The new race for the moon takes off

India has launched its moon mission, Chandrayaan-3, 15 years after its first moon landing at the south pole in 2008, and Russia has launched its Luna-25 craft on a Soyuz 2.1 rocket on August 11, which would again land at the south pole after 46 years. The renewed exploration of moon by the space club countries like the US, Russia, India, China, Japan, Israel, and Europe has a different emphasis compared to the classic Cold War race to the moon between the US and then Soviet Union in the 1960s, which the US won by landing a man on the moon in July 1969.

After the initial excitement, the interest in moon had cooled off. But now there is interest in the moon because exploration of the moon continued through the years, and the conclusion now is that there are water molecules on the moon’s surface, and they are concentrated near the polls. And that there are rare minerals and elements like Helium 3, which is an isotope of hydrogen, and which could help in fusion reaction that would give nuclear power without radioactive waste which is what is available through the existing nuclear reactors across the world. The fusion method remains elusive so far though once in a while scientists come up with an experiment that show that it is possible to do the fusion reaction at room temperature. The US’s NASA estimates that the moon has a million tonnes of Helium 3 isotopes.

There is also the prospect of other rare earth minerals that are useful in making computers and other electronic equipment. So, it seems that the moon is now ready for a second look, and this time round it is not mere scientific curiosity and a sense of adventure to reach out to the moon, but for very practical needs.

It is acknowledged that mining the minerals on the moon is not an easy thing to do, and technological solutions have to be found, and robotics improved to carry out the actual mining work on the lunar surface. The existence of water molecules which India’s Chandrayaan-1 detected at the south pole on the moon in 2008 leads to the prospect of setting up a temporary colony of cosmonauts/astronauts.

Russians are looking forward to the mining prospects and they want to do it in collaboration with China. The European Space Agency (ESA) was supposed to have attached equipment on Luna-25 but following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and the European Union (EU) cutting off diplomatic links with Russia, has ended the space collaboration between the two.

There is however the tricky issue of who gets what on the moon. In the exploration of countries and continents on earth, the country that reached the place first and planted its national flag claimed the territory. But it has been decided long back in the 1960s through the Outer Space Treaty that no country can claim sovereign right over the moon or any other celestial body, and that the discoveries belong to all the countries of the world, and the explorations have to be for the benefit of all. The Moon Agreement of 1979, which has not been ratified by any space power, says no part of the moon “shall become property of any State, international intergovernmental or non-governmental organisation, national organisation or non-governmental entity or of any natural person.”

As the race for moon’s resources pick up momentum, it will become necessary to sort out the legal implications and safeguard the moon’s mineral wealth and the right to establish exploratory units there for every country. This is not going to be an easy task, and perhaps it will be more difficult than even sending moon missions from every part of the earth.