Wednesday 12th June at 7pm
Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham, BN43 5EG
Silicon for microchips; lithium for batteries; titanium for missiles - the moon has them all. And as Earth’s resources dwindle, the world’s superpowers and wealthiest corporations have turned their eyes to the stars…
Technological advances have led to the rapid expansion of commercial and military activity in space, yet it has barely featured in public debate.
As a new space race begins, A.C. Grayling asks: Who, if anyone, owns the moon?
Arguing that although no-one owns the moon, we are all responsible for it, Who Owns The Moon? In Defence of Humanity’s Common Interests in Space, puts forward a compelling argument for a bold new global consensus, one that defends the rights of everyone who lives on this planet.
-In December 2022, the first private company to attempt a lunar landing, Japan’s ispace, launched the Hakuto-R M1. It failed, but M2 is already under construction.
-Three government space programmes also tested lunar landings: India’s Chandrayaan-3, Japan’s SLIM (‘Smart Lander for Investigating Moon’) and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos’ Luna-25 mission.
-China’s Chang-e 5 made a successful moon landing in November 2022. Chang-e missions 6, 7 and 8 scheduled for 2025, 2026 and 2028 are intended to pave the way for manned flight in the 2030s and the establishment of an ‘International Lunar Research Station’.
-NASA has licensed over a dozen private companies to make scientific instruments and to transport them and other cargo to the moon as part of its Commercial Lunar Payload Services. Artemis 1 launched in 2022 with robots aboard, testing the Orion spacecraft that on subsequent missions 2-5 will carry human crew. The rest of the programme will put a ‘Lunar Gateway’ space station in orbit and humans back on the moon’s surface
A. C. GRAYLING is the Founder and Principal of the New College of the Humanities at Northeastern University, London, and is its Professor of Philosophy. Among his many books are ‘The God Argument’, ‘Democracy and Its Crisis’, ‘The History of Philosophy’, ‘The Good State’ and ‘Philosophy and Life’.
He has been a regular contributor to The Times, Guardian, Financial Times, Independent on Sunday, Economist, New Statesman, Prospect and New European, and he appears on radio and television.