Ensuring safety of people on and around the Moon: a preliminary set of principles
- Paper ID
99661
- DOI
- author
- company
Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering,China Academy of Space Technology (CAST); China Academy of Space Technology (CAST); Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology (CAST)
- country
China
- year
2025
- abstract
More and more people are expected to go to the Moon as the world is entering a new era of lunar exploration. Besides astronauts, those people would also include, inter alia, lunar tourists, doctors and engineers. A booming cislunar economy will further add to the momentum and enable more people to the Moon. Safety of these people is top concern for both governmental and non-governmental operators. Measures should be taken both at national and international level to ensure safety of people on and around the Moon. A study is conducted by the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) to investigate main factors, both natural and unnatural, that would affect the safety of people on and around the Moon, and propose a set of preliminary principles to ensure the safety of those people. Radiation environment, lunar dust, lunar quake, micrometeorites, lunar gravity and extreme temperatures are identified as the main natural factors. Spacecraft design, orbital collision, frequency interference, laser illumination, nuclear power sources, confliction of activity areas, microbiological pollution, environmental pollution caused by resource extraction and utilization, threat or use of force and impact on the lunar surface by spacecraft are identified as main unnatural factors. For each factor, the specific influence of the factor as well as technical and legal measures to mitigate the influence, is investigated. As the lunar orbits and the lunar surface are getting more and crowded, safety challenges for people on and around the Moon are becoming greater and greater. While one single country could manage all the challenges for human lunar missions, it will not be so in the new era. No single country can solve all the problems alone and international collaboration should be strengthened in future to ensure the safety of people on and around the Moon. A set of top-level principles that could be accepted by the space community would be a reasonable first step. Based on an overview of the current international space law regime and advice from experts, a preliminary set of principles, such as human life first, technology maturity, interoperability, emergency assistance, knowledge sharing and no use of force, are proposed.