Outer Space, just as much as terrestrial resources, needs to be used sustainably and equitably. This year, the Moon Dialogs has hosted a research group to leverage the vast literature on good governance practices to inform the design of effective and sustainable resource management for the Moon. Investigating lunar resources as social-ecological systems helped shine a light on potential governance and management regimes. 

In a collaboration between Moon Dialogs and the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), researchers from these organizations systematically analyzed and synthesized findings from terrestrial social-ecological systems. 

In this Moon Dialogs Salon, Lukas Kuhn and Jessy Kate Schingler presented insights from this work and discuss applicability and implications with space policy expert Brian Weeden from the Secure World Foundation.

Panelists:

Lukas Kuhn | Research Fellow, Open Lunar Foundation

Jessy Kate Schingler | Director of Governance and Policy, Open Lunar Foundation

Dr. Brian Weeden | Director of Program Planning, Secure World Foundation

The Moon Dialogs hosted its 15th research salon on “Safety Zones: A Work in Progress” to discuss the past, present, and future of safety zones on the lunar surface. 

This salon was a follow-up to a Moon Dialogs salon hosted in June 2020. Watch this previous salon and read the report.

Panelists:

Alex Gilbert | Fellow, Open Lunar Foundation

Christopher Hearsey | Chairman and Officer, The Space Court Foundation

Gabriel Swiney | Attorney Adviser, U.S. Department of State

This salon was part of our Sustainable Moon series and features the first public workshop of The Registration Project and featured a number of space law experts. The Registration Project was launched to address the shortcomings of existing law and practice regarding registration as humankind returns to the Moon. The Project is a joint venture of the Moon Village Association (MVA) and the Global Space Law Center (GSLC) at Cleveland State University. 

Finally, this salon was a follow-up to a Moon Dialogs salon hosted in September 2020. Watch the previous salon and read the report.

Panelists:

Dr Mark Sundahl, Professor of Law and Director of the Global Space Law Center at Cleveland State University

Antonino Salmeri, Lead of SGAC’s E.A.G.L.E. Team and Doctoral Research in Space Law at the University of Luxembourg

Jessy Kate Schingler, Director of Governance and Policy at the Open Lunar Foundation

How can we engage, empower, and mobilize younger generations to get involved with lunar governance?

Within the next decade, humanity will establish a long-term presence on the Moon. What was once science-fiction will become reality. As we race closer to this inevitable moment, however, there is a growing list of unanswered questions: What will our presence look like? What activities should be allowed? How will those activities be governed? Who will be responsible? We have a duty to answer these questions now in order to ensure the security of future generations—they will have to deal with the consequences of our actions today. In order to do this effectively, we have to engage, empower, and mobilize younger generations. But, how? What lessons can we draw from other youth-led global advocacy and political movements?

In this Moon Dialogs' research salon, we explored these questions by examining the Lunar Governance Report recently released by the Space Generation Advisory Council and developed over the course of a year by its E.A.G.L.E. (Effective and Adaptive Governance for a Lunar Ecosystem) Action Team. During the salon, we also identified effective strategies carried out by the climate movement that can be applied to the challenge of lunar governance.

Panelists:

Mehak Sarang, Lunar Exploration Projects Lead, MIT Space Exploration Initiative

Antonino Salmeri, Lead of SGAC’s E.A.G.L.E. Team and Doctoral Research in Space Law at the University of Luxembourg

Ava Hedeker, Founder, Editor-in-chief, and Head of Social Media at F(earth)er Magazine, Youth Climate Activist

How will the next decade of negotiations and international relations on Earth affect our collective futures on the lunar surface? This panel featured a roundtable discussion amongst experts in the space industry who are experienced advocates in multilateral fora for issues such as sustainability, standards development, and heritage site designation. Our panelists drew upon their experiences, offering practical advice and guidance as we look ahead to ensure lunar exploration is truly the province of all humankind. This salon was part of the Moon Dialogs Accessible Moon salon series.

Panelists:

Moderators:

Mehak Sarang, MIT Space Exploration Initiative

Michelle Hanlon, For All Moonkind

Thank you for joining us for our salon, Peaceful Moon Salon: International Collaboration for Lunar Bases

How can the space community learn from important precedents such as the ISS, support continued collaboration and development of shared norms, and ensure that “diversity” results in a rich plurality of flourishing lunar activities?

The Moon Dialogs kick off for activities planned for 2021, focusing on everything from lunar exploration, commercialization, and security & sustainability. Moderated by the Moon Dialogs conveners, we’d love to see significant participation from the global lunar community as we set our research agenda for this year. We have prepared three focus areas which we will announce, and we will be aiming to co-create how we work on those issues together with you for the rest of the year. 

The Moon Dialogs reflected upon our series of research salons. In this retrospective session, we revisit highlights from the past year and share an end-of-the-year report summarizing policy recommendations surfaced during the course of the research salons. As this will be the final convening of this community for 2020, we invite participants to join as our collaborators in this session, sharing policy reflections and suggestions as well as any recommendations as we look ahead to continue the Moon Dialogs series in 2021.

