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Everyone is planning to return to the moon. At least 10 missions by half a dozen nations are scheduled before the end of 2021, and that's only the beginning.
Even though there are international treaties governing outer space, ambiguity remains about how individuals, nations and corporations can use lunar resources.
In all of this, the moon is seen as an inert object with no value in its own right.
But should we treat this celestial object, which has been part of the culture of every hominin for millions of years, as just another resource?
[...] As a thought experiment in how we might regulate lunar exploitation, some have asked whether the moon should be granted legal personhood, which would give it the right to enter into contracts, own property, and sue other persons.
Legal personhood is already extended to many non-human entities: certain rivers, deities in some parts of India, and corporations worldwide. Environmental features can't speak for themselves, so trustees are appointed to act on their behalf, as is the case for the Whanganui River in New Zealand. One proposal is to apply the New Zealand model to the moon.
[...] Can we support the legal concept of personhood for the moon with actual features of personhood?
Journal Reference:
Eytan Tepper, Christopher Whitehead. Moon, Inc.: The New Zealand Model of Granting Legal Personality to Natural Resources Applied to Space, New Space (DOI: 10.1089/space.2018.0025)
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday September 05 2020, @09:28PM (1 child)
"Lunar mining" is pretty non-specific. There's probably nothing stopping it from happening in the 2030s, but it probably wouldn't be an industrial activity, just minor research stuff.
Asteroid mining could be pursued more immediately, if someone puts in the work to figure out how to exploit the resources in space, or better yet, land them on Earth. Of course, cheap $/kg Starship launches are needed to make any of this profitable.
I am even more generous with "looms". The Moon has been seen as sacred, etc. for all of human history, and on that timeframe, big changes are coming to the Moon in mere decades. Although it would take some serious human activity to affect how the Moon looks to the naked eye, and we could agree to concentrate most activity on the poles and the far side (manned bases at the poles, giant radio telescopes on the far side).
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Saturday September 05 2020, @10:23PM
Mining asteroids is definitely where the big high-stakes money is at - but to do that we're going to need to send a lot of rockets worth of supplies to the asteroid belt. Which means demand for a whole lot of rocket fuel in Earth orbit at $50M a tank.
In comparison, mining the moon for oxygen to propel the rockets going to the asteroid belt rockets is the simple, reliable money - akin to the people making reliable money shelling shovels to prospectors. Dump (powdered?) sand into reactor vessel, extract oxygen, purify, liquefy.