[meteorite-list] Moon Water: A Trickle of Data and a Flood ofQuestions

From: Walter Branch <branchw_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 6 12:14:12 2006
Message-ID: <00a201c64141$640f93e0$6a01a8c0_at_DrCollman>

>space lawyers are at the ready to
>voice legal opinions on tapping into any water ice found

You have got to be kidding me...

Wasn't a treaty signed long ago, similiar to one for Antartica, which
basically stated the moon was owned by no one?

-Walter Branch

-----------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Baalke" <baalke_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>
To: "Meteorite Mailing List" <meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Monday, March 06, 2006 11:22 AM
Subject: [meteorite-list] Moon Water: A Trickle of Data and a Flood
ofQuestions


>
> http://space.com/scienceastronomy/060306_lunar_ice.html
>
> Moon Water: A Trickle of Data and a Flood of Questions
> By Leonard David
> space.com
> 06 March 2006
>
> NASA is in the process of scripting how best to plant new bootprints on
> the Moon and take advantage of lunar resources that could prolong human
> stays on that barren ball of rock.
>
> While the Moon is one desolate world, it could turn out to be a faraway
> faucet of sorts.
>
> Robotic spacecraft - both the Pentagon's Clementine (1994) and NASA's
> Lunar Prospector (1998-1999) missions - point to the promise that the Moon
> is a literal watering hole for crews.
>
> Permanently shadowed craters at the lunar poles, called "cold traps,"
> might be repositories of water ice. More importantly, this reserve could
> be converted to oxygen, drinkable water, even rocket fuel.
>
> However, water ice on the Moon is far from being a slam dunk deduction.
> There is ongoing dispute about whether or not such frozen caches of
> water reside in sunshine-deprived lunar craters.
>
> NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter in 2008 will dive into the issue.
> Future robotic Moon landers are expected to plop down at polar regions
> for a spot check too. In the interim, space lawyers are at the ready to
> voice legal opinions on tapping into any water ice found.
>
> Unique illumination conditions
>
> There is "intriguing evidence" that, potentially, water ice on the Moon
> exists in fairly significant amounts, said Ben Bussey, a lunar expert at
> the John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel,
> Maryland.
>
> NASA's Lunar Prospector clearly identified an enhanced signal of
> hydrogen - an indication that nobody has any qualms with, Bussey told
> SPACE.com. "But there's the argument ... is it hydrogen or is the
> hydrogen in a form of water ice?"
>
> The Pentagon's Clementine lunar orbiter yielded data that, some
> scientists contend, gave a positive indication for ice inside
> Schackleton crater, situated at the Moon's south pole.
>
> Yet there is controversy about that interpretation, Bussey noted, adding
> that Earth-based radar of that area, some argue, reflect more a signal
> of rocks and not ice.
>
> "The [lunar] poles represent the biggest unknowns," Bussey said, leaving
> the scientific community hungry for new information. "We definitely know
> that the poles have unique illumination conditions with the potential
> for permanent sunshine. We know that there's lots of permanent shadow
> which could contain ice."
>
> In the big scheme of things, looking for ice does not, in itself, merit
> going back to the Moon.
>
> "But if it's there ... and it is there in enough quantity to be
> extractable and usable, then I can see there's a potential where you
> want to use it. It makes your life easier," Bussey said. On the other
> hand, he questioned, if it is there, is it in a form that makes it
> viable to be used?
>
> Cometary frost
>
> Apollo 17 moonwalker and geologist Harrison Schmitt questions the
> availability of water ice at the lunar poles.
>
> For one, NASA's Lunar Prospector detected what must be largely solar
> wind hydrogen, Schmitt told SPACE.com. The only areas where water ice
> might be contributing to that signal are places where permanent
> shadowing exists near the poles, he said.
>
> "Indeed, cometary volatiles - including water ice - probably precipitate
as
> frost in permanent shadow at the lunar poles," Schmitt said, something
> that has been shown theoretically by a number of researchers. The
> longevity of this frost, however, is subject to the rate of
> micrometeorite and solar wind erosion, he noted.
>
> "Unless the cometary frost, including water ice, is buried quickly by
> fortuitous impact ejecta or is partially protected in a very deep crater
> with permanent shadow, it will probably disappear in a geologically
> short time," Schmitt advised.
>
> No doubt, finding cometary frosts in deep, permanently shadowed craters
> will be scientifically very interesting, the moonwalker said. "However,
> I would not yet count on finding economically significant water ice
> deposits."
>
> Schmitt said that potentially substantial amounts of solar wind hydrogen
> are present everywhere on the Moon along with helium-4, helium-3, carbon
> and nitrogen. Hydrogen and helium concentrations are clearly higher in
> polar regions independent of whether there is cometary water ice.
>
> "So those of us interested in lunar helium-3 fusion power are very
> interested in more precise mapping of hydrogen distribution as a
> surrogate for helium-3. We hope that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
> will provide such information," Schmitt said.
>
> Touch the water
>
> The prospect of finding water ice at the Moon's poles is indeed
> arguable, said Larry Taylor, Director of the Planetary Geosciences
> Institute at the Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences at the
> University of Tennessee in Knoxville.
>
> Taylor, like other lunar experts, said it's imperative that we "touch
> the water." Doing so is the only way to know if water ice is there in
> the first place. And if truly present and accounted for, then other
> questions follow: How much, what quality, and how hard to process?
>
> "The only way to solve this major question" of water ice on the Moon,
