Japan has joined an elite club by landing on the moon. Here’s what others are doing
PBS NewsHourJAN 26 2024
Unregulated lunar mining and infrastructure projects could irreparably damage scientifically unique sites. The moon boasts locations ideal for radio telescopes, cold traps valuable for infrared astronomy, and craters holding ancient ice crucial for understanding the origins of water and life. Yet these risk destruction from commercial exploitation. Safeguarding such sites is crucial to ensuring humanity's expansion into space — groundbreaking scientific discovery cannot be sacrificed for corporate profit.
In a burst of cosmic hubris, humanity now seeks to classify the moon — a lifeless, perilous expanse riddled with lethal dust, violent quakes, and deadly radiation — as a heritage site needing protection, as if Earth's fragile species could truly shield a celestial body. Our brief lunar visits, totaling mere days, have offered little grasp of its deadly risks. Yet, we overestimate our reach, mistaking fleeting landings for mastery, and a barren rock for a strategic prize worth racing over.