A recent story on Space.com presented the idea that some scientists believe we are entering the “lunar Anthropocene.” In other words, like Earth’s Anthropocene, the moon is entering a phase in which human activities will play an important role in its natural history.
This is of course true. The first impacts of Soviet probes occurred in the 1960s, leaving scars and piles of metal and plastic in the regolith, while the Apollo program left everything from footprints and flags to hardware and bags of trash on the surface. The current international Moon Rush sees probes, landers and rovers crash into, roll over and poke into it, and soon the first private commercial explorations will begin exploring for resources. Within the next decade, we will people will returnHopefully this will continue forever, which means the construction of lunar ports, habitats, energy infrastructure and the creation of even more waste.
From the earth Anthropocene began long ago, when our civilization changed the ways of the planet with our increasingly pervasive patterns of life, consumption and destruction. However, apart from the term itself and its inference about the degree of human impact on the world in question, there is little in common between the two, and the outcomes will be very different.
Related: The moon has been changed by human activity. Are we in a ‘lunar anthropocene?’
On Earth, the expansion of human society has in many ways been an attack on the planet’s living biome. We have bulldozed, burned, harvested and decimated ecosystems in the name of our industrial expansion. By the simple act of growing our population and meeting its needs, we have changed the operating system of MotherWorld. Worse, until recently we have done this without thinking or caring about the enormous stakes at stake, and now we are on the brink of the collapse of that system.
The lunar human era ahead is similar in that the hand of humanity will be irreversibly changed the moon forever (and that has already happened). But in one important and primary way, its effects will be quite the opposite when it comes to the planetary body in question. While on Earth our expansion was an attack on the planet’s life systems, on the moon we are bringing life to a place that is now dead.
This difference is critical to how we perceive, study, and even regulate what we do on the moon, and even to all the new and lifeless places we may arrive in the future. The purely scientific study of such a pristine environment is essential, and the retention of important features, both scientifically and aesthetically, need to be demarcated, as do all historical sites, such as those that are the ‘first’, such as the first landing sites, and even the crashed remains of those first probes. However, in the comparison of the history of life in the universeThe outcome of any judgment about the what, where, and how of any conservation must tend toward the expansion of the domain of humanity and life, above any consideration of an idealized pristine state of dead rock and ice.
We simply cannot slow down this expansion. On the contrary, I would argue strongly that we should do everything we can to speed it up – a lot – or we will no longer keep ‘antros’ alive. Opening the High Frontier of Space is simply too crucial to our survival to be undermined by anything. Science is important, but we can’t wait for every little nook and cranny of every rock we come across to be studied ad nauseam for every possible clue and data point of available information before we move forward into each new domain. We must find a balance, a way to expand our knowledge base, just as we expand the base of our civilization.
However, it is important that we never again push our industrial society forward and outward as we did here on our own planet. We cannot take the culture of looting and plundering in the name of state strategies or unfettered capitalist money grabs with us into this new future. If there is anything that should be thrown away in space or on the moon, it is the old way of doing things. We have to apply what we’ve learned here to what we do out there, otherwise, for me at least, there’s no point in going.
While the human hand puts itself in control of the future of the moon and ultimately the whole solar systemLet’s navigate what we do with an eye to what we’ve done before. Let us learn, grow and do better, and not repeat the primitive cycles of monkeys with shovels and guns that have characterized our time on this rock. This means developing a new set of guidelines, standards, and moral and ethical codes that are so deeply rooted that they go beyond rules and laws – even as they inform them.
Related: Who owns the moon?
For example, in 1987 I wrote the Lunar Ecology Code as a body of thought and presented it at various conferences. It’s a bit raw and naive when I look at it now. For example, I was a bit wrong in using the term ‘Eco’, which refers to life (again: the moon is dead). Still, the idea was essentially a good one: developing a set of guidelines for how we both develop the moon and preserve those places and things that are special for all future generations.
Here’s an updated version of some of these points:
We agree that all countries will explore and develop the moon and its resources based on a standard set of good stewardship agreements. (This could be built on the flow Artemis chords is distributed by the US government and its partners.)
We have established a body, based on similar bodies on Earth, to monitor sites of human exploration on the moon and, through international treaties, declare them off-limits to intrusion. (Exceptions are allowed for scientific and historical research, as agreed by the controlling body. For example, it would be good to know what happened to some materials from those early probes in recent decades.)
We agree that this body, or any other body established specifically for this purpose, may propose significant lunar features and locations that could be put forward as off-limits to human development, pending review and voting by the international community.
We insist that all countries operating on the moon adopt a culture based as much as possible on these concepts when it comes to what they bring and the waste they create on the lunar surface:
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Recycling
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Reuse
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Repurposing
Even as we deal with its unfettered outcome in low Earth orbit, the moon offers us the opportunity to leave Earth’s “use it and throw it away” culture behind. And given the economic consequences of having to carry or create every piece of material, be it a package, piece of metal or plastic, it only makes sense to establish these concepts as rules within any lunar society.
There are other elements of human activity on the moon that we will have to address, and many of them we will have to live with – for example, the creation of an atmosphere, however weak, as a byproduct of our presence.
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The authors of the Lunar Anthropocene concept have done us a favor. If you agree or disagree with them or me about all of this, it’s time to start a serious, results-oriented conversation. Some have already done that.
Groups like For the entire moon child and The Hague Institute for Global Justice are at the forefront of such policy conversations. My own EarthLight Foundation, as the first ecocentric space agency, strongly supports our movement toward a green and respectful culture in space – even as we develop and use its resources. With this goal in mind, we have begun distributing what we call the Earth-Space Agreement to space leaders.
Now it’s time to pay attention to the forces at play, as this will be much more difficult later. So dear reader, there is work for you to do. I’m assuming that if you’ve read this far, you’re a space fanatic, advocate, or revolutionary like myself. This is one of those issues that falls into the category of ‘we do it ourselves, or they do it to us’.
Wherever you live in this precious world, reach out to those in your country who are reaching for what’s next – or can influence how it happens. Make sure they hear your voice when you tell them you like what they’re doing, but can we please get it right this time?
Rick Tumlinson is the founder of Space Fund, a venture capital firm that invests in space startups. He also founded the Space Frontier Foundation, Earthlight Foundation, the Space Cowboy Ball, was a founding member of the X-Prize Foundation and hosts the Space Revolution podcast.