- Space scientist Garry Hunt said space is now “free for almost everyone”
The world needs urgent regulation to prevent the “Wild West” race for space resources from spiraling out of control and into war, a British expert who worked on NASA’s Mars mission has warned.
Recently, several countries have set their sights on the moon. The moon is a hotbed where quadrillions of pounds of riches have been unearthed, from rare earth metals used in smartphones to helium, which could conceivably provide a valuable energy source.
However, previous attempts to manage the moon, including the 1979 Moon Agreement, have failed to gain international consensus, with neither the United States, Russia nor China signing the agreement, meaning that the moon’s resources are There is growing concern among scientists about how it will be managed.
“There are no particular rules at the moment. Professor Garry Hunt, who worked on NASA’s Voyager and Mars missions, told Mail Online that this is free for almost everyone, adding: “The world is in a ‘wild west’ situation. We urgently need some firm regulations to prevent this.”
“Without new regulations, this could lead to war. We need to take this seriously and move forward quickly. We are in dangerous territory.”
This comes after US intelligence recently highlighted concerns that Russian President Vladimir Putin could launch a nuclear weapon into space.Sources say Russian leaders may use it against satellites rather than dropping it on Earth.
Mr Hunt, who was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to space science, said: “From a defense point of view it’s very frightening, because anyone with enough money could put something in God-knows-what space.” That’s because we can invest in it,” he said.
But he said new space regulations would require global cooperation among countries and an organization like the United Nations to enforce the rules.
The space scientist added: “These are ‘forever’ issues, much bigger than a political lifetime.” And political decisions are made to garner votes to keep politicians in office, not necessarily for the benefit of humanity. ”
Mr Hunt said it was “at a very difficult stage” to get countries with their eyes on the stars to cooperate in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
“Sadly I think we need to exclude certain partners like Russia and see if we can work with other partners,” he said.
He believes that finding regulations that all countries can adapt to is “probably a cheat,” but that “there are ways we can come together,” such as cooperating on space missions.
He added: “These collaborations can be a starting point for building a way forward.” It’s going to be a very slow job, but I need to think about it.
“We cannot continue to debate this issue. We need action now.”
Japan, India, and China have each already sent unmanned spacecraft to the moon within the past five years, and hundreds of public and private lunar missions are planned by 2032. The United States landed a rover on the moon just this week.
“When I started working in the space program, it was just the United States and the Soviet Union,” Hunt said.
“Now look at how many countries are involved such as China, India, South Korea, Japan, United Arab Emirates, etc. And this is not the limit, anyone can achieve it. can.
“Once commercial growth starts, people with pretty big pockets and huge amounts of money are going to say, ‘Oh, we’re going to get spaceships, too.’ ”
Each country insists that its lunar exploration is purely for “science,” but shortly after its spacecraft failed to travel to the moon, Russia’s space chief called it “to secure defense capabilities and achieve technological sovereignty.” He declared that it was for the purpose of “nature conservation.” resource’.
Mr Hunt told MailOnline that a shift was occurring “from space exploration to space development and commercialization”.
“Exploring minerals is a step, but then there is the risk of space mining and the possibility of weapons being used in space,” he added.
‘[Space mining] is not a first-come, first-served billing approach. This is not a cavalier approach like we have done in the past. We have to be very careful about what we’re doing here.
“And we’re not just talking about the moon; we’re also talking about Mars and asteroids.”
Regarding the Moon’s resources, NASA and the European Space Agency have previously said they hope to discover water. Water currently costs a prohibitive £1 million, so providing hydration, oxygen and much-needed fuel for rockets could reduce the cost of space missions. One cubic meter of water will be collected from the Earth to the Moon.
However, these are not the only resources that may be available on the Moon; in addition to metals, common minerals and rare earth elements are also available.
Among the rare metals that scientists believe are hidden in the cold, dark craters of the Moon’s south pole are Shackleton, Shoemaker, de Gerlache and Howarth, which are used in smartphones, computers and hybrid car batteries. , are essential not only for applications such as medical devices, but also for emerging technologies.
Other resources include basalt, iron, quartz, and silicon, all of which could potentially be used for windows, stone tools, and solar panels on Earth, and precious metals for electronics include platinum, palladium, and rhodium.
Scientists have even discovered titanium ore that is 10 times more abundant than what is found on Earth.
Nuclear fusion is being discussed as a potential alternative to fossil fuels on Earth and is considered the “holy grail” of energy, with scientists discovering how the sun produces energy by converting hydrogen into helium. I want to imitate it.
Helium-3, which is extremely rare on Earth, is present in the moon’s surface material at concentrations of 20 parts per billion. The moon has no protective atmosphere, so the solar wind deposits it there.
It is estimated that there is about 1.2 quintillion pounds ($1.5 quintillion dollars) worth of helium-3 on the moon.
“We’re heading towards the moon, and the lunar surface is pretty cluttered,” Hunt said. There’s debris from at least 50 crashes, at least 200 tons of debris, his 100 bags of human waste, and God knows what else. It’s a mess. ”
He said there are already thousands of spacecraft and satellites in space, and the amount of debris floating around them is “staggering” but “incredibly dangerous.”
“When you’re going 17,000 miles per hour, even the smallest hair can cause a lot of damage. So this is a very dangerous time,” he added.
Mr Hunt’s concerns are echoed by British philosopher A.C. Grayling, who warned in his new book Who Owns the Moon? that “a cosmic west is being born”.
“The impact on global peace and stability, already tenuous on conventional grounds, could and very likely will be like pouring gasoline on a fire,” he told The Sunday Times last week. He is reported to have written this in the Times.
“It is quite possible that conflicts will arise between private and state institutions that invest heavily in the development of lunar resources,” the philosopher added.
Mr Grayling believes the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which stipulated that the moon belonged to “humanity” and that anyone who landed on it could take what they wanted, was “wroughtly insufficient”.
He said this should be replaced by a new agreement between nations outlining a stronger framework for operations in space.
This happened when the Odysseus Lunar Module was launched atop a two-stage Falcon 9 rocket piloted by Musk. space x from NASAKennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral last week.
It successfully landed on the moon Thursday, becoming the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon since 1972. However, this is not the only lunar probe planned in the near future.
This year, the United States will send several probes and instruments to the Moon to closely study the lunar landscape, its resources, and potential dangers.
Odysseus will focus on lunar surface and space weather interactions, radio astronomy, precision landing techniques and navigation.
NASA plans to send a crew to the moon in 2026. China plans to send its own manned spacecraft to the moon in 2030.
Last month, Japan became the fifth country to land a lunar lander, and the country’s space agency JAXA achieved an unusually precise “pinpoint” touchdown with its SLIM probe last month.
Last year, India became the fourth country to successfully land on the moon, after Russia’s failed attempt in the same month.
The only other countries to successfully perform a soft touchdown on the moon are the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. In 2019, China achieved the first landing on the far side of the moon, setting a world record.
The United States also plans to build a space station called Lunar Gateway that could transport astronauts to the moon, and the agency hopes to expand it for future missions to Mars and beyond. It has been reported.