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Residing on the Moon
AS scientific knowledge and observation techniques have improved, we have learnt much about our lonely celestial companion — the moon. From a safe distance, it helps “the world go round”. But now, it can no longer be the far away and lonely object of scrutiny in the night sky. Mankind will now make the Moon it’s home.
Keeping in mind the US President’s plans for lunar exploration and inhabitation, it does not seem long before a lunar base is established. Nasa is working hard to put a robotic explorer on the Moon by the year 2008. A robotic lander is also slated for launch in 2009. These will most probably be the precursor missions to put humans there. Plans are that the first mission will be an orbiter that will provide us with a digital map of the lunar surface.
It will, in fact, be a reconnaissance spacecraft, which will help prepare for humans to return to the Moon in 2015 as announced by President Bush. Ed Weiler, who is associate administrator for Nasa’s Office for Space Science, remarked, “these missions will not be driven by science. They will be driven by preparations for human beings”.
About the initial robotic journey to the pockmarked world, he said the object will be science, but he further explained, “we are going to the Moon to prepare to go to Mars, where we will do the real science”.
As far as Mars is concerned, scientists are eager to send humans as soon as possible. They are of the opinion that no amount of rovers can be compared to actual human presence when it comes to understanding the real geology and biology in the Martian rocks. They say that only humans and not robots will be able to determine whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.
Sceptics, however, argue that human missions are exceedingly expensive and many robotic missions can be sent for the price of a single manned mission. In a request sent to the US congress by President Bush, the agency’s budget is to be increased from $15.38 billion to 16.24 billion. The request also states details about how the increased funding will be used to support astronauts to the Moon and Mars. What remains to be seen is whether George Bush and Nasa can convince the public that it is worthwhile to spend huge amounts to send people into space.
According to the new Nasa vision, the purpose of the robotic missions must relate to putting humans on extraterrestrial surfaces. Weiler explained that before the Apollo missions, robots were used to image and landers were used to explore the surface. Now, a similar but more “expedited” campaign will be carried out.
“We’ve got a pretty good idea of what we want to do with the first Moon mission,” said Weiler adding that the first orbiter will be ready in four years. He stated that, “this will be the first digital recon mission of the Moon”. The goals will include high-resolution images and mapping of lunar resources like water ice which is suspected to exist in the darkened craters. This will be turned into drinking water for the astronauts as well as broken down to Hydrogen to be used for spaceflights returning to Earth or going beyond into outer space.
Additionally the craft will be equipped with a radiation detector to analyze the radiation effects on the Moon. Strangely, Nasa has more knowledge of the radiation hazards on Mars than on the Moon.
As for Mars, Weiler outlined that in 2011 the focus of Mars exploration will be on looking for organic compounds and signs or “seeds” of life. A sample return mission for Mars is on the charts now for 2013. Space policy experts have been saying for long that Nasa has lacked proper direction for 30 years. Not to mention several failed missions. But the silver lining in the cloud is that if Nasa had not had those failures, it would not have had a budget increase required for restructuring the Mars program. As Weiler said, “sometimes failures are good things”.
Lunar residency
Humans will hopefully, soon be settling on the Moon and efforts are underway by interested parties to secure a lunar address for themselves. There is a race to grab real estate on the Moon and prices are already soaring.
At present, more than 2.5 million people from almost 180 countries have bought land on the Moon and Mars. Legal scholars however are of the opinion that the schemes are bogus and the deeds are just a piece of useless paper that can be framed and put on the wall but will not lead to any out of this world residential rights. The person who is known as the “Head Cheese” of the entire celestial land-grab scheme is adamant that he is on the right track and his scheme is far from bogus.
Dennis Hope, who claims to own the Moon and all the other planets in the solar system except Earth, states that his company will soon put it’s flag on Earth’s natural satellite. Buyers of lunar or Martian property get a deed of sale but the legal people debate its authenticity. Even so, sales are soaring according to the company.
Approximately 1,300 corporations are also among the buyers of property beyond Earth. Analysts now fear a ‘space war’ of legal battles as companies sell land on celestial bodies and governments refute claims. They fear long drawn out court battles loom the cosmic frontiers making George Bush’s statement that “human beings are headed into the cosmos”, a possibly bitter experience for many.
The sales of these beyond -the -Earth properties are conducted over the Internet. That marvelous tool of convenience. The Lunar Embassy or lunarembassy.com is claiming much success in its foray into selling real estate in other worlds. Legal analysts say that there is a 1967 international treaty that forbids any such sale of property beyond Earth.