Emerging Nations & Lunar Exploration: Administrative, Economic, and Policy Considerations, Investigating international and diverse perspectives.

Spaceport & Landing Pad Designs with panelists, Jeffrey Montes, Phil Metzger and Ryan Watkins who drew upon their expertise to provide ideas around landing pads as critical infrastructure. Moderated by Open Lunar’s Chelsea Robinson. Please see Jeffrey's short paper here: https://www.openlunar.org/library/lunar-spaceport-architectures-and-design-spaces 

Featuring

Brent Sherwood, Alexander MacDonald and Dava Newman drew upon their expertise to provide comments on space architecture, economic sustainability and innovation structures, hosted by Ariel Ekblaw and Mehak Sarang from the MIT Space Exploration Initiative.

Our next Moon Dialogs salon will be on Registration Mechanisms for the Moon. We will be focusing on operational considerations and how the current registration systems for space objects may need to evolve for the lunar context.

Jessy Kate Schingler will kick off a moderated discussion with our two guest discussants, Michael Newman and Jonathan McDowell. Michael is the Legal Officer for UN OOSA, which maintains the official registry of space objects for the world; and Jonathan independently maintains what is probably the largest database of artificial space objects in the world.

Planetary Protection and Lunar Activities 

The Moon Dialogs is pleased to announce the forth salon in our series aimed at advancing interdisciplinary lunar policy thinking relevant to near term lunar activity. The salons are focused exclusively on the Moon. 

Thursday, July 9 at 11am PST (2pm EST / 8PM CET) our topic will be Planetary Protection and Lunar Activities. Opening remarks will be provided by Jim Bridenstine, followed by a regulatory and policy roundtable featuring Mike Gold, Tanja Masson-Zwaan, Lindy Elkins-Tanton and Alan Stern. At the hour, there will be an optional 30 minute open discussion/afterparty for those who wish to discuss further. 

Friday, June 5 at 11am PST (2pm EST / 8PM CET) our topic will be Safety Zones in Practice & Lessons from Earth The discussants will be Yoav Landsman & Timiebi Aganaba-Jeanty who will provide comments from the perspectives of operators of missions, and international law respectively. We will have half an hour of presentations, followed by breakout groups, and concluding remarks. At the hour, there will be an optional 30 minute open discussion/afterparty for those who wish to discuss further.

The event has now ended. We invite you to view the recording and download the report using the button below.

This Thursday, May 7 at 11am PST (2pm EST / 8PM CET) our topic will be “The Implications of Dust for Resource Contention and Lunar Policy.” The discussant will be Phil Metzger who will introduce the relevant science and discuss the associated policy and coordination considerations. We will have a 25 minute presentation, followed by breakout groups, and concluding remarks. At the hour, there will be an optional 30 minute open discussion/afterparty for those who wish to discuss further.

The event has now ended. We invite you to view the recording, peruse Phil’s slides, and download the report using the button below.

The Moon Dialogs Research Salon held its first event virtually on Tuesday, April 14, with presentations from Martin Elvis of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and Alanna Krolikowski of the Missouri University of Science and Technology, to discuss scarce lunar resources and associated policy and coordination considerations. Martin Elvis began the research salon presentation with a survey of the Moon’s resources, stating that the vast majority of the Moon’s resources are concentrated into just a few specific locations, just a few kilometers or tens of kilometers across. Alanna then turned to discussing lunar activities under the commons framework, but stressed that analogs to global commons like Antarctica and the High Seas were less interesting and applicable than small scale commons like fish stocks, ponds, forests and other resources shared by local communities. Actors must be reminded that their short term choices have long-term, lasting effects (“the shadow of the future”). Getting off on the right foot is crucial as well, as early movers have a special responsibility to set the precedent in cooperation, and their example will be durable for future users. A lasting governance framework will ‘set carrots’ and incentivize good behaviour. While enforcement may be relatively weak, actors can create common assets, facilities, and infrastructure where access is contingent on best behaviours.

The Secure World Foundation (SWF) and the Open Lunar Foundation are cohosting this event to discuss what new norms are needed, and what interests and values should be reflected in norms for lunar activity.

Background: In light of the increasingly dense, diverse, and multi-stakeholder ecosystem of space activities, the space community needs to clarify norms for the governance of imminent and proposed space activities. Fundamental to this is capacity-building and awareness of norms, including discussions and education on what new norms for space are needed, what form should they take, and by what methods they ought to develop. The limited set of policy analogs in these existing discussions should be expanded to encompass a more diverse set of inspirations.

Prompts:

Is there a workable consensus definition of the phrase “norms” in the general literature, and can it be shared and implemented by the space community?  What issues, interests, and inputs should inform the development of norms of behavior for emerging and proposed activity, including lunar activity?  How can space actors be empowered to lead by example and gain experience to inform formal policy making?