Mining the Moon

NASA’s current Project Artemis seeks to land hardware and personnel on the moon by the year 2024 in support of moon commercialization. While also turning the moon into a gateway to Mars, this effort encourages the rapid development of mining and colonization of our moon.

If mining on the moon sounds like science fiction, then please know that actually it appears to be a near-term science fact. Companies such as the Shackleton Energy Company already have invested large sums of money in the planning and hardware development required for mining our moon and these companies would like to see a return on their investments as soon as possible. Chinese, Russian, Indian, Japanese, and European Space Agency entities also are eyeing establishing their own mines on the moon. Some folks say that space will provide the next big boom economy and the race for the moon in that economy already is on.

Companies wish to mine the moon for its riches. The moon has precious metals that are valuable wherever they are found. It has an abundance of silicon, which is used in things like cell phones. And, unlike Earth, the moon has stores of helium-3, which can be used for fusion power, leaving some people to call helium-3 “space gold” because of the prices it will fetch. Moreover, in some spots the moon has water ice, which can be mined to produce water for colonists on the moon, colonists on Mars, or even rocket fuel, so that the moon conceivably could be used as a kind of gas station on the way to far-flung places. Of course, some humans likely will have to occupy the moon permanently to acquire these resources in terms of guiding, repairing, and defending mining robots.

Here I do not wish to enter some of the thorny property or resource rights issues surrounding mining on the moon. Instead, I highlight the seeming inevitability of the mining and colonization of the moon in the near term and the fact that, just as with space junk, we have no environmental plan for moon mining scenarios. Repeatedly humans have created environmental problems first and then asked questions later, and we are in danger of making the same mistake on the moon and doing so very soon.

I assert that Buddhist environmental approaches in terms of initiating nature reserves can help us to sort things out so that we can do the things that humans need to do, now and into the future, but do so responsibly in terms of our environment. Buddhist values like nonharm can be engaged to protect special places of the moon from harm, such as the moon’s soaring mountain Mons Malapert, sharp and deep canyons, and craters at the poles whose bottoms never see sunlight. Somewhat like the national parks and wilderness areas in the United States and elsewhere, we can protect outstanding moon landmarks from harm while allowing access to and commerce within specified areas, thus protecting the environment while also meeting human needs.

A number of places on our moon demand protection for environmental/ecological preservation regions alone:
1) The Malapert Massif region at the moon’s south pole. This area provides unique and ethereal geography in terms of ancient mountains that soar as high as the Andes Mountains on Earth as well as deep, shadowed craters whose bottoms have never seen direct sunlight. The commercial resources found in this region can also be found elsewhere. But nowhere else in the solar system has the same set of irreplaceable geological features, astronomical views, and educational factors of the Malapert region, so, just like we wish to protect the peerless Grand Canyon on Earth, so we should protect Malapert with a nature reserve.
2) For some similar reasons, the southern Peary Crater and Florey Crater at the moon’s north pole also should be enshrined with nature reserves.
3) In preserving an outstanding, ancient geology as well as uncommon equatorial experiences on the far side of the moon, the Hertzsprung Crater region should be protected.

But our moon is not just an ecology, it is an embodiment of human cultures and has been so throughout human history. Therefore, on the near side of the moon that we can see, we have cultural history to protect. Even more, since we can see the Earth’s surface, and because mining (especially helium-3 mining) can be enormously destructive, it benefits all of us to protect that surface. We can do so by protecting all of the regions of the man in the moon known to Westerners, which is essentially the same as the rabbit in the moon known to Asian Buddhists, with multipurpose reserves. While creating areas of utter preservation, the baseline ecology method that is favored by this web site allows sections of reserves to be utilized by sustainable commerce, too. Hence, protecting the rabbit in the moon, or man in the moon, with nature reserves does not inhibit commerce. In fact, it meets the moral demands of David Livingston’s ethical codes for space commerce.

Protecting the rabbit in the moon does more than preserve our view of the moon for future generations, though. Some of the greatest exploits in space history have happened in the areas proposed for protection here, so in creating baseline reserves that enshrine the man/rabbit in the moon, we also preserve human history. We don’t want a random mining vehicle accidentally destroying the first human footprint on the moon, do we?

In the effort to commemorate space exploits with historical reserves, one more location should be added to the list of protected spots that I have developed so far. The Chinese Chang’e 4 mission (with its rover Yutu, the Rabbit in the Moon) is the first to successfully land softly on the far side of the moon and then undertake science. Hence, while preserving Apollo and Luna mission sites on the near side of the moon, the Von Kármán Crater, site of the Chang’e 4 mission, also should be preserved.

What do Buddhists think about these proposed reserves? As I mention on the nature reserves page of this site, nature reserves are as old as the Buddhist tradition itself, since a follower of the Buddha himself fashioned a sanctuary to guard monkeys. American Buddhists from the field extend this strategy of protecting specified regions with reserves to the moon by providing the values needed to initiate sanctuaries. In survey data Buddhists argue for the application of Buddhist ethics to the lunar surface, for the extension of sensibilities of nonharm to the moon, as well as for the protection of even lifeless extraterrestrial places, as one can see in the table. Buddhists appear to support the land reserves that are proposed here and that make so much sense from both environmental and historical perspectives.

Why not join these Buddhists? Write your political leaders today and impress on them the need to protect our moon with land reserves that are established specifically before humans arrive again on the moon in person. These reserves can be created with little effort, tiny expense, and while still allowing commercial desires to flourish. The reserves themselves can be overseen by the UN’s Committee for the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which already cares for our moon. Please write your leaders today so that when humans mine the moon, they do so responsibly and sustainably.