Exo-geoconservation and hotels on the Moon
From the Artemis program’s plans to have a nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 to startups that want to build Moon hotels in the next decade, humans appear poised to return to the Moon. Plans to return to the Moon have also raised concerns about the impact on the natural environment of the Moon, including geological features of high scientific value, and “space heritage” sites like the Apollo landing sites and the Soviet Luna sites. This has led to recent papers arguing for a need to implement guidelines to protect space heritage sites as human development becomes inevitable on the Moon. In theory, there does not need to be a conflict between preserving geologically or culturally significant landscapes on the Moon and commercialization of the Moon for economic development or even human settlement. Space tourism, fo example, could give economic incentive for space conservation efforts. After all, if we are building space hotels, we will want places on the Moon that tourists can visit and enjoy.
In the book Pale Blue Dot, The astronomer Carl Sagan once described the Moon as “boring” in contrast to the more complex and potentially habitable surface of Mars. I admire Carl Sagan and agree with him on many issues, but this is one area where I think he was mistaken. The Moon does not seem like much at first, but more recent studies show that the Moon is indeed an interesting world with many mysteries even if humans never again set foot on its dusty plains. It may be geologically dead, but the Moon has its mysteries.
For example, recent studies suggest that at least some of the lunar water abundant at the lunar south pole might have come from ancient lunar volcanoes rather than comet or asteroid impacts. During these eruptions, the Moon might have had a tansient atmosphere of water vapor that lasted for at least a few thousand years. This brief atmosphere might have been thicker than that of Mars at times. Albeit considering the Martian atmosphere is ~0.006 bars, or a thousandth of Earth’s atmospheric pressure at sea level, that might not be saying much. Still the Moon, had an atmosphere…
Furthermore, the Moon also has evidence of exotic terrain such as the irregular mare patches and lunar swirls. Also, although life on the Moon is unlikely, it cannot be completely ruled out.
As humans return to the Moon, there are plans to prospect water-ice for water and breathable air and mineral ores for building materials. GRU Space for example, even has plans to build a hotel, moonbase, and surface infrastructure including roads. Although not as ambitious, the company Interlune is also developing technology to deal with regolith contamination for lunar bases.
This has brought up questions about how this will affect the Lunar environment. True, the Moon doesn’t have native wildlife or native indigenous aliens for humans to drive into extinction or subjugate, as far as we know, but mining and other human activity will affect the landscapes of the Moon, including key geological features.
The Moon has some of the oldest surface geology in the solar system (~4.5 Ga), which could reveal key evidence regarding the early history of the solar system. These ancient terrains could be destroyed to make way for space hotels or mining operations. Historical lunar landing sites, such as from the U.S. Apollo missions and the Soviet Luna missions could also be under threat. Also, as unlikely as it is that there is indigenous life on the Moon, it cannot be completely ruled and something as unique as non-terrestrial life could be at risk from the introduction of Earth microbes, which we know can survive for years on the Lunar surface.
These potential threats have lead to discussion of mitigation strategies to protect historical heritage, like the Apollo landing sites, and geoheritage sites. Geoheritage is a concept that originated in the mid-20th century. Geoheritage is an attempt to identify unique non-living aspects of the a planetary surface, such as mountains, cliffs, craters, or sequences of geologic layers, as being intrinsically valuable to a location and worthy of conservation for future generations to enjoy. There is even an accompanying term, geodiversity, which refers to the number of distinct geologic formations in a given area, akin to biodiversity, the number of different biological species in a given ecosystem. The work of preserving geoheritage is referred to as geoconservation.
The discovery of indigenous Moon life aside, the main natural conservation efforts on the Moon, as well as other bodies such as Mars and asteroids, will involve geoconservation. There have already been several papers on exogeoconservation, which refers to geoconservation on other planetary surfaces than Earth. Proponents of exogeoconservation, suggest international agreements be made that would protect future exogeoheritage sites. On the Moon, this might include the Chang’e 6 landing site, from which some of the youngest dated lunar rock samples have been returned (about 2.8 billion years old). On Mars, obvious candidates for future exogeoheritage sites would include Jezero Crater because of its importance for astrobiological research.
At first, building lunar hotels might seem at odds with the goals of exogeoconservation or space heritage protection, but this does not need to be the case. It could be argued that the builders of both moon bases for scientific research and lunar hotels would have a vested interest in preserving historically or geologically significant sites. After all, where are the tourists going to go? There could even be a partnership between space hotels and international organizations tasked with space heritage conservation to coordinate sites that would be interesting both to scientists or historians and to tourists.
Also, if humans do end up living on the Moon long-term and build a lunar civilization, preservation of cultural and scientific heritage on the Moon will be even more important to would-be lunar settlers. At that point, Lunar cultural and geoheritage will represent the unique history of Moon-dwelling humans and their home environment. In this way, settlement of the Moon and conservation of what makes the Moon unique do not need to be at odds with each other.
This of course makes conversations about space heitage even more impotant. If our descendants on the Moon are going to have scientific and cultural heitage to remind them of their identity as “Lunarians“, it is our responsibility to ensure that there is heritage left for them to teasure. In the meantime, space tourism could help ensure that by providing an economic incentive.
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