Lunar mining and moon land claims fall into a gray area of international law, but negotiations are underway to avoid conflict and damage to spacecraft

[Admin]

It's been 50 years since humans last visited the moon, and even robotic missions have been few and far between. But the Earth's only natural satellite is about to get crowded.

Lunar mining and moon land claims fall into a gray area of international law, but negotiations are underway to avoid conflict and damage to spacecraft : Read more

 

[SolarAlley]

Reading that more than 21 contries are on board with safety measures and guidelines is nice, however, I cannot help but question what is going to happen when 3 other prominant space exploring contries refuse to join the discussion and will not comply with any regulations set forth from an organization they don't support. My logical mind is hearing warning bells at the entire situation and I feel as if we are jumping the gun. These decisions should have been discussed, arbitrated, and agreed upon, long before we got to this point.

 

[Unclear Engineer]

What people actually do, compared to what people "should" do, is highly dependent on who defines "should".

And, even agreements like treaties that seem to define "should" in a collective manner are too often broken by even those who originally agreed to them. (Current example is the war in Ukraine, where the U.S. and Russia signed a treaty to not invade Ukraine in order to have Ukraine relinquish the Soviet nuclear missiles on its territory to Russia when the Soviet Union was dissolved.)

Thus, I expect that peace and cooperation in space will continue to reflect the degree of peace and cooperation on Earth's surface.

 

[SolarAlley]

What people actually do, compared to what people "should" do, is highly dependent on who defines "should".

And, even agreements like treaties that seem to define "should" in a collective manner are too often broken by even those who originally agreed to them. (Current example is the war in Ukraine, where the U.S. and Russia signed a treaty to not invade Ukraine in order to have Ukraine relinquish the Soviet nuclear missiles on its territory to Russia when the Soviet Union was dissolved.)

Thus, I expect that peace and cooperation in space will continue to reflect the degree of peace and cooperation on Earth's surface.

I completely agree. Thus my concern. I liken my thought process back to a Star Trek theme from the early years... just because we have the technological capabilites doesn't mean we are ready for the responsibility. Humanity as a whole is not ready for this kind of responsibility. We are too busy trying to get our own wants and needs met to make someone richer and have more resources and more resources and we don't think about the global timeline and what affect those selfish behaviors will have. I LOVE space and I know we could do it responsibly but I also know 50 to 100 years from now there's going to be some bad history surrounding this.