GCSJ seminar series: Care-full lunar exploration - challenges and opportunities for protecting the Moon

Presenter - Dr Alessandra Marino, Senior Lecturer in Geography

In the current race to the Moon, its environment and particularly its water-bearing polar locations are the targets of ongoing and planned sample return missions. Planned crewed missions, in situ resource utilisation and the prospect of new permanent infrastructure, such as a lunar base, may permanently change the lunar environment. However, debates over why and how to protect lunar sites from potentially harmful activities remain siloed in different disciplines. Astronomical guidelines on protecting sites of scientific interest are separate and distinct from astrobiology-informed Planetary Protection recommendations that particularly safeguard sites that may have (had) the potential to harbour life. These perspectives are rarely put into dialogue with concerns about sites of cultural significance for communities and heritage preservation (of landing sites, debris etc). This talk looks at lunar protection as requiring interdisciplinary conversations on how to approach the Moon with care. This means taking seriously both the complexity of the lunar environment and existing concerns about how the Moon matters differently to different communities. Thinking of care-full Lunar exploration demands a rethink of space governance as equitable and sustainable.

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