Every wonder why the space station to nowhere is in LEO and not GEO? It is not because the Space Shuttle could not reach GEO (well it couldn’t but that is beside the point). We could have built a shuttle system to transport humans to GEO but it was never even considered because……humans cannot survive for any length of time in GEO due to the radiation environment. It is rarely mentioned we almost lost an Apollo crew to a solar storm. Any long duration human-crewed mission BLEO requires massive shielding. Not just because of solar storms but also because of cosmic radiation. Though not as severe as deep space, GEO cosmic radiation exposure is significantly higher than LEO.

Radiation is square one. Telecommunications satellites are presently the only significant revenue generator. If we want to replace the present satellite junkyard with human technicians maintaining telecommunications platforms on GEO platforms then thousands of tons of shielding would be required. Lifting thousands of tons of tapwater into GEO from Earth is a non-starter. But lifting hundreds of thousands of tons of water from the lunar surface is comparatively simple and economical.

The ice on the Moon is the critical resource for establishing any human presence Beyond Low Earth Orbit.

What about Culbertson; he is the most space motivated one of all I think. If wants to go to Europa he has to go by way of the Moon.

I think America should continue it’s tradition of human rights. And it’s a human right to have access to space and it’s resources.
But I think US government does need skin in the game. And I see US leading in that regard by exploring the Moon to determine if and where there is minable water.
I don’t think it’s likely, but I don’t want the private sector to start off by exploring the moon to determine if and where there is minable water on the Moon. Or it’s enormous risk to spend billions of dollars to answer that question, and some private party does this and is successful at such a discovery, it seems to muddy the water in terms of what rights that private entity is entitled. Whereas if US government does this initial exploration and publishes the results, then that would better. And of course following this one could have lot’s exploration done by private sector. But the exploration would have to do finding different or better spots to mine, rather “exploring the Moon”. So if private sector finds specific locations, that doesn’t seem like a problem. And one has same issue with Mars.

In the near term, it seems lunar water mining will occur in small region of the Moon and require small regions of the Moon. Rather than a water deposit, I think the rights regards the limited area of the ethereal peaks of light are more likely to become like the land claims disputes of South China Sea. And things like a solar array shading other areas could become problematic in terms land rights. Plus the peaks could be a hub regarding lunar water mining.
The long term solution is to have a lunar government,
And I think any entity [other than legitimate lunar government- and their claim would also be limited in terms of the Moon] which attempts to claim “too much land” should be challenged- whether it’s the Chinese or Google.

I don’t think there is any scarcity in regards to the Moon in terms of water deposits- unless one is claiming land or water deposits, which one can’t use within say 50 years.
Or mining water on the Moon will open this solar system, and expect in distant future that the Moon will import millions of tonnes of water per year and that water will be cheap, because the Moon has opened the solar system and water in the solar system is very abundant as compared to water on Earth.

I think the whole point of exploring the Moon is to find when would lunar water deposits be minable- it could be now, it will be eventually. But in terms space policy and NASA policy to sooner the Moon is explored the better [particularly if NASA wants to explore Mars].

Yes — I’ve met with his staffers and given them a brief on my cislunar development concepts.

This bill’s primary sponsor in the Senate was Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Staying out of Presidential Politics, he is currently Chairman of one of the key committees in the Senate in charge of the NASA Budget.

He has also made reference to wanting there to be more emphasis on HSF in the NASA Budget and being willing to consider changes in NASA’s internal priorities to achieve that goal. Those references have been vague and centered on Mars.

However, we are all so versed in the concept of use of Lunar ISRU and even the idea of a US Space Navy (perhaps Coast Guard would be a better analogy) we tend to assume everybody is equally well versed.

Has Senator Cruz been given any information on Lunar Development concepts?

I have my on ideas on what these rules should be. But I suspect that nations won’t really be concerned about exclusive territorial rights on the Moon until there are permanent outpost on the surface of the Moon.

Marcel