Space enthusiasts are overly optimistic about all the potentially exciting technologies and benefits to humanity. Often we conveniently ignore that fact, that there are trade-offs: if one group gets access to water on the surface of the moon, the other is not.
Understanding these trade-offs and trying to find solutions is the goal of a new scientific article, written by Marissa Herron and Teresa Jones of NASA's Office of Technology Policy, and Amanda Hernandez of BryceTech.
The article deals directly with conflicts of interest on the Moon, although the described strategy can be applied in other parts of the solar system. However, the focus is now on the Moon as NASA and other space agencies seek to establish a permanent presence there and begin exploiting the Moon's resources.
Documents like the National Science and Technology Strategy for Lunar Space (2022) and the US Space Resources Executive Order (2020) push to that, for the Moon to benefit mankind. But, ensuring equitable access to these benefits for all is more difficult.
Water on the moon is a great example of a limited resource, which can be used in different ways. Some want to split it into hydrogen and oxygen for refueling rockets, others are cleaned and used for drinking or hygiene. Who should decide?, who will receive and how much, and how to ensure equity in access is still unclear. The article offers a way to a solution.
The authors propose a three-level strategy:
Mapping — to analyze 63 NASA program goals “Moon to Mars” and determine, what resources and places on the moon are critical for them. At the same time, the authors emphasize, that extensive cooperation with other agencies and private companies is required.
Catalog — Creating a list of issues or potential conflicts, example, competition for water. To resource-intensive “locations” belong not only to the surface, as well as orbits and Lagrange points.
Conservation — developing a plan to reduce or eliminate these problems. These can be technical solutions (example, more efficient solar panels), operating rooms (example, joint use of regolith mining equipment), or political (example, conservation of historic sites as a landing site “Apollo”).
The catalog and preservation strategy should be updated regularly, to adapt to new challenges — newly discovered resources or changes in the use of lunar infrastructure.
The authors emphasize: this approach is not a static document, and a dynamic system of interconnected decisions, which will allow efficient and harmonious use of resources, when humanity expands its presence in the solar system. If we take into account conflicts over resources on Earth, trying to anticipate and prevent them in advance is definitely the right move.
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-05-conflicts-lunar-resources.html