Recommended Framework and Key Elements for Peaceful and Sustainable Lunar Activities
The near future will see a multitude of lunar missions through the efforts of both space agencies and commercial stakeholders. The current lack of coordination mechanisms for lunar activities presents a serious challenge to future missions and could lead to dangerous conflicts, especially in light o...
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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Moon Village Association
2022
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| Online Access: | https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/3f0f4878-72ac-4e33-aaa1-ecb1876f58bc https://hdl.handle.net/1871.1/3f0f4878-72ac-4e33-aaa1-ecb1876f58bc https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/222489105/GEGSLA_RF_final_book_A5_formated_font11_PDF_final.pdf https://moonvillageassociation.org/gegsla/documents/gegsla-recommended-framework/ |
| Summary: | The near future will see a multitude of lunar missions through the efforts of both space agencies and commercial stakeholders. The current lack of coordination mechanisms for lunar activities presents a serious challenge to future missions and could lead to dangerous conflicts, especially in light of the increased global interest in specific areas like the lunar south pole. The need to preserve the peaceful uses of space, together with the desire to begin a new era of sustainable space exploration, urges the development of a common level playing field for upcoming lunar activities. A number of issues must be addressed to ensure sustainable lunar exploration and settlement in and around the Moon, including, for example, mitigating the creation of debris in lunar orbit, defining standards to enable interoperability, and regulating access to natural resources. In 2019, the Moon Village Association (MVA) created an international platform to address these critical issues with the goal of de-risking future lunar missions and increasing global cooperation for lunar exploration and settlement. The MVA decided to promote the development of a neutral forum for multi- stakeholder discussions on lunar exploration: the Global Expert Group on Sustainable Lunar Activities (GEGSLA), with the goal of de- risking future lunar missions and increasing global cooperation for lunar exploration and settlement. The primary goal of GEGSLA meetings is to stimulate informal discussions to prepare documents to be brought to the attention of UNCOPUOS for further discussion and deliberation. The Group started its work with the kick-off meeting on February 25, 2021, creating the basis for increasing global coordination for a new era of sustainable space exploration. |
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