Frans von der Dunk, a space law expert of Leiden University in The Netherlands, is strangely confident when he states that, “we believe it will change the history of this world. Sometime this year, the Lunar Embassy will be on the Moon. Our representative will then turn to a video camera and read a prepared statement validating our claim of ownership”.
Since there are no known plans of any manned mission to the Moon this year, it seems a bit absurd. Answering a question as to what spacecraft his company would use, Hope said, “I’m not at liberty to discuss the technical aspects of the craft at this point”. He also clarified his position by saying that in the case of no spacecraft reaching the Moon this year advocating his claim, it would just mean that there were “technical” difficulties.
The idea came to Dennis in 1980. He remembered the United Nations Outer Space Treaty passed in 1967 that no government could own any extraterrestrial property. Hope found a loophole. He says that “it neglected to mention individuals or corporations” and using that as his legal loophole, he claimed all the eight planets in the solar system and their satellites including the Moon as his property. He filed papers for registration in the US government office in San Francisco and informed the United Nations and the governments of United States and Russia. Not one agency responded. This moved him to validate his claim.
He also states that according to the US Homestead Act passed in 1862, a property can be claimed and occupied with the intention of improving it. “With the chaotic aspect of rules, we just created our own,” he says. Von der Dunk, who is also a co-director of the International Institute of Space Law, says that there are discussions going on within the Institute as to how such claims can be refuted. “Whether that means that its fraud and such a claim is null and void under national law, would basically be up to any national legal system to determine. It does mean however that under international law the US government should unequivocally make clear that these practices are not based on any sound legal premise.”
Virgiliu Pop, a British scholar and also a member of the IISL states regarding extraterrestrial property claims, “The Lunar Embassy does not own the Moon, hence it cannot sell it. If you still believe you can actually own the Moon by buying it from the Lunar Embassy, then you will have to pay me utilities fees for the Sun that I own as much (or as little as Mr. Hope owns the Moon”.
While no one comes forward to refute his claim, Hope’s company is booming. Hundreds of people are paying $30 for an acre on the Moon and Mars. Over the years, the Lunar Embassy has sold 410 million acres on the Moon. Hope says 1,500 acres are bought everyday in two or three acre parcels. Since the Mars rovers have taken off, so have sales of lunar property.
The trailblazer
While speculation grows regarding Dennis Hope’s claims, one private company is serious about a mission to the Moon. Later this year, TransOrbital, a California based private company has entered into agreement to integrate Hewlett Packard’s iPAQ h5550 into its Trailblazer spacecraft carrying messages, business cards and other momentos to the Moon. The price of a business card is $2,500, other relics are at the rate of $2,500 per gram and a text message goes at $17.
The Trailblazer will orbit the Moon for three months while sending back high-resolution images, saleable images of Apollo landing sites and quality video footage for advertising use. The data that is collected will be used to make a high-resolution map of the lunar surface, which will also be for sale. After orbiting, the spacecraft will crash and disintegrate but the 22 pounds of artifacts sent from Earth will be intact. They will be encased in a protective capsule, which will burrow 13 to 16 feet into the surface of the Moon. “We’d like to have as many people either send things to the Moon or access the satellite while its in orbit around the Moon,” said Dennis Laurie who is President of the company. Any one with a properly equipped hand held computer would be able to communicate with the craft while its in orbit. Laurie stated that “thousands of messages and products” have been booked for the flight. The company also plans to make money from the sale of the lunar maps as it will help Nasa and other mission planners around the world to plan future trips to the Moon. Laurie has had problems with environmentalists who feel that the Moon should not be littered and made to meet the same fate as Earth. He seems to have given his assurance, as his is the only privately funded mission that has been approved by the State Department. Though no humans are scheduled to take a ride to the Moon on the Trailblazer, with the onset of the commercialization of the Moon, the days of five star hotels, and lunar residences do not seem that far.
The White House maintains the Moon missions will be an “important demonstration of our ability to live and work on another world. We will assess technologies and the use of lunar resources, and we will build the skills and gain the experience that will enable us to conduct sustained exploration of other worlds.”
Curiously, Bush never uttered the phrase “Moon base” or “permanent colony” in his speech, as many had anticipated. Instead he called for “extended human presence” with the goal of “living and working there for increasing periods of time.”
The writer
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