At minimal, we would want Moon bases, lunar mining infrastructure, large-scale storage, and a technique to launch the dust into space.
No human has even set foot on the Moon in additional than 50 years. Whereas China is seeking to set up a Moon base by 2028, adopted by the U.S. in 2034, a well-functioning mining and dust launching system is probably going many many years away.
One other benefit of solar geoengineering is supposed to be fine tuning.
Injecting aerosols into the environment can in principle be fine-tuned to cut back adverse negative effects. Altering the place aerosol injections happen, as an illustration, can drastically change potential side effects and its risk profile.
A large space cloud presents no such precision.
A regulation and coverage vacuum
To make issues worse, the world presently has little in the way in which of coherent coverage or governance for space and the Moon. Many elementary questions on human exercise in space, reminiscent of the best way to handle the growing layer of bullet-speed space junk orbiting Earth, are unanswered.
Additionally unanswered is one other elementary query: is Moon mining even authorized? Who “owns” space, and the assets in it?
At current, we now have a patchwork of contradictory insurance policies.
The 1967 Outer Area Treaty prohibits “appropriation” of space assets (implying a ban on mining), and Article 11.3 of the 1979 Moon Treaty states that the Moon’s assets can not develop into property of a rustic, group or individual.
Nonetheless, the U.S., Russia, and China haven’t signed the Moon Treaty. In reality, the U.S. has Obama-era legislation, a Trump-era executive order, and a non-binding international agreement — the Artemis Accords — that each one emphasize business useful resource extraction.
With such contradictory coverage in place, lunar mining is a fundamental legal gray area. Taking pictures Moon dust off into space is one other authorized dilemma a number of steps down the road.
As above, so under
Such a authorized patchwork exists due to broader political firewalls.
Equally to how the Twentieth-century space race mirrored Chilly Warfare geopolitics, up to date space governance is formed by immediately’s political rifts. Russia and China have not joined the Artemis Accords, deciding (paradoxically collectively) to go it alone. However disagreements over a non-binding settlement are simply the tip of the iceberg.
Political disagreements over Moon dust deployment might show way more harmful. Completely different international locations might favor completely different extents of cooling, or whether or not Moon dust cooling ought to be used in any respect.
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