Why Governance Matters Now: Reflections on Building a Sustainable Lunar Economy
AUTHOR: MEHAK SARANG, OPEN LUNAR’S DIRECTOR OF INDUSTRY INTEGRATION
Last week, I had the opportunity to speak at MIT about lunar governance. As the Director of Industry Integration, I’m interested in how to sustain the current momentum of lunar exploration–including both government and non-state actors–while ensuring we act as responsible stewards of the Moon through governance.
Below, I’ve shared some key takeaways from the talk.
We’re not waiting for the future—it’s already happening.
In just the past year, we’ve witnessed historic milestones: the first NASA payloads operated on the Moon by a commercial provider; a surge of lunar missions from governments around the world; and increasing orbital congestion around the Moon.
As I said in the talk,
“The key is that many of the actors leading the way aren’t state actors. They’re private or nonprofit entities. Yet through their activities and actions in the lunar environment and on the lunar surface, they’re setting important precedents—because there’s really no formal framework to guide them.”
This is a governance challenge. Governance isn’t just about rules and regulations—it’s about creating legitimacy, not just control. At the moment, we’re witnessing a lunar environment increasingly shaped by commercial actors navigating unprecedented technical, legal, and operational challenges without clear norms.
Take, for example, the case of Astrobotic's first mission to the Moon last year. After a propulsion failure shortly after launch, they coordinated with NASA to dispose of the lander safely. But as I noted in my talk:
“Surprisingly, this was a plan coordinated after the launch and failure, not prior to the mission.”
Without agreed-upon protocols for mishaps, collision avoidance, or basic safety measures, we leave the lunar commons vulnerable to accidental harm.
Commercial momentum needs governance, not just markets.
I often hear excitement about the growing “lunar market.” That’s usually followed by acknowledging a sobering reality: right now, the market is overwhelmingly anchored by government contracts. The truth is, without clarity on rules, standards, and enforcement mechanisms, private capital has little incentive to enter the lunar economy at scale.
Imagine trying to build a commercial supply chain when you don’t know:
Who gets access to key resources?
What safety protocols others are following?
How to resolve disputes?
Whether your hardware will be compatible with critical infrastructure?
We’re also missing core public goods. We lack position, navigation, and timing services, a shared timekeeping protocol, and standard interfaces for interoperability, among other important public goods. As I explained:
“Without those coordinated standards, you can imagine that we won’t have a shared timekeeping protocol… and without standards, there’s a lot of increased risk to missions through costs and testing.”
Why does this matter for industry? Unprecedented levels of risk threaten stable funding. This risk can come in many forms: technical risk, economic risk, political risk. For private and public investment at the levels needed to sustain the current momentum, markets need stability. As I said,
“We are not able to think or theorize intelligently about what the future of a commercial market on the moon will be until we know what we can do there, until we know what the capabilities are of the technologies that will go there, until we know what the challenges are. And we're really missing that piece.”
Governance provides a scaffolding that allows commercial momentum to endure. Our projects and research at Open Lunar provide an important foundation for the future of lunar governance.