Scientists see that private companies will develop the Moon in a Moon rush as companies race to grab valuable minerals and resources while trampling over scientifically important lunar sites.
The scientists are trying to get governments to help them.
This will go much like it does on Earth. The Earth gets developed and if the best spots are valuable for business and real estate then they will be used for business and real estate.
Science can put observatories in places that people do not want for other purposes.
Radio astronomers want the middle of the Moon’s far side. This will be shielded by its bulk from the hectic radio noise of Earth-bound transmitters. Astronomers envision huge crater-filling radio dishes and arrays of antennas hundreds of kilometers across that could eavesdrop on the faint hiss from the neutral hydrogen gas that filled the universe before the first stars lit up.
Space agencies and companies are planning fleets of Moon-orbiting satellites to help rovers navigate on the surface and to relay their data to Earth.
Scientists will have to deal with the activity.
If there is a lot of space activity and business and a lot of the moon gets developed then space capability will be vastly improved.
Developing the whole moon will take millions of rockets and billions of tons of missions. This will make huge space capabilities that will be able to send scientific missions all over the solar system.
It is short sighted of the scientists to create more barriers to a Moon Rush. The reason is look how the Gold Rush built California and transportation in the USA.
The 1849 Gold Rush significantly influenced the history of California and the United States. It created a lasting impact by propelling significant industrial and agricultural development and helped shape the course of California’s development by spurring its economic growth and facilitating its transition to statehood. 300,000 people who came to California during the Gold Rush, about half arrived by sea and half came overland on the California Trail and the Gila River trail.
Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000. The Gold Rush wealth and population increase led to significantly improved transportation between California and the East Coast. The Panama Railway, spanning the Isthmus of Panama, was finished in 1855.
Developing the moon will be more space capability and more science capability.
The moon’s surface area is about 38 million square kilometers, while the United States’ surface area is about 9.8 million square kilometers. There is room for everyone and everything.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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There are ways to mitigate the effects of the “dirty” capitalists that would preserve the science without cutting space off from development. As an example, gravitational wave detectors on Earth must deal with human activity and natural noise like earthquakes. Gravitational wave detectors on the surface of the moon, if the moon was developed, would have the same issues as Earth plus no atmosphere to slow down micrometeorites that would have more impact than on Earth. Another example is radio astronomy. Even the added radio traffic would still be silence compared with Earth’s radio noise. And it’s not like cooperation from private companies could be used the mitigate radio noise simply by limiting communication on certain frequencies and informing the people running the Moon radio telescope of all transmissions so that it can be filtered out of scientific observations.
Just to keep things in perspective: we do not have development attempts at the South Pole or under the oceans even in coastal areas and moderate depths, and these environments are much easier to reach with thousands of tons of cargo, better mapped and more survivable.
I dont know if S Pole and oceans are better or more survivable
SP is extremely cold, mechanized equipment needs massive amount of fuel just to keep running and extend life support/heating, very taxing on equipment
same w ocean, sea water corrosion, atm pressure, etc
w Moon, the initial hurdle is getting there, but equipment doesnt deteriorate as fast, no major factors outside of dust and rocks
“Scientists” who?
Seems to me there is an undercurrent of space elitists, mostly at NASA but also astronomers, that think space is their sole property and domain, and that having a bunch of people going would “spoil” it.
Well, as Musk said: GFY.
I’d call for the near side to be a reserve, no permanent structures allowed.no lights visible from earth
You’d still have interference from satellites.
Nothing wrong with a Moon Rush as long as the owners of the property are financially compensated. And the Moon is public property (the property of humankind according to the Outer Space Treaty).
Yeah, right. [/sarc]
That’s a maximalist interpretation of the Outer Space Treaty, more in line with the Moon Treaty, which every space faring nation rejected.
The Outer Space treaty merely prohibits claims of sovereignty, it does not demand any form of financial compensation for purported “owners” if resources are used.
Even the Outer Space treaty went too far, IMO, but the Moon Treaty was affirmatively rejected by almost every nation in the world exactly because it WOULD have created the regime you’re attributing to the Outer Space treaty.
I would write a longer comment on this, but when I type on iPad it takes several seconds for the letters to show up.
As Brett said, that is NOT what that treaty means.
Meh. It’s just a ‘placeholder’ concept until the realities of who and what gets there and what they do: manifests itself. At the end of the day, I believe the greatest likely source of wealth, development, and quick movement to get a foothold will be tourism between 2040 and the end of century. And the safest (and most satisfying) way to do that is subterranean with land roaming/ bouncing (is there a risk of walking too hard and launching yourself into lunar orbit?) opportunities with a great view of the Earth. Whether that can be made to appeal to the G7 rich 1-3% will be the ‘thing’ that makes it mid-century or late-century. I further believe that only the US, China, and to a lesser degree ESA/Japan have the ambitions (and wealth-supported expertise) to make a significant footprint (private or otherwise), with tourism mostly appealing to the US. The bottom-line is that a Moon UN won’t become a thing (and the rules imposed from such) unless there is obvious conflict, immense-wealth opportunity, or immense prestige opportunity — which I believe is overplayed. The Moon will be a lot like the Antarctic research/tourism community – small, esoteric, and with limited accelerated appeal — unless! – cislunar infrastructure becomes significant with hotels, inter-solar system craft yards, and other major industries (supported by NEOs of course). Here’s to Musk hopefully wanting to develop the Moon before Mars.
The california gold rush wasn’t great for native americans who were already there. I guess the scientists see themselves that way.
Though these scientists aren’t already on the moon. So they are living in a fantasy where they might get scientific missions to the moon financed, somehow, and want to make sure nobody else ruins their daydream.
They are more in the position of say French or Russia settlers, who would like to colonize California for themselves, and know that if there is a gold rush flooding the place with Americans then their chances are zero.
Agree.
Super sad about what happened to the natives all over the Americas and other places.
Fortunately, there is no resident life on the moon that we know of.
Exactly, and as Brian points out, they’re even being short-sighted by that standard, because they’ll eventually get much better capabilities as a result of the exploitation of space.
This is my whole issue with astronomers complaining of sat constellations. We live in age where getting space based observatories past LEO will be easy.