> Taylor emphasized, is not from orbit.
>
> "There does not appear to be any instruments that are completely
> definitive, even from 'near' remote sensing, such as on a simple
> lander," Taylor told SPACE.com. "It is not only necessary to determine
> that there might be water ice, but the quantities and composition."
>
> The makeup of any lunar water ice, coupled with some oxygen isotopes,
> would go a long way toward assigning an origin to the water, Taylor
> added, be it hydrous meteorites, comets, or water vapor yielded through
> the interaction between solar wind and impact-melted lunar surface
material.
>
> Customary law
>
> Let's say that, indeed, water ice is on hand at the Moon. Use of that
> material from a legal point of view is seen by some space law experts as
> contentious.
>
> For instance, could the amount of water ice be extremely limited? So
> much so that one nation sucking up all of this precious resource could
> be viewed by other nations as tantamount to a land grab?
>
> "There will be legal implications when the time comes if and when water
> ice is finally extracted," said Harold Bashor, editor-in-chief of the
> Journal of Diplomatic Language for the American Graduate School of
> International Relations and Diplomacy in Paris, France. He is author of
> "The Moon Treaty Paradox" (Xlibris Corporation, 2004).
>
> "According to international law found in the well-ratified United
> Nations Outer Space Treaty of 1967, celestial bodies such as the Moon
> may be used and exploited, but they cannot be appropriated by any
> country," Bashor said. "Although the subsequent Moon Treaty has only
> been ratified by eleven nations, (the United States is not a signatory)
> it cannot be overlooked since it embodies many of the provisions of the
> comprehensive Outer Space Treaty and customary law as well."
>
> Peaceful purposes
>
> Bashor said that if a country should decide to utilize lunar water
> ice - or any other resource - on Earth's celestial neighbor, it would be
> necessary to inform the United Nations of the activities concerned with
> such exploitation. Secondly, any use of the Moon must be for peaceful
> purposes, he said.
>
> "For scientific purposes, as example, a country could use water,
> minerals and other substances in quantities appropriate for the support
> of their missions as long as the existing balance of the lunar
> environment would not be disrupted," Bashor advised.
>
> Furthermore, since the Moon is to be explored and exploited for peaceful
> uses, Bashor said, countries may not interfere with the activities of
> any other countries on the Moon, and any conflict must be reported to
> the United Nations.
>
> No rights of ownership
>
> Activities on the Moon may be pursued freely without any discrimination
> of any kind, and countries can place vehicles, personnel, stations, and
> facilities anywhere on or below the surface.
>
> "However, neither the surface nor the subsurface of the Moon can become
> the property of any country or its citizens. Also, there are no rights
> of ownership for any natural resources in place," Bashor told SPACE.com.
> "This is generally interpreted to mean that a country may not claim
> ownership of any resources until they have been extracted. Yet, any
> extraction is required to be for the benefit of mankind according to the
> Common Heritage of Mankind principle."
>
> Additionally, the Moon Treaty of 1979 provides that an international
> regime should be established when any exploitation of the Moon is "about
> to become feasible," Bashor observed. "The purpose of this regime would
> be the orderly and safe development, management, and sharing of the
> natural resources of the Moon," he said.
>
> While the use of water ice would be permitted in order to support any
> mission on the Moon, "any further use would be scrutinized especially if
> it was for military or other illegal uses," Bashor concluded.
>
> Without protest
>
> "Whether lunar ice exists or not, its legal status can be a good
> intellectual exercise," suggested Virgiliu Pop, a PhD candidate at
> Glasgow University in Scotland and a specialist in space law focused on
> property rights in outer space.
>
> Pop is author of Unreal Estate: The Men who Sold the Moon (Exposure
> Publishing, 2006).
>
> Interestingly enough, Pop pointed out, the legal status of ice right
> here on Earth is not completely settled. There is no set answer to the
> question who owns Earth's South Pole, he advised.
>
> In Antarctica, there is a small sliver, reaching down to the South Pole,
> claimed at the same time by the United Kingdom, Chile, and Argentina.
> The 1959 Antarctic
> Treaty may have frozen territorial claims, but that document did not
> clarify who
> owns what in Antarctica, Pop said.
>
> "Nonetheless, ice is used by scientific expeditions. Yet, in Antarctica,
> ice is abundant. At the same time, while Antarctic icebergs have no
> clear legal status either, several
> icebergs have been mined for ice without any protests," Pop explained.
>
> Free for all or free-for-all?
>
> The principal sources of ice in the solar system are the comets. It's
> the view of Pop that comets and smaller asteroids should not be
> considered celestial bodies proper. Thus, they would not be subject to
> national appropriation. They would be treated as floating ore bodies, he
> suggested, "like icebergs on Earth."
>
> Regarding lunar ice, the Outer Space Treaty provides that the Moon is
> free for use by all States, Pop added, who are granted free access to
> all of its areas. At the same time, States Parties are to conduct all
> their lunar activities with due regard to the corresponding interests of
> all other States Parties to the Treaty.
>
> "It is of my opinion that astronauts will not encounter any legal
> troubles when using the native materials of the Moon - ice included - to
> support their exploration," Pop told SPACE.com. "My own interpretation
> is that anybody is allowed to use lunar ice, provided there is enough
> for others to use."
>
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list_at_meteoritecentral.com
> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
Received on Mon 06 Mar 2006 12:14:11 PM PST