The Moon Treaty: prospects for the future

1995 marks the 15th anniversary of the United States' debate over ratification of the 1979 Moon Treaty.¹ The 1994–1995 season also marks the 10th anniversary of the Moon Treaty's entry into force among the small number of countries that ratified it.² These two anniversaries are significant both in themselves and because they occur at a time of reexamination regarding the Moon Treaty. This article briefly reviews the history of the agreement, and its prospects over the next few years. It concludes with some suggestions for revisiting the troublesome question of property rights in celestial bodies.     

双星探月，美欲重返月球

北京时间2009年6月19日凌晨5点,NASA发射两颗卫星探月。这是美国“重返月球”计划的第一步。美国是最先探索月球的国家之一。从卫星“绕月”到“阿波罗”飞船首次登月,再到如今“重返月球”计划中建立永久性月球基地,美国的月球探索已进入更深屡次。月球,田其独特的空间位置,被美国视为太空探索的重要跳板。     

The Moon and Mars : Role and impacts for Europe

Interest in manned interplanetary exploration and colonization has been reviving for some time. Despite being presently involved in the three main programmes Ariane 5, Hermes and Columbus, Europe should not stay out of Moon/Mars-related initiatives. This paper summarizes the major results of a study on the role Europe could play in such a context and the impacts this could have on its space policy.     

Conference round-up: Space,defence and trips to the Moon

What are the trends in missile defence, the perceptions of space and defence in society and the now emergent commercial human spaceflight industry? Europe seems stuck in a financial rut and unable to fashion a united approach, the USA and Russia have not acknowledged the need to understand the issues in a context broader than that of a bilateral debate over the intentions of Iran, and a growing number of companies is getting serious about taking paying customers into space. This report covers the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Missile Defence Conference 2012; the RUSI Defence, Industries and Society Conference 2012 and the third European Space Tourism Conference held at the Royal Aeronautical Society in July, all in London.     

Earth–Moon libration point orbit stationkeeping: Theory,modeling, and operations

Collinear Earth–Moon libration points have emerged as locations with immediate applications. These libration point orbits are inherently unstable and must be maintained regularly which constrains operations and maneuver locations. Stationkeeping is challenging due to relatively short time scales for divergence, effects of large orbital eccentricity of the secondary body, and third-body perturbations. Using the Acceleration Reconnection and Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon's Interaction with the Sun (ARTEMIS) mission orbit as a platform, the fundamental behavior of the trajectories is explored using Poincaré maps in the circular restricted three-body problem. Operational stationkeeping results obtained using the Optimal Continuation Strategy are presented and compared to orbit stability information generated from mode analysis based in dynamical systems theory.     

The men who sold the Moon: science fiction or legal nonsense?

Previously the exclusive domain of science-fiction novels, the sale of extraterrestrial real estate has nowadays become a favourite feature of tabloid reports. This article critically analyses and dismantles with legal arguments the issue of the sale of extraterrestrial land, after having outlined some of the trivial claims of ownership of celestial bodies. From Dennis Hope's lunar claim to the alleged Martian trespass by NASA's Pathfinder, the only consequence these claims have on the legal plane is to highlight the need for better regulation of extraterrestrial landed property rights.     

Return to the Moon: A sustainable strategy

On 14 January 2004 President George Bush announced his vision for space exploration, to include a human return to the Moon. He argued that, with a moderate increase in NASA's annual expenditure, such a return was possible. This paper is an exploration of how the President's space initiative can be realised on an international co-operative basis along similar lines to those already existing with the international space station (ISS). By abandoning the concept of a lunar landing as the major goal of a lunar programme, the initiative is made feasible. The three-stage plan here presented meshes with the currently evolving plans for the US space initiative to provide a realistic, affordable and sustainable strategy for manned lunar exploration. It represents a significant opportunity for the USA to unite and lead the world on this grand, civilisation defining adventure.