The struggle for Moon’s limited resources could lead to a “conflict” between governments and private companies, scientists fear

Scientists fear the Moon may be looted too quickly by private companies hoping to extract its precious resources, new research has speculated.

Lack of International Policies and Agreements Could Cause Tensions, Overcrowding, and Rapid Expansion of Lunar Mining Projects, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian says in a new article.

Water and iron are particularly valuable resources that could be harvested by the Moon, which would help companies build infrastructure and develop agriculture, as well as allow them to avoid the huge expense of transporting such materials from Earth.

“Many people think of space as a place of peace and harmony between nations. The problem is that there is no law to regulate who can use the resources, and there are a significant number of space agencies and others in the private sector that target. will land on the moon within the next five years, “said Martin Elvis, astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and the lead author of the article, which was published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

“We looked at all the maps of the Moon we could find and found that not many places had resources of interest, and those that did were very small. This creates a lot of room for conflict over certain resources.”

Existing treaties, such as the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, do not offer solid protection of celestial bodies from corporations. The Outer Space Treaty states that “the moon and other celestial bodies are to be used by all states parties to the treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes,” but it is not exclusive to governments.

The United States insisted on a clause allowing commercial companies to explore space as long as they “require continued authorization and supervision” from the government, contrary to the Russian view that space exploration should be limited to governments.

A subsequent treaty, the 1979 Moon Treaty, has not been ratified by any state that engages in self-launched space flights such as the United States, Russia, China, Japan or members of the European Space Agency.

“It seeks to address the issue of ownership of resources obtained from space, and it has actually been practically rejected by the international community,” said Dr Jill Stuart, head of space policy at the London School of Economics previously. The independent.

In 2020, the Artemis Agreements were announced, which are a series of agreements that require countries working with the United States to return to the moon to commit to transparency in their work, to explore space only for “peaceful purposes” and to ensure they work. together to save astronauts who have come into danger during a mission. However, this still does not protect celestial bodies from being over-exploited for resources.

“The biggest problem is that they all point to the same sites and resources: states, private companies, everyone. But they are limited sites and resources. We don’t have a second moon to move to. That’s all we have to work with.” Alanna Krolikowski, an assistant professor of technology science and policy at Missouri University of Science and Technology, and co-author of the paper, said in a statement.

“While a comprehensive international legal regime for the management of space resources remains a distant prospect, important conceptual foundations already exist and we can begin to implement, or at least deliberate, concrete local measures to address the problems anticipated at specific sites today.”

Governments should also identify the worst outcomes, such as overcrowding and interference at each site, and use them as the basis for legislation, Krolikowski added.

Existing laws protecting common pool resources, such as oceans or local lakes on Earth, could be used as the basis for these regulations, but policymakers need to decide how to classify these resources.

“Are these assets, for example, areas of real estate at the high-value peaks of eternal light, where the sun shines almost continuously, or are they units of energy to be generated by the solar panels installed there? At what level can they realistically How should they be? Are the benefits of these activities distributed? Developing agreement on these issues is a likely precondition for the successful coordination of activities at these uniquely attractive lunar sites, “Krolikowski said.