Slashdot Mirror
Private Firm Plots Robotic Lunar Exploration
DeviceGuru writes "Astrobotic Technology has unveiled plans for a series of robotic expeditions to the Moon. The lunar rovers will explore high-interest areas of the Moon's surface and beam the data back to the Earth. The plan is to accumulate an extensive library of lunar data and sell it to governments and private corporations (PDF), much as Navteq's data forms the backbone of most terrestrial GPS services. Astrobotic's first goal is to win Google's $30 million Lunar X Prize, with a May, 2010 trip to the Apollo 11 landing site at Mare Tranquillitatis."
With Red Whittaker as the CEO, I'm sure this company can do what it says. If you're not familar with Red, his robots have been doing great things for many years. For example, it was Red's robots that helped clean up Three Mile Island after the accident there, as well as Chernobyl. His team at Carnegie Mellen also won the Darpa Grand Challange for developing a vehicle that could navigate autonomously. (The previous year, he took 2nd and 3rd place in the same challenge.)
So... I guess after he achieves this, we'll have a "Red Moon" after all!
Bill
It's my Sig and you can't have it. Mine! All Mine!
The cryptographic term of the day is "One-Time Pad," boys and girls. Can you say "One-Time Pad?"
much as Navteq's data forms the backbone of most terrestrial GPS services
Define "most." I think that the people who run the International GNSS Service (IGS) would disagree with you.
Achille and Giovanni Judica. skeptoid had a good episode about them resently.
The Outer Space Treaty which is the first basic attempt to regulate space is pretty much like the concept behind International Waters. The gist of Articles 6 and 7 are that governments are responsible for their citizens and corporate entities operation in outer space. If you need an analogy, this is sort of like how your parents are legally responsible for your actions when you are a child.
As for the equipment just floating around and something going catestrophically wrong, well, just look at the junk floating around earth's orbit, you don't have to imagine it, it's already real. In many respects it's no different than the great pacific garbage patch.
These happenings are perhaps one of the best illustrations of the Tragedy of the Commons effect. There are many sides to this argument about the commons. Feel free to discuss amongst yourselves ;^)
Umm, not quite.
For the record, IANALBIAANA (I am not a lawyer, but I am a nautical archaeologist)
The laws of salvage only apply when a ship, etc. is formally abandoned (usually for insurance purposes). For things like military vessels, governments tend not to formally abandon title and zealously guard it against salvage attempts. Considering that the lunar modules and other equipment are U.S. government property, I highly doubt that they have been legally abandoned.
Of course, this is all a moot point, since admiralty law does not apply to space, so no precedents actually exist.
There have been discussions at the U.N. and various historical preservation associations about how to legally handle protection for lunar and other historic sites sites in outer space. The problem is that current UNESCO world heritage rules stipulate that the country in possession of an historic site must first designate said site under their own historic sites laws. However, for the U.S. to do so, it would have to necessarily make a territorial claim on a portion of the moon's surface, which it can't legally do as a signatory of the Moon Treaty.