at least 600 million tons of ice at the north pole in sheets of relatively pure ice at least a couple of meters thick.[72]
Solar power satellites
On 30 April 1979, the Final Report "Lunar Resources Utilization for Space Construction" by General Dynamics Convair Division under NASA contract, NAS9-15560 concluded that the use of lunar resources would be cheaper than terrestrial materials for a system comprising as few as thirty Solar Power Satellites of 10 GW capacity each.[74]
In 1980, when NASA's launch cost estimates for the Space Shuttle were grossly optimistic, O'Neill et al. published another route to manufacturing using lunar materials with much lower startup costs.[75] This 1980s SPS concept relied less on human presence in space and more on partially self-replicating systems on the lunar surface under telepresence control of workers stationed on Earth.
See also
- Aurora programme
- Colonization of Mars
- Human outpost
- In situ resource utilization
- Lunar Explorers Society
- Lunar Gateway
- Lunarcrete
- Lunarcy!
- Moon in fiction
- Moon landing
- Moon Society
- National Space Society
- NewSpace
- Planetary defense
- Planetary habitability
- Space architecture
- Space Frontier Foundation
- NASA lunar outpost concepts
- DARPA lunar programs
- Coordinated Lunar Time
References
Notes
- ISBN 9780203992586."Colonization is associated with the occupation of a foreign land, with its being brought under cultivation, with the settlement of colonists. If this definition of the term “colony” is used, the phenomenon dates from the Greek period. Likewise we speak of Athenian, then Roman 'imperialism'."
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General references
- Peter Eckart (2006). The Lunar Base Handbook, 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill. p. 820. ISBN 978-0-07-329444-5.
- Wendell Mendell, ed. (1986). Lunar bases and space activities of the 21st century. Lunar and Planetary Institute. p. 865. ISBN 978-0-942862-02-7.
- G. Jeffrey Taylor (December 23, 2004). "Cosmochemistry and Human Exploration". Planetary Science Research Discoveries.
- G. Jeffrey Taylor (November 21, 2000). "Mining the Moon, Mars, and Asteroids". Planetary Science Research Discoveries.
Further reading
- Resource Utilization Concepts for MoonMars; ByIris Fleischer, Olivia Haider, Morten W. Hansen, Robert Peckyno, Daniel Rosenberg and Robert E. Guinness; 30 September 2003; IAC Bremen, 2003 (29 Sept – 03 Oct 2003) and MoonMars Workshop (26–28 Sept 2003, Bremen). Accessed on 18 January 2010
- Erik Seedhouse (2009). Lunar Outpost: The Challenges of Establishing Human Settlements on the Moon. Springer.
- Madhu Thangavelu; Schrunk, David G.; Burton Sharpe; Bonnie L. Cooper (2008). The Moon: resources, future development, and settlement (2nd ed.). Springer. ISBN 978-0-387-36055-3.
External links
- Nozette S, et al. (November 1996). "The Clementine bistatic radar experiment". Science. 274 (5292): 1495–8. PMID 8929403.
- NASA Ames Research Center Eureka! Ice found at Lunar Poles. Retrieved December 18, 2004.
- Cornell News Arecibo radar shows no evidence of thick ice at lunar poles (...). Retrieved December 18, 2004.
- NASA Johnson Space Centre Liftoff! Moon Base Alpha. Last checked January 20, 2005.
- Encyclopedia Astronautica Subcategory: – Manned – Lunar rover. Retrieved December 20, 2004.
- The vision for space exploration Archived February 11, 2021, at the Wayback Machine, NASA.
- How Stuff Works – What if we lived on the moon? Retrieved 15 March 2007.
- Wiki devoted to the return to the Moon – Lunarpedia
- OpenLuna Foundation OpenLuna.org
- Elements of a south polar lunar settlement [1]
- Building a lunar base with 3D printing (ESA)
- Moon Storage: One Small Space For Man, One Giant Space For Mankind Moon Storage Infographic. Retrieved September 1, 2014.
- Researchers are ramping up plans for living on the Moon