12th IAA Symposium on Future Space Exploration

Claudio Maccone(1) and NicoloAntonietti(2) (1) IAA Scientific Director and INAF Associate. Postal address: Via Renato Martorelli 43, 10155 Torino (TO), Italy. Phone: +39-348-5816-670. Email: claudio.maccone@gmail.com (2) IAA Corresponding Member, Via Martiri della Liberta 8, San Maurizio Canavese (TO). Phone: +39-320-236-9784. Email: nicolo.antonietti@gmail.com

Keywords: Moon Farside Protection, Cosmology, Astrobiology, SETI, Planetary Defense

The Moon Race is in full swing as of 2025. The most important space-faring countries want to set foot on the Moon for a variety of purposes: national prestige, technological superiority and capitalist returns. But the exploitation of the Moon Farside to increase Humanity’s Scientific Knowledge has hardly any official place in this Moon Race.
Five areas of the Sciences would greatly benefit if pursued on the Moon Farside:
1)
COSMOLOGY: only the radio silence still existing on the Moon Farside would enable us to check General Relativity predictions about the early stages of the Universe, like Dark Ages and the like.
2)
ASTROBIOLOGY: Prebiotic interstellar molecules detected by their radio emissions could be found much better from the radio-quiet Moon Farside than from the overcrowded Earth Sky.
3)
SETI & TECHNOSIGNATURES: since 1959 the largest radio telescopes existing on Earth have been occasionally used to search for “messages” or “hints” that Alien Civilizations exist. None was found, but the part of explored Milky Way is painfully small. SETI from Moon Farside is better.
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4)
PLANETARY DEFENSE: every asteroid and comet in the Solar System must flyby the Sun. Thus, the six orbital parameters of all asteroids and comets could be determined to a higher precision by optical telescopes set on both Nearside & Farside for the Moon. In turn, that would lead to a better estimate of the LEAD TIME, the time Humanity has to prepare for DEFLECTING SPACE MISSIONS.
5)
WATER AT THE SOUTH POLE and other Moon venues shielded from the Sun Radiation.
6)
LAVA TUBES as shelters from space radiation would be ideal for Human Settlements on the Moon.
In our intended presentation we would briefly review these topics and the United Nations COPUOS actions to protect the Moon Farside from polluters of any kind.