US to become first country to preserve human heritage in other celestial body
Apollo`s “Tranquility base” will be protected from future landings and intense exploration.
Although more than 50 years have passed since both events they involved, when we focus on the exploration of planets and celestial bodies, we remember the space age and the two “first” men who started the race in the space age. With a 108-minute orbital flight, Gagarin demonstrated that the orbit was not an inaccessible target, and his colleague Armstrong from “cold enemy America” followed in his footsteps and became the first earthman to set foot on a space object outside of Earth. Under the leadership of two successive countries, a lot of discoveries has been made.
Earth’s telescopes were not enough and we placed more in orbit, we were not satisfied with Moon only and we did space missions to planets, science was not enough on Earth, anymore and we built space stations, driving “cars” on Moon surface did not give much so, we started to control the “cars” from a distance.
There was a game and its rules had yet to be created. Several agreements have been signed between the UN member states on space missions and discoveries. The essence of the agreements was the freedom of discovery and its use only for peaceful acts. The Outer Space Treaty and subsequent acts affirmed that none of the countries could own Moon or other space objects (partially or completely), astronauts who went into space are “envoy of humanity” and do not belong to any nation and that in case of any urgency that requires evacuation, all the countries of the world would act for his/her safety.
Another important space agreement is Moon Agreement (1979). The agreement states that if resource mining becomes feasible on the Moon, an international regime should be established to manage how these resources are acquired and used. The United States is not a signatory to the Moon Agreement.
On the last day of 2020, United States, which did not sign the 1979 treaty, passed a bill called the “One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act” which restricts the access for certain area on Moon surface for intense exploration and landing. The law recommends that countries and private companies that will land the spacecraft on Moon surface to choose landing target outside this area, thus aiming to protect the part of Apollo Eagle and tools used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
“As we go forward to the moon with the Artemis Program, NASA has been clear that we must do so sustainably. As part of the Artemis Accords agreements signed with partner nations, NASA has emphasized that protecting historically significant sites is critical, and I applaud the leaders of this legislation for their commitment to ensuring that future lunar science and exploration is done in a safe and transparent manner.”
Former NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
Countries that agree to keep “Tranquility Base” intact are Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, as well as companies — Intuitive Machines, Astrobotics and Masten Space Systems, working with NASA for the Artemis program. SpaceX, which develops human landing systems on the lunar surface, Blue Origin and Dynetics which is in collaboration with NASA for contracted payload missions will also be in line with approved legislation. However, The legislation, as enacted, allows the NASA Administrator to waive restrictions on accessing the Apollo landing sites if the reasons for doing so are legitimate and have significant historical, archaeological, anthropological, scientific or engineering value.
Following this update, the ethical principles of space exploration are once again discussed.
The decision making about coordinates of commercial satellites in Earth orbit by only few countries or organizations, placing satellite caravans in orbit to improve our Internet resources, without considering their negative impact on several aspects, sending microbiological beings into space, even though they are unlikely to return, and finally laying the groundwork for territorial claims on space objects do not go hand in hand with basic ethical principles and raise many questions for future.
