Colonization of the moon

The colonization of the Moon is a process[1] or concept employed by some proposals for robotic[2][3] or human exploitation and settlement endeavours on the Moon. Often used as a synonym for its more specific element of settling the Moon (the establishing and expanding of lunar habitation), lunar or space colonization as a whole has become contested for perpetuating colonialism and its exploitive logic in space.[4]NASA concept art of an envisioned lunar mining facilityLaying claim to the Moon has been declared illegal through international space law and no state has made such claims,[5] despite having a range of probes and artificial remains on the Moon.While a range of proposals for missions of lunar colonization, exploitation or permanent exploration have been raised, current projects for establishing permanent crewed presence on the Moon are not for colonizing the Moon, but rather focus on building moonbases for exploration and to a lesser extent for exploitation of lunar resources.The commercialization of the Moon is a contentious issue for national and international lunar regulation and laws (such as the Moon treaty).[6]Colonization of the Moon has been imagined as early as the first half of the 17th century by John Wilkins in A Discourse Concerning a New Planet.[7][8]In the early Space Age the USSR and the US engaged in dropping pennants[9] and raising flags on the Moon, like this Lunar Flag Assembly of 1969, but agreed internationally in 1967 with the Outer Space Treaty to not lay any claims over the Moon or any other celestial bodies.Colonization of the Moon as a material process has been taking place since the first artificial objects reached the Moon after 1959. Luna landers scattered pennants of the Soviet Union on the Moon, and U.S. flags were symbolically planted at their landing sites by the Apollo astronauts, but no nation claims ownership of any part of the Moon's surface.[10] Russia, China, India, and the U.S. are party to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty,[11] which defines the Moon and all outer space as the "province of all mankind",[10] restricting the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes and explicitly banning military installations and weapons of mass destruction from the Moon.[12]The landing of U.S. astronauts was seen as a precedent for the superiority of the free-market socioeconomic model of the U.S., and in this case as the successful model for space flight, exploration and ultimately human presence in the form of colonization. In the 1970s the word and goal of colonization was discouraged by NASA and funds as well as focus shifted away from the Moon and particularly to Mars. But the U.S. eventually nevertheless opposed the 1979 Moon Agreement which aimed to restrict the exploitation of the Moon and its resources. Subsequently, the treaty has been signed and ratified by only 18 nations, as of January 2020,[13] none of which engage in self-launched human space exploration.After U.S. missions in the 1990s suggested the presence of lunar water ice, its actual discovery in the soil at the lunar poles by Chandrayaan-1 (ISRO) in

Of colonizing other planets has been popular for decades. Disproportionate attention to it in the media and lip service from key government officials give the impression that the goal of space colonization and exploitation is universally embraced. But this isn’t the case.In 2018, the Pew Research Center gave people a list of nine priorities for NASA to arrange in order of importance. Humans going to the moon and to Mars were number eight and nine. Number one: getting a grip on climate change.Some space experts agree that given the state of humankind’s overall ethical and moral development, humans should clean up the messes they’ve made on their home planet and learn how to take care of one another here before they go off into space. We should clean up the messes we’ve made on Earth before going to space. The history of colonization on Earth is ugly—a history of one society exploiting another society for territory, labor, and resources. We should not perpetuate this harmful practice by extending it into space. True, there are no native inhabitants on the moon, but as NASA and other national space agencies, along with private companies, exploit the moon’s resources, there will be winners and losers on Earth.Who will benefit from colonizing the moon? The aerospace industry—companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Space X. The enterprise will be very expensive, and taxpayers will foot the bill. According to its own inspector general, NASA has already spent $30 billion on the Artemis program. And

2008–2009 renewed interest in the Moon.[14] A range of moonbases have been proposed by states and public actors. Currently the U.S.-led international Artemis program seeks to establish with private contractors a state run orbital lunar way-station in the late 2020s, and China proposed with Russia the so-called International Lunar Research Station to be established in the 2030s and aim for an Earth-Moon Space Economic Zone to develop by 2050.[15]Current proposals mainly have the goal of exploration, but such proposals and projects have increasingly aimed for enabling exploitation or commercialization of the Moon. This move to exploitation has been criticized as colonialist and contrasted by proposals for conservation (e.g. by the organization For All Moonkind),[16] collaborative stewardship (e.g. by the organization Open Lunar Foundation, chaired by Chris Hadfield)[17] and the Declaration of the Rights of the Moon,[18] drawing on the concept of the Rights of Nature for a legal personality of non-human entities in space.[19]Inflatable module for lunar base.The colonization of the Moon has been pursued and advocated for by a range of civil actors and space advocacy groups since the advent of spaceflight, mainly to establish a permanent human presence and settlement on the Moon.[citation needed]States have explicitly refrained from calling for lunar colonization and particularly from laying any claims of territory on the Moon, in accordance with international bans on any such claims.[20]States though have been pursuing the establishment of moonbases, the first being the temporary Tranquility Base of Apollo 11 in 1969, the first crewed mission on the Moon.Those and contemporary concepts and plans for moonbases have had the purpose to advance spaceflight and space exploration.Contemporary plans for moonbases, such as the leading Artemis program and International Lunar Research Station projects, have supported in-situ resource utilization and therefore prospecting for lunar resources.[21] To complement the Artemis program private commercial space enterprise and services have been enabled and contracted.[22]Although Luna landers scattered pennants of the Soviet Union on the Moon, and U.S. flags were symbolically planted at their landing sites by the Apollo astronauts, no nation claims ownership of any part of the Moon's surface.[23] Likewise no private ownership of parts of the Moon, or as a whole, is considered credible.[24][25][26]The 1967 Outer Space Treaty defines the Moon and all outer space as the "province of all mankind".[23] It restricts the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning military installations and weapons of mass destruction.[27] A majority of countries are parties of this treaty.[28]The 1979 Moon Agreement was created to elaborate, and restrict the exploitation of the Moon's resources by any single nation, leaving it to a yet unspecified international regulatory regime.[29] As of January 2020, it has been signed and ratified by 18 nations,[30] none of which have human spaceflight capabilities.Since 2020, countries have joined the U.S. in their Artemis Accords, which are challenging the treaty. The U.S. has furthermore emphasized in a presidential executive order ("Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.") that "the United States does not view outer space