wBlogs https://www.wblogs.info The World Blog Archived Thu, 14 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6.1 ‘One Small Step’ Act Encourages Protection of Human Heritage in Space https://www.wblogs.info/2021/01/one-small-step-act-encourages-protection-of-human-heritage-in-space/ https://www.wblogs.info/2021/01/one-small-step-act-encourages-protection-of-human-heritage-in-space/#respond Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin poses for a photo beside the U.S. flag that was placed on the moon. The lunar module is visible on the far left, as well as numerous footprints in the foreground. The goal of this new law is to protect all of these. NASA

It’s hard to care about bootprints sunk in soil 238,900 miles (384,472 kilometers) away as humanity suffers the combined burden of an unforgiving virus and a political unease. But how humans treat those bootprints and the historic lunar landing sites upon which they are found will speak volumes about who we are and who we seek to become.

On Dec. 31, the One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act became law. As far as laws go, it’s pretty benign. It requires companies that are working with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on lunar missions to agree to be bound by otherwise unenforceable guidelines intended to protect American landing sites on the moon. That’s a pretty small pool of affected entities.

However, it is also the first law enacted by any nation that recognizes the existence of human heritage in outer space. That’s important because it reaffirms our human commitment to protecting our history — as we do on Earth with sites like the Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu, which is protected through instruments like the World Heritage Convention — while also acknowledging that the human species is expanding into space.

I am a lawyer who focuses on space issues that seeks to ensure the peaceful and sustainable exploration and use of space. I believe that people can achieve world peace through space. To do so, we must recognize landing sites on the moon and other celestial bodies as the universal human achievements they are, built on the research and dreams of scientists and engineers spanning centuries on this globe. I believe that the One Small Step Act, enacted in a divisive political environment, demonstrates that space and preservation truly are nonpartisan, even unifying principles.



The Moon Is Getting Crowded, Fast

It is only a matter of decades, perhaps just years, before we see a continuous human presence on the moon.

While it would be nice to think that a human community on the moon would be a collaborative, multinational utopia — albeit located in what Buzz Aldrin famously described as a “magnificent desolation” — the fact is, people are once again racing one another to reach our lunar neighbor.

The U.S. Artemis project, which includes a goal of sending the first woman to the moon in 2024, is the most ambitious mission. Russia has reinvigorated its Luna program, setting the stage to put cosmonauts on the moon in the 2030s. However, in a race once reserved for superpowers, there are now multiple nations and multiple private companies with a stake.

India is planning to send a rover to the moon this year. China, which in December 2020 implemented the first successful lunar return mission since 1976, has announced multiple lunar landings in the coming years, with Chinese media reporting plans for a crewed mission to the moon within the decade. South Korea and Japan are also building lunar landers and probes.

Such private companies as Astrobotic, Masten Space Systems and Intuitive Machines are working to support NASA missions. Other companies, such as ispace, Blue Moon and SpaceX, while also supporting NASA missions, are preparing to offer private missions, including possibly for tourism. How are all these different entities going to work around one another?

This image shows the locations of all manned and unmanned lunar landings to date.
Cmglee/Wikimedia, (CC BY-SA)



Maintaining Laws on the Moon

Space is not lawless. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, now ratified by 110 nations, including all of the current spacefaring countries, offers guiding principles supporting the concept of space as the province of all humankind. The treaty explicitly indicates that all countries and, by implication, their nationals have the freedom to explore and free access to all areas of the moon.

That’s right. Everyone has the freedom to roam wherever they want — over Neil Armstrong’s bootprints, close to sensitive scientific experiments or right up to a mining operation. There is no concept of property on the moon. The only restriction on this freedom is the remonstration, found in Article IX of the treaty, that all activities on the moon must be carried out with “due regard to the corresponding interests of” all others and the requirement that you consult with others if you might cause “harmful interference.”

What does that mean? From a legal standpoint, no one knows.

It can reasonably be argued that interfering with an experiment or a lunar mining operation would be harmful, cause quantifiable damage and thus violate the treaty.

But what about a derelict spacecraft, like the Eagle, the Apollo 11 lunar lander? Do we really want to rely on “due regard” to prevent the intentional or inadvertent destruction of this inspiring piece of history? This object memorializes the work of the hundreds of thousands of individuals who worked to put a human on the moon, the astronauts and cosmonauts who gave their lives in this quest to reach the stars, and the quiet heroes, like Katherine Johnson, who fueled the math that made it so.

The lunar landing sites — from  Luna 2, the first human made object to impact the moon, to each of the crewed Apollo missions, to Chang-e 4, which deployed the first rover on the far side of the moon — in particular bear witness to humanity’s greatest technological achievement thus far. They symbolize all we have accomplished as a species, and hold such promise for the future.

NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/ASU



The One Small Step Act


The act also encourages the development of best practices to protect human heritage in space by evolving the concepts of due regard and harmful interference — an evolution that will also guide how nations and companies work around one another. As small a step as it may be, recognizing and protecting historic sites is the first step to developing a peaceful, sustainable and successful lunar governance model.

The bootprints are not protected — yet. There is a long way to go toward an enforceable multilateral/universal agreement to manage the protection, preservation or memorialization of all human heritage in space, but the One Small Step law should give us all hope for the future in space and here on Earth.

Michelle L.D. Hanlon is a professor of air and space law at the University of Mississippi. She is affiliated with For All Moonkind, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that seeks to protect each of the six human lunar landing and similar sites in outer space as part of our common human heritage.



What’s the Difference Between a National Park and National Monument? https://www.wblogs.info/2021/01/what-s-the-difference-between-a-national-park-and-national-monument/ https://www.wblogs.info/2021/01/what-s-the-difference-between-a-national-park-and-national-monument/#respond Thu, 14 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000
Grand Canyon National Park is actually designated as both a national park and national monument. This view from Bright Angel Trailhead is from the South Rim of the park. NPS/Michael Quinn

America’s national parks are places of wonder and natural beauty, playing host to activities as diverse as the people who visit them. In 2019, there were 327.5 million recreational visits across the system.

There are actually 20 types of “national parks” that fall under the protection of the National Park Service (NPS). These include battlefields, historical parks, national lakeshores, parkways and other recreational areas. Perhaps the two most popular among tourists are national parks and national monuments.



National Parks

While most of us are familiar with at least some of the 62 sites that include “national park” as part of their name like Grand Canyon National Park, Yellowstone National Park or Yosemite National Park, the National Park System actually contains a total of 423 national park sites. This includes parks in the continental U.S. and the territories of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam.

Generally, a national park holds a variety of resources, encompassing large areas of land or water. The National Park Service has dual responsibility of preserving the ecological and historical integrity of the places it manages, while also making them accessible for public use and enjoyment within restricted guidelines. These tend to be places tourists visit for recreation like hiking, boating and camping.



National Monuments

As we just mentioned, technically a national monument is a type of national park site. National monuments are usually smaller than national parks. Their purpose is to preserve at least one nationally significant resource, such as Aztec Ruins National Monument, which preserves a 900-year-old ancestral Pueblo Great House in New Mexico. National monuments tend to be places to visit for education and historic remembrance.



So, What’s the Difference?

An area earns the designation of national park through legislation in Congress. A national monument, however, is created by a U.S. president using the authority granted in the Antiquities Act of 1906. A site, such as the Grand Canyon, can be designated both a national monument (1908) and a national park (1919).

All national parks are managed by the National Park Service. Monuments on the other hand can be managed by the NPS as well as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and several other agencies.

