The POTRoscosmos, JAXA, the Chinese Space Agency, the THAT and Saudi Arabia's space program are just some of the organizations that have missions to the Moon planned in the near future. Rovers, manned trips, installation of bases, telescopes, take-off centers and mining will invade the satellite in at least five years. It is a situation that raises many questions.
Who takes care of the Moon? Will there be a government or governing body that is responsible for protecting the natural satellite? The hand of man rests on our night light beacon as a threat that could impact its scientific value, for everything it can give us in knowledge about the Solar System, or in its influence on the Earth, which would be much more dangerous.
Researchers dedicated to space exploration have a term to refer to places of great scientific value: Sites of Extraordinary Scientific Importance (SESI). With this they identify some region of the Solar system in which man must avoid harming without measuring the consequences for everything he could give us in terms of knowledge.
On the Moon there are several areas called SESIbut the researchers who identify these regions do not have the authority to prevent landing or working in these places. Who is the owner of the Moon? Apparently no one. The news portal Vandal informs that there is 22 lunar missions planned between now and 2026.
Most point towards an area called SESI, the south pole of the Moon. So many countries going to the same place could trigger a land conflict unprecedented for humanity. Going to fight in another territory of the Solar System would be a epic fail never seen before.
However, the worst news for the Moon is the amount of work that will be carried out on its surface, in which many properties of its soil may be lost, due to mining, installation of lunar bases or take-off centers.
Let us remember that science wants to carry out astronomy from the Moon to have a different vision of the cosmos, from where extraterrestrial life could even be found. There is a call, which we doubt will be heard, for science to apply common sense in the explorations that are going to be carried out within the natural satellite in the coming years.