Updated
The space branch of the US Air Force plans to put a satellite into orbit responsible for “securing” future lunar missions, a real sheriff of space which is already causing some fears.
Over the next few years, the Moon will experience a significant increase in its attendance with many public and private projects, lists the Opex360 site: Russia and China are considering the creation of an “international lunar scientific station”, the program Trump-initiated Artemis plans to make the Moon the first stop on a trip to Mars, Japan and India are working together on a human expedition and the European Space Agency [ESA] wants to explore the subsoil of our satellite with a view to extracting regolith, a mineral from which water and oxygen can be extracted with the creation of a lunar village in sight. Finally, private companies like Space X are betting big on the development of space tourism in the direction of the celestial body.
This prospect of intense activity is at the origin of another project which is likely to cause its share of controversies: the research laboratory of the US Air Force is working on the putting into orbit in 2025 of the “Cislunar Highway Patrol System “, a spacecraft responsible for securing missions by identifying all threats in the periphery of the Moon: debris from satellites and rockets, asteroids, but also possible “harmful actions” triggered by other countries.
However, recalls Opex360, the Space Treaty signed in 1967 by the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union guarantees, among other things, the non-militarization of the Moon and celestial bodies. The Cislunar Highway Patrol System will not be armed, but voices are already being raised to challenge the United States’ desire to assume surveillance of this ultra-sensitive area. In response, the Pentagon promises that it only aims for the “peaceful development of space”. Not sure that this is enough to extinguish the nascent controversy…