Colonization of the Moon

Colonization of the Moon or Lunar settlement is a process,^[1] or concept employed by some proposals, for claiming robotic^[2][3] or human exploitation and settlement on the Moon.

NASA concept art of an envisioned lunar mining facility.

Laying claim to the Moon has been declared illegal through international space law and no state has made such claims,^[4] 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 Moon treaty).^[5]

History

Further information: Exploration of the Moon, Moon § Human presence, and Space colonization

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.^[6][7]

Colonization of the Moon as a material process has been taking place since the first artificial objects reached the Moon after 1959. Luna landers scattered pennants of the Soviet Union on the Moon, and U.S. flags were symbolically planted at their landing sites by the Apollo astronauts, but no nation claims ownership of any part of the Moon's surface.^[8] Russia, China, India, and the U.S. are party to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,^[9] which defines the Moon and all outer space as the "province of all mankind",^[8] restricting the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes and explicitly banning military installations and weapons of mass destruction from the Moon.^[10]

The landing of US Astronauts was seen as a precedence for the superiority of the free-market socioeconomic model of the US, and in this case as the successful model for space flight, exploration and ultimately human presence in the form of colonization. In the 1970s the word and goal of colonization was discouraged by NASA and funds as well as focus shifted away from the Moon and particularly to Mars. But the US eventually nevertheless opposed the 1979 Moon Agreement which aimed to restrict the exploitation of the Moon and its resources. Subsequently, the treaty has been signed and ratified by only 18 nations, as of January 2020,^[11] none of which engage in self-launched human space exploration.

After US 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.^[12] A range of moonbases have been proposed by states and public actors. Currently the US-led international Artemis program seeks to establish with private contractors a state run orbital lunar way-station in the 2020s, and China advances with Russia to establish the International Lunar Research Station in the 2030s. Mainly proposed to serve the goal of exploration such proposals and ongoing projects have increasingly also aimed for enabling exploitation or commercialization of the Moon, something that has been criticized as colonialism and contrasted by proposals such as the Declaration of the Rights of the Moon,^[13] drawing on the concept of the Rights of Nature for a legal personality of non-human entities in space.^[14] China has called for an Earth-Moon Special Economic Zone to be established by 2050.^[15]

Missions

Further information: Moonbase and Space advocacy

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 human presence through colonization of the Moon has been pursued and advocated for by a range of civil actors and space advocacy groups. But most importantly different countries have been putting forward concepts and plans for not only new crewed expeditions, but also for moonbases.

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 Artemis program and International Lunar Research Station projects, while focusing on exploration, they do both mention prospecting for lunar resource extraction for in-situ resource utilization as an objective,^[16] in the case of the American policy including that the Artemis program should furthermore enable resource commercialization and private enterprise.^[12]

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.

Critique

This section is an excerpt from Space colonization § Colonialism.[edit]

 

Gemini 5 mission badge (1965) connecting spaceflight to colonial endeavours.^[17]

 

The logo and name of the Lunar Gateway references the St. Louis Gateway Arch,^[18] associating Mars with the American frontier and the manifest destiny mentality of American settler colonialism.^[19]

Space colonization has been discussed as postcolonial^[20] continuation of imperialism and colonialism,^{[21][22][23][24]} calling for decolonization instead of colonization.^[25][26] Critics argue that the present politico-legal regimes and their philosophic grounding advantage imperialist development of space^[24] and 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.^[27][28] Furthermore, it is argued that there is a need for inclusive^[29] and democratic participation and implementation of any space exploration, infrastructure or habitation.^[30][31] 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.^[25]

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.^{[32][33][22][27][23]} Joon Yun considers space colonization as a solution to human survival and global problems like pollution to be imperialist,^[34] as such others have identified space as a new sacrifice zone of colonialism.^[35]

Natalie B. Trevino argues that not colonialism but coloniality will be carried into space if not reflected on.^[36][37]

More specifically the advocacy for territorial colonization of Mars opposed to habitation in the atmospheric space of Venus has been called surfacism,^[38][39] a concept similar to Thomas Golds surface chauvinism.

More generally space infrastructure such as the Mauna Kea Observatories have also been criticized and protested against as being colonialist.^[40] Guiana Space Centre has also been the site of anti-colonial protests, connecting colonization as an issue on Earth and in space.^[20]

In regard to the scenario of extraterrestrial first contact it has been argued that being used to employ colonial language would endanger such first impressions and encounters.^[25]

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.^[20]

Economic prospecting and development

Main articles: Lunar habitation, Commercial use of space, and Lunar resources

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.^[41]

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.^[42] Microgravity in space allows for the processing of materials in ways impossible or difficult on Earth, such as "foaming" metals, where a gas is injected into a molten metal, and then the metal is annealed slowly. On Earth, gas bubbles may rise or fall due to their relative density to air, but in a zero gravity environment this does not happen. The annealing process requires large amounts of energy, as a material is kept very hot for an extended period of time (allowing the molecular structure to realign), and this too may be more efficient in space, as the vacuum drastically reduces all heat transfer except through radiative heat loss.

