Human ashes on the moon, sports drink containers?fierce legal debate

“Our exploration of the Moon has only just begun,” said Leslie Tennen. (document)

Washington:

A series of unconventional, privately funded lunar developments, including as a repository for human ashes and sports drink containers, have come under scrutiny in recent years as NASA works to make Earth’s natural satellite more accessible. focus on.

Concerns about possible gaps in U.S. regulations and legal questions about the proper use of the moon have surged to the forefront.

Landers built by private companies and emerging space powers are expected to join the American flag and other relics of past moon programs in the coming years. Other initiatives could include using the moon as a repository for capsules of human remains, advertising sports drinks, or even possibly creating a two-story Christian cross from dirt from the moon itself.

“We’re just starting to explore the moon, and … we need to be careful not to contaminate it — not just with biological and chemical contamination, but also with trash,” said Leslie Tennen, an international space lawyer who advises international space law.

A recent private lunar mission by the American company Astrobotic, whose payload included dozens of capsules of human ashes and a can of the Japanese sports drink Pocari Sweat, ultimately failed to reach the lunar surface. The exact purpose of the jar is unclear.

Under U.S. law, launches of rocket payloads off Earth would not “endanger public health and safety … U.S. national security … or the international obligations of the United States” as long as the FAA and other agencies certify that launching a rocket payload off Earth would not “endanger public health and safety… U.S. national security… or the international obligations of the United States.”

The issue will receive more attention as NASA relies heavily on private companies to cut the cost of landing on the moon. Currently, there are no laws or standards in the United States outlining what is acceptable on the surface of a celestial body. NASA envisions a long-term lunar base and hopes to stimulate a competitive commercial market.

Lawyers with expertise in space law worry that a lack of regulation could pit U.S. companies into competition with other countries operating on the lunar surface or spark international disputes over whether private activities can be considered land grabs or claims of sovereignty.

The lack of guidelines has some looking at the possibilities.

Washington, D.C., entrepreneur Justin Park wants to build a Christian cross on the moon, possibly as big as a two-story building and made of hardened lunar dirt, which he has discussed with U.S. lawmakers and Catholic organizations. A project estimated to cost $1 billion.

“No one owns the moon,” Parker said. “You don’t want to trample on tradition, but you can’t stop the rest of the world.” Overly strict regulation of lunar activities would “destroy an industry before it even gets off the ground,” he said.

“Religious Test”

Texas-based company Celestis launched cremated human remains into space and placed the ashes on Astrobotic’s Peregrine lander, drawing the ire of the Navajo Nation, who believe the moon is sacred and The company’s mission to commemorate is an act of sacrilege.

Celestis CEO Charles Schafer said as more humans travel across the universe, commemorating the dead in space is inevitable.

“We don’t make space mission decisions based on religious tests,” Schaefer said. “I have a picture of 20,000 Buddhist monks celebrating our launch. So which religion is dominant?”

NASA officials overseeing the program that funds the Astrobotic mission say they have no control over what companies put on the lander and can set payload standards in the future.

“You’re going to see that change a lot over time,” said Chris Culbert, director of NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. “But I think the first step is success. Landing — that’s our biggest concern in these early steps.”

Some officials at NASA and other national space agencies privately view the ashes and sports drinks as obstructions and trash that would set a negative precedent, according to two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

With another private U.S. lunar lander set to launch next month, a lack of lunar oversight could put Washington on a collision course with the broadly ratified 1967 Outer Space Treaty, lawyers said. The agreement stipulates that countries must authorize and supervise the activities of non-governmental entities.

That raises the stakes for the space industry, the Biden administration and lawmakers who have been fighting for months over how to regulate novel commercial space activities, with industry groups resisting regulations they say stifle innovation.

Lawyers say few countries have adopted lunar standards of conduct and the rules remain unclear in international law.

Some believe that too little is being done internationally to guide lunar behavior.

“We are already late and we urgently need to start talking about the moon on an international level now,” said Martha Mejía-Kaiser, a Mexican-German space lawyer and board member of the International Institute of Space Law.

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