2023, LSC, Statement, Item 14: Space Exploration and Innovation

Thank you Honourable Chair. Space exploration and innovation is a key topic for the future of humanity and we deeply appreciate the opportunity to provide our views to this Honourable Committee.

Although all exploration endeavors are equally important, at Open Lunar we focus specifically on the Moon as our closest and perhaps dearest celestial body. To shed light on the unique features of our only natural satellite, in 2022, together with the Space Generation Advisory Council, we released Res Luna, a unique report identifying over 20 natural resource systems on the Moon, including Permanently Shadowed Regions, the Radio-Quiet Zone, Peaks of Eternal Light, Lunar Lava Tubes, and Lunar Regolith. This significant variety in natural systems, with special emphasis on their different levels of accessibility and scarcity, suggests that on the Moon even more than on Earth, one size hardly fits all. As such, the prosperous development of the Moon could be especially enabled by frameworks that allow for diversity and subsidiarity, such as polycentricity. Adopting a polycentric approach, different lunar systems would be managed locally through norms while conforming to shared principles such as transparency, sustainability, peace and cooperation. For example, extracting resources from a permanently shadowed crater in the lunar south pole may come with certain obligations for sharing or coordinating that would not necessarily be needed for a research outpost located in an equatorial region.