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 (see "Launch costs" above). 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.^[43] 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 thermonuclear fusion reactors.^[43][44] It should require about 100 metric tons (220,000 lb) of helium-3 to produce the electricity that Earth uses in a year and there should be enough on the Moon to provide that much for 10,000 years.^[45]

Exporting propellant obtained from lunar water

To reduce the cost of transport, the Moon could store propellants produced from lunar water at one or several depots between the Earth and the Moon, to resupply rockets or satellites in Earth orbit.^[46]

Lunar water ice

Main article: Lunar water

Video of the lunar south pole, showing areas of permanent shadow over several months (several lunar days)

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 minerals, but scattered throughout the broken-up surface, and, potentially, in blocks or sheets of ice at depth." The results from the Chandrayaan mission are also "offering a wide array of watery signals."^[47][48]

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.^[49]

Solar power satellites

Gerard K. O'Neill, noting the problem of high launch costs in the early 1970s, came up with the idea of building Solar Power Satellites in orbit with materials from the Moon.^[50] Launch costs from the Moon would vary significantly if the Moon is industrially developed (see "Launch costs" above). This proposal was based on the contemporary estimates of future launch costs of the Space Shuttle.

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.^[51]

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.^[52] 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

•  Spaceflight portal
•  Solar System portal

• Aurora programme
• Colonization of Mars
• Federation of Galaxy Explorers
• Human outpost
• In situ resource utilization
• Lunar Explorers Society
• 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

