Image of three egg-shaped structures on a desolate landscape

A rendering of lantern-like buildings for moon colonists (SEArch+/ICON)

Should We Colonize the Moon?

August 26, 2024

The idea of humans setting up permanent colonies in space has long inspired science fiction writers and movie producers. But yesterday’s fantasy could very well become tomorrow’s reality.

NASA’s Artemis program, announced in 2017, envisions returning astronauts to the moon for the first time in decades and later setting up permanent colonies there.

To many, the mission would begin to fulfill a long-held dream of having humans live, work, and conduct long-term research in space, to the benefit of all humankind.

Critics aren’t so sure. They point to the history of environmental exploitation and destruction on Earth as signs of things to come in space. As far as they’re concerned, no one has yet provided a good answer to this question: Why go?

Should we colonize the moon? A space ethicist and a NASA consultant square off.

The moon is our first stepping stone to the rest of the universe. A settlement there would be not only an immense scientific and technological achievement but also an economic and political one—not to mention its significance for human development and survival.

Long-term exploration and settlement has clear benefits—those we can foresee and those we can’t. We know that lunar exploration will teach us more about natural history—how billions of years ago planet-sized rocks collided, forming Earth and the dust that would become the moon. But moon settlement will also bring about technological advancements, like new ways of recycling or controlling the environment.

Space exploration is also a great way to promote international cooperation, as the International Space Station has shown. For many years, Russia and Western nations have gotten along on the space station, despite their troubles on Earth. Economically, a moon settlement would give us access to new resources that might be useful on Earth and to our continuing exploration of space.

Space settlement is a noble purpose and worthy of our effort.

Politically speaking, whichever nation gets to the moon first will set expectations about behavior in space. An unfriendly nation could attack another to claim lunar territory or trash the moon’s surface through greedy mining practices. We want the first country to settle the moon to be a friendly one. It should be us.

A city on the moon, if it’s big enough and self-sustaining, could ensure human survival when disaster strikes our planet. In the case of a gigantic volcanic eruption or asteroid strike—or in the event of a nuclear war—getting folks onto space colonies might be our best chance of saving lives.

Finally, space settlement is a noble purpose and worthy of our effort. It is incredibly challenging, but as President John F. Kennedy said in 1962, some things we choose to do “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” A moon settlement is a challenge we should accept.

—BRIAN PATRICK GREEN

Director of Technology Ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University

NASA says it wants to establish a permanent presence on the moon “for the benefit of humanity.” But officials have yet to name those benefits.

The idea of colonizing other planets has been popular for decades. Disproportionate attention to it in the media and lip service from key government officials give the impression that the goal of space colonization and exploitation is universally embraced. But this isn’t the case.

In 2018, the Pew Research Center gave people a list of nine priorities for NASA to arrange in order of importance. Humans going to the moon and to Mars were number eight and nine. Number one: getting a grip on climate change.

Some space experts agree that given the state of humankind’s overall ethical and moral development, humans should clean up the messes they’ve made on their home planet and learn how to take care of one another here before they go off into space.

We should clean up the messes we’ve made on Earth before going to space.

The history of colonization on Earth is ugly—a history of one society exploiting another society for territory, labor, and resources. We should not perpetuate this harmful practice by extending it into space. True, there are no native inhabitants on the moon, but as NASA and other national space agencies, along with private companies, exploit the moon’s resources, there will be winners and losers on Earth.

Who will benefit from colonizing the moon? The aerospace industry—companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Space X. The enterprise will be very expensive, and taxpayers will foot the bill. According to its own inspector general, NASA has already spent $30 billion on the Artemis program. And by 2025, NASA’s overall investment is projected to reach $93 billion. How will this public investment benefit U.S. taxpayers, let alone all of humanity?

—LINDA BILLINGS

Consultant to NASA’s Astrobiology Program and Planetary Defense Coordination Office