Discussing lunar environment protection guidelines
- Paper number
IAC-08.E3.4.6
- Author
Mr. Alexander Karl, Germany
- Year
2008
- Abstract
With the rise of lunar exploration activities by many nations and plans for lunar bases as well as a possible future colonization of the Moon the amount of space systems in lunar orbit and on the surface will increase. Due to the nature of the lunar gravity field most, if not all, of the hardware placed in lunar orbit will eventually decay and impact on the lunar surface. Exceptions might be the infrastructure placed into stable orbits. It is to be expected however that after a certain time of use, these systems will get outdated and be replaced by newer technologies. One solution of handling the obsolete space hardware could be to change its orbit so it will crash on the Moon. Additionally, missions to the lunar surface will leave behind mission related hardware that will last for millennia. This paper discusses the necessity and the content of guidelines to protect the lunar environment of man made mission hardware, while taking legal aspects into account and considering the context of space exploration in which the lunar missions will be conducted.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)