References

Notes

1. Marc Ferro (1997). Colonization. Routledge. p. 1. doi:10.4324/9780203992586. 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'."
2. "Japan vs. NASA in the Next Space Race: Lunar Robonauts". Fast Company. May 28, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
3. "SOLAR SYSTEM EXPLORATION RESEARCH". Retrieved August 11, 2017.
4. Rothwell, Donald R; Saunders, Imogen (July 25, 2019). "Does a US flag on the Moon amount to a claim of sovereignty under law?". Lowy Institute. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
5. Davies, Rob (February 6, 2016). "Asteroid mining could be space's new frontier: the problem is doing it legally". The Guardian.
6. Caroline Haskins (August 14, 2018). "THE RACIST LANGUAGE OF SPACE EXPLORATION". Retrieved November 1, 2020.
7. Johnson, S. W.; Leonard, R. S. (1985). "Evolution of Concepts for Lunar Bases". Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century. Lunar Bases and Space Activities of the 21st Century. Houston: Lunar and Planetary Institute. p. 48. Bibcode:1985lbsa.conf...47J.
8. "Can any State claim a part of outer space as its own?". United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. from the original on April 21, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
9. "How many States have signed and ratified the five international treaties governing outer space?". United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. January 1, 2006. from the original on April 21, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
10. "Do the five international treaties regulate military activities in outer space?". United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. from the original on April 21, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
11. "Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies". United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. from the original on August 9, 2010. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
12. Alvarez, Tamara (January 1, 2020). The Eighth Continent: An Ethnography of Twenty-First Century Euro-American Plans to Settle the Moon (Thesis). p. 59. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
13. "Declaration of the Rights of the Moon". Australian Earth Laws Alliance. February 11, 2021. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
14. Tepper, Eytan; Whitehead, Christopher (December 1, 2018). "Moon, Inc.: The New Zealand Model of Granting Legal Personality to Natural Resources Applied to Space". New Space. 6 (4): 288–298. Bibcode:2018NewSp...6..288T. doi:10.1089/space.2018.0025. ISSN 2168-0256. S2CID 158616075.
15. Pillow, Liz (February 16, 2020). "From a farside first to cislunar dominance? China appears to want to establish 'space economic zone' worth trillions". SpaceNews. Retrieved October 23, 2022.
16. "International Lunar Research Station (ILRS) Guide for Partnership". CNSA. June 16, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2021.
17. Roger Launius (June 8, 2011). "Reconsidering the Foundations of Human Spaceflight in the 1950s". Roger Launius's Blog. Retrieved September 6, 2021.
18. Robert Z. Pearlman (September 18, 2019). "NASA Reveals New Gateway Logo for Artemis Lunar Orbit Way Station". Space.com. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
19. "As Gateway Arch Turns 50, Its Message Gets Reframed". NPR.org. October 28, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
20. Durrani, Haris (July 19, 2019). "Is Spaceflight Colonialism?". The Nation. Retrieved October 2, 2020.
21. Gabrielle Cornish (July 22, 2019). "How imperialism shaped the race to the moon". The Washington Post. from the original on July 23, 2019. Retrieved September 19, 2019.
22. Caroline Haskins (August 14, 2018). "The racist language of space exploration". The Outline. from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
23. Drake, Nadia (November 9, 2018). "We need to change the way we talk about space exploration". National Geographic. from the original on October 16, 2019. Retrieved October 19, 2019.
24. Alan Marshall (February 1995). "Development and imperialism in space". Space Policy. 11 (1): 41–52. Bibcode:1995SpPol..11...41M. doi:10.1016/0265-9646(95)93233-B. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
25. Bartels, Meghan (May 25, 2018). "People are calling for a movement to decolonize space—here's why". Newsweek. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
26. "We need to change the way we talk about space exploration". Science. November 9, 2018. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
27. DNLee (March 26, 2015). "When discussing Humanity's next move to space, the language we use matters". Scientific American. from the original on September 14, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
28. Keith A. Spencer (October 8, 2017). "Against Mars-a-Lago: Why SpaceX's Mars colonization plan should terrify you". Salon.com. from the original on September 19, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
29. Zuleyka Zevallos (March 26, 2015). "Rethinking the Narrative of Mars Colonisation". Other Sociologist. from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
30. Tavares, Frank; Buckner, Denise; Burton, Dana; McKaig, Jordan; Prem, Parvathy; Ravanis, Eleni; Trevino, Natalie; Venkatesan, Aparna; Vance, Steven D.; Vidaurri, Monica; Walkowicz, Lucianne; Wilhelm, Mary Beth (October 15, 2020). "Ethical Exploration and the Role of Planetary Protection in Disrupting Colonial Practices". arXiv:2010.08344v2 [astro-ph.IM].
31. Keith A. Spencer (May 2, 2017). "Keep the Red Planet Red". Jacobin. from the original on November 3, 2019. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
32. Schaberg, Christopher (March 30, 2021). "We're Already Colonizing Mars". Slate Magazine. Retrieved September 8, 2021.
33. Renstrom, Joelle (March 18, 2021). "The Troubling Rhetoric of Space Exploration". Undark Magazine. Retrieved August 15, 2021.
34. Joon Yun (January 2, 2020). "The Problem With Today's Ideas About Space Exploration". Worth.com. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
35. Calma, Justine (July 21, 2021). "Jeff Bezos eyes space as a new 'sacrifice zone'". The Verge. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
36. "What is the legacy of colonialism on space exploration?". Filling Space. February 18, 2021. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
37. Trevino, Natalie B (January 4, 2021). "The Cosmos is Not Finished". Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. Retrieved September 9, 2021.
38. Tickle, Glen (March 5, 2015). "A Look into Whether Humans Should Try to Colonize Venus Instead of Mars". Laughing Squid. Retrieved September 1, 2021.
39. David Warmflash (March 14, 2017). "Colonization of the Venusian Clouds: Is 'Surfacism' Clouding Our Judgement?". Vision Learning. Retrieved September 20, 2019.
40. Matson, Zannah Mae; Nunn, Neil (September 6, 2021). "Space Infrastructure, Empire, And The Final Frontier: What The Mauna Kea Land Defenders Teach Us About Colonial Totality". Society & Space. Retrieved September 7, 2021.
41. Tung Dju (T. D.) Lin, cited via James, Barry (February 13, 1992). . International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on November 24, 2006. Retrieved December 24, 2006.
42. "Lunar base". RussianSpaceWeb.com. Retrieved December 24, 2006.
43. Mining the Moon. Mark Williams Pontin, MIT Technology Review. August 23, 2007.
44. . Archived from the original on June 9, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
45. Shameem Kazmi. "Moon Mining: Myth or reality?". earthtimes.org. Retrieved June 12, 2015.
46. Spudis, Paul D; Lavoie, Anthony R (September 29, 2011). "Using the resources of the Moon to create a permanent, cislunar space faring system" (PDF). AIAA Space 2011 Conference & Exposition. 1646: 80. Bibcode:2011LPICo1646...80S.
47. "It's not lunacy, probes find water in Moon dirt". USA Today. September 23, 2009. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
48. . The Hindu. September 23, 2009. Archived from the original on September 26, 2009. Retrieved September 26, 2009.
49. Bill Keeter: NASA Radar Finds Ice Deposits at Moon's North Pole – Additional evidence of water activity on moon. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, March 2, 2010, retrieved June 27, 2011
50. O'Neill, Gerard K. (1977). The High Frontier, Human Colonies in Space. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-688-03133-6.
51. General Dynamics Convair Division (1979). Lunar Resources Utilization for Space Construction (PDF). GDC-ASP79-001.
52. O'Neill, Gerard K.; Driggers, G.; O'Leary, B. (October 1980). "New Routes to Manufacturing in Space". Astronautics and Aeronautics. 18: 46–51. Bibcode:1980AsAer..18...46G.

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. ISBN 978-0-387-09746-6. Publisher's book page.
• 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

 

Wikiversity has learning resources about Lunar Boom Town

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Colonization of the Moon.

• Nozette S, et al. (November 1996). "The Clementine bistatic radar experiment". Science. 274 (5292): 1495–8. Bibcode:1996Sci...274.1495N. doi:10.1126/science.274.5292.1495. PMID 8929403.
• NASA Ames Research Center . 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 . Last checked January 20, 2005.
• Encyclopedia Astronautica . Retrieved December 20, 2004.
• The vision for space exploration, 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