Produced by: Manoj Kumar
The Moon’s pristine environment faces potential destruction due to uncontrolled space mining, raising alarms among NASA and scientists worldwide.
Corporations and nations eye the Moon’s water ice and rare minerals, essential for future technologies, sparking a celestial competition for dominance.
The lack of a regulatory framework leads to pressing questions: who controls lunar operations, and how can the Moon be safeguarded?
Mining the Moon could disrupt its fragile surface, with lunar dust threatening missions and the loss of polar ice deposits impacting both lunar bases and Earth.
Altering the Moon’s surface could affect its reflectivity, disrupting Earth’s ecosystems, tides, and possibly life itself in unpredictable ways.
NASA and experts advocate for sustainable lunar exploration, drawing on Earth’s history of environmental damage caused by careless resource extraction.
The Artemis Accords, spearheaded by NASA, promote ethical practices and cooperative research to ensure the Moon’s future remains scientifically valuable.
Emerging technologies, such as in-situ resource utilisation (ISRU), aim to minimise the need for physical mining, reducing potential environmental harm.
University of Arizona’s Professor Richard Green warns that swift action is required to establish international agreements to protect the Moon’s unique features.