Man is in the remarkable process of effecting accessible voyages to and from the Moon. It is our information that in addition to the United States, Russia, China, India, and Japan, have been engaged in programs of development of such capability. We fully expect that other industrially developed nations will join in the effort. The motivation presumably, would include considerations of national prestige, economic benefit, and, perhaps negatively, tactical military capability.
In our view, the modern context and dynamics of lunar travel are temporally comparable to the voyages of discovery centuries ago when, nations like England, France, Spain, and Portugal (“conquistadors”) sent large and armed ships, scouring the “New World” for exploitation and conquest. It may be noted that, apart from the shameful treatment of indigenous inhabitants of such discovered territories, (a subject not relevant to the theme of this writing) the tragedy of wars, down through the ages, have been fought, regarding adverse national claims to new territories, (a subject, notably relevant to the context of this writing).
We find the popular aphorism, “Those who do not study history are bound to repeat the same mistakes,” empirically flawed and useless. Man’s proclivities and inherent persona, proximately responsible for consistently analogous mistakes, have not changed. Indeed, literature and the fine arts are deemed “classic” for the reason that they aesthetically portray the universal and non-changing persona of humankind, flawed or otherwise. If, for some inexplicable reason, one sought the euphemistic assistance of an aphoristic statement, we would suggest the somewhat more empirically, accurate, reference: “The past is prologue.”
To our knowledge, there exists no international agreement or set of officially binding regulations, regarding the proprietary rights of the few nations that have already “planted their flag” on the surface of the Moon, as well as those developed nations who, conceivably, will do so in the future. Without such a mutually accepted and enforceable protocol, the latter aphoristic “prologue,” predictable from an examination of Man’s sad, historical experience, is bloody conflict and human tragedy.
In our considered view, a recognized and authoritative body, such as the United Nations, or perhaps, the International Court in Geneva, might, presciently and appropriately construe a referable and legally binding treaty universally prescribing nations’ rights as to Luna territorial proprietorship, including location, and natural resources. Such a treaty or mandatorily binding covenant would authoritatively and impartially, define and particularize relevant nations’ rights to lunar territory and natural resources and as a salubrious consequence, avoid the occurrence of foreseeable conflict between nations.
-p.
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