Science and business are heading for an astronomical collision – over the future exploration of the moon and the exploitation of its resources. The celestial skirmish threatens to break out over companies’ plans to launch dozens of probes to survey the lunar landscape over the next few years. An early pioneer – Peregrine mission one – is set for launch this week.
The purpose of this extraterrestrial armada – largely funded by Nasa’s $2.6 billion Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) initiative – is to explore the moon so that minerals, water and other resources can be exploited to build permanent, habitable bases there. This would later provide a springboard for manned missions to Mars.
But astronomers have warned that an unbridled rush to exploit the moon could cause irreparable damage to precious scientific sites. Gravitational wave research, black hole observations, studies of life on small worlds orbiting distant stars, and other research could be jeopardized, they say.
“The issue has become urgent,” Martin Elvis, of the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsoniantell the Observer. “We must act now because decisions made today will set the tone for our future behavior on the moon.”
This point was supported by astronomer Professor Richard Green, of the University of Arizona. “We are not trying to block the construction of lunar bases. However, there are only a handful of promising sites out there and some of these are incredibly valuable scientifically. We have to be very, very careful where we build our mines and bases.”
Later this month, a working group – recently established by the International Astronomical Union and led by Green – will meet with UN officials to begin negotiations that, it is hoped, will lead to a strengthening of legislation for the protection of interplanetary resources. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty prevents nations from making territorial claims on celestial bodies, but says nothing about space exploration and resource extraction, the journal Science recently warned.
An illustration of the problem facing scientists was highlighted by Green: “It has been discovered that some deep lunar craters have been shrouded in shadow since the moon formed billions of years ago. Sunlight has never reached their floors and so they are incredibly cold – probably only a few dozen degrees above absolute zero. And that makes them scientifically very valuable.”
Craters like this would be ideal for housing delicate scientific instruments – for example, infrared telescopes that need to be constantly cooled – and there are plans to build such an observatory, one powerful enough to observe distant, faint stars that might small rocky planets in orbit around them. “These are ideal places to look for life, but they lie outside the boundaries of current observatories,” Green said.
It is also thought that these lightless craters may contain water in the form of supercold ice that did not evaporate as it did elsewhere on the moon during its early history. This sunless sea of ice could reveal precious information about the history of water’s arrival, possibly via comets, on the moon – and on nearby Earth where it played a key role in the emergence of life.
However, craters filled with ice will also be invaluable in the eyes of lunar colonizers and will become irresistible targets for companies and astronauts establishing colonies. “Water is going to be incredibly important for people on the moon, but we have to make sure it’s taken from places that aren’t scientifically irreplaceable,” Elvis said.
Another key site has been earmarked by radio astronomers. It lies on the other side of the moon, which is shielded from the chaotic radio emissions pouring in from Earth. It would be an ideal place to set up a giant telescope that could – without interference – detect ultra-low radio waves emanating from the early universe and which would provide crucial information about the formation of the first galaxies.
But Nasa — and other space agencies — have plans to circle the moon with satellites to control robotic rovers and other devices on the lunar surface. Radio signals leaking from this could ruin the sensitivity of the proposed radio telescope on the other side.
Currently, building lunar bases and mines is still a distant goal for space engineers. Prospecting for resources is just beginning – although it will soon make headlines. Besides Peregrine, many other lunar probes are scheduled to launch this year as the Nasa CLPS program begins in earnest. Many, like Peregrine, will be built and launched by private companies and will include Viper, a robotic rover that will explore the moon’s south pole; Lunar Trailblazer which will probe its surface for water; and Artemis II which is scheduled to put a four-person crew into lunar orbit later this year.
In this way, the sites of resources that will be crucial for building and managing colonies will be revealed. Many early robotic missions will fail and the route to lunar exploitation will be strewn with setbacks. Nevertheless, lunar industrialization now seems a real prospect. This will help science by lowering launch costs, but astronomers stress, must not involve the reckless destruction of sites that are unique to the moon and invaluable to science.
“The problem is that it takes a long time to make changes to UN treaties, so we need to act now if we are to have any hope of making sure we have international agreements in place to protect the unique scientific features of the moon. to protect and ensure they are not destroyed by thoughtless exploitation,” said Green.
