Speaker
Description
Most efforts to look at Planetary Defense have only considered protecting the Earth. But there are now concrete plans to establish human settlements and other significant infrastructure on the surface of the Moon over the course of the next several decades. This puts the people – and strategic assets – there at risk from asteroid impacts.
The past several decades have seen our species make great strides in our ability to protect our home planet from impacts of asteroids and comets. At the same time, mankind has also started to expand its sphere of influence and interests into space, and it is appropriate now to consider widening the sphere of vigilance and protection. The upcoming conjunction between Earth and the asteroid Apophis in April 2029 illustrates this threat, since simulations show that Apophis will not just pass closely by Earth, but also closely by the Moon.
While major impacts both on Earth and on the Moon are rare, Earth’s atmosphere protects it from the impact of the much more frequent smaller objects. The Moon lacks this natural shield, and thus potentially damaging impacts can be expected to happen much more frequently.
Furthermore, due to the Moon’s lower gravity field and again due to its lack of atmosphere, even smaller impacts can generate ejecta that can make it into cislunar space and threaten people and infrastructure there.
At the same time, habitats and other structures on and around the Moon will likely be less resilient than terrestrial structures, and thus more vulnerable to direct impacts and related second-order effects such as Moonquakes. Evacuations on the Moon will be more challenging as well compared to Earth.
Finally, combining Lunar exploration with Planetary Defense efforts could create another fruitful area of international collaboration, with geostrategic benefits.
This paper will therefore explore whether or not our planetary defense umbrella should be expanded to include cislunar space, and how this could be achieved.