Moonglow

It's a brilliant surface in that sunlight. The horizon seems quite close to you because the curvature is so much more pronounced than here on earth. It's an interesting place to be. I recommend it. – Neil Armstrong

Forty-one years ago tonight, my parents woke me up just before 11 pm and I followed them downstairs to our back porch on a humid summer night to watch Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon’s surface. Being six and half-asleep, I didn’t fully appreciate the significance of the moment at the time, but now am thankful that I was able to see one of the crowning achievements of the modern era. It seems a shame that nothing in the last four decades has been able to capture the public imagination in the same way. Is our society too risk averse or politically fractious to make such an effort today? I hope not.

While no manned space flight has reached the moon since 1972, the law has made its attempt to visit. In 1979, the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs promulgated the Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, also known as the Moon Treaty. This treaty states that the moon should be used for the benefit of all states and purports to prevent altering the environment of celestial bodies or claiming ownership over any territory of celestial bodies, and further requires that any mining or other resource extraction be made by an international organization.

Despite its lofty aims, the treaty has remained rather earthbound because no nation that actually has a spaceflight program has ratified it. For some reason, I think that’s a good thing.