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As the Artemis II crew close in on Earth after their historic lunar flyby took them further into space than any human before them, experts see the mission to the moon as only the beginning of the quest to make a life for humans in space.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we are at the cusp of space becoming more accessible,\u201d says Dr Morgan Cable, a Nasa scientist teaching at Victoria University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just can\u2019t wait to see what\u2019s going to happen when we have these international groups of people be able to sustain a community on the moon and ultimately on a place like Mars. I can see that in our lifetime now, and that is such an incredible thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first crewed return to the moon in more than 50 years comes to an end with splashdown tomorrow (Saturday NZ time) in the North Pacific, and attention is now on establishing a permanent lunar presence by 2028, the first step to sending people to Mars.<\/p>\n
But as space exploration accelerates there are calls for urgent focus on updating the rules of behaviour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need something now because these space exploration activities are happening now,\u201d says deputy head of the New Zealand Space Agency, Andrew Johnson.<\/p>\n
Lunar activity has stepped up in recent years, according to University of Tasmania senior space researcher Dr Guifr\u00e8 Molera Calv\u00e9s.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2026 alone, at least six missions are planned to carry a wide range of payloads and satellites for science, communications, and resource prospecting,\u201d he tells Australia\u2019s SBS News.<\/p>\n
He says extracting oxygen and water from lunar resources are no longer distant ambitions but active experiments that could \u201ctransform how we sustain life beyond Earth\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s these activities that need clear boundaries, Johnson says, pointing out that New Zealand has an important role to play as it is a major player already in space and is eyeing up future missions to the moon.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople always focus on astronauts but I guess the thing that we like to draw people\u2019s attention to is New Zealand\u2019s impact on space overall,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Capstone Rocket Lab which launched from Mahia in 2022 was actually the pathfinder mission for this whole Artemis enterprise. That was the satellite launch to the moon.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd we\u2019ve got New Zealand experiments that have visited the International Space Station, we\u2019ve got New Zealand technology in many satellites on orbit and we\u2019ve got many New Zealanders working in the space sector here on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n
The projects are all examples of peaceful collaboration in space, he says, but more needs to be done to ensure lasting peace.<\/p>\n
New Zealand is signatory to the Outer Space Treaty which prohibits national appropriation of the moon, meaning no country can make a territorial claim over it.<\/p>\n
It is also part of international discussions about transparency, co-ordination and deconfliction, including work through the UN Committee on Peaceful Uses Of Outer Space.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut really this is a forum that dates back to the Cold War era which is a very, very different context. And the major treaties that are under that architecture were all agreed in the 1960s and didn\u2019t really have a concept of what the activities we\u2019re involved in today would look like.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo while we continue to build on that multi-lateral framework, New Zealand has also been an active participant in the Artemis Accords which is an attempt to start building the ground for rules of behaviour for space exploration activity that we hope will eventually dock back in with the multi-lateral process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson stressed to The Detail that in order to maintain a peaceful environment in outer space including the moon\u2019s surface, the ground rules need to be clear on how different countries interact with each other.<\/p>\n
Space lawyer and teacher at Bond University Gregory Radisic agrees that legal and governance systems for space are lagging behind the technology.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a real risk that the early actors, the countries or the companies that operate in space, those first ones that land on the moon, will really shape the rules, simply because they\u2019re first, which can obviously lead to a lot of conflict, unfair access to resources [and] environmental damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radisic says despite the conflict on Earth he remains optimistic that peace and international collaborations can be maintained in space.<\/p>\n
He points to the crewed US and Russian space missions during the Cold War era and the famous handshake between an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpace has always acted as almost this very unique example of human cooperation,\u201d Radisic says.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving on the moon long term will be largely associated with questions of survival and when those existential rules come in place I think what happens is people tend to put aside grievances on Earth and focus on working together to try to help each other survive and succeed,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
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