海角大神

The moon is cycling through the news ahead of a new chapter in space. The first private mission to touch down on the lunar surface may land as early as February. Separately,聽NASA aims to send astronauts back to the moon .听

Rebecca Boyle, a science journalist, urges deeper interrogation into the impulse to return more than 50 years after the last American landing. Controversy surfaced late last year when the Navajo Nation a commercial mission for carrying human remains, arguing that such deposits on the moon would desecrate sacred space. (That spacecraft, however, .)

Ms. Boyle鈥檚 new book, 鈥淥ur Moon: How Earth鈥檚 Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are,鈥� traces the closely intertwined relationship among the moon, Earth, and humanity. In an interview with the Monitor, Ms. Boyle explores lunar stewardship, moon mining, and the case for returning people to the pearly satellite. This conversation has been edited and condensed.

We may soon see the first private-mission moon landing. What are your hopes, or concerns, tied to this new era in space?聽

I hope that the next lander succeeds. ... I also hope that people are more aware of what is going on up there. I think the issue with the just shows that there wasn鈥檛 a lot of awareness around this whole program.

I鈥檝e written about this for years, but I write about it in science magazines. It doesn鈥檛 get as much attention, I think, from the mainstream, non-scientific-minded press. And I think it should. It鈥檚 the moon!聽

What do you see as the most compelling argument for the United States to return humans to the moon, possibly by 2026?聽

I think it would be a good thing, overall, for humanity. I think it would be amazing for this country, again, to send people up there. I think there鈥檚 always value in exploring, and learning something new, and just trying to transcend our limits as a human species.

I also think there鈥檚 a lot of value in being up there for science. ... There鈥檚 nothing that can substitute for a human pilot, and a human set of eyes, and human hands picking something up and considering it, and deciding this rock over that one. I think that鈥檚 just invaluable when you鈥檙e talking about bringing samples home.

Randall Kahn/Penguin Random House

Rebecca Boyle is the author of the new book "Our Moon: How Earth's Celestial Companion Transformed the Planet, Guided Evolution, and Made Us Who We Are."

I really hope we do go back. I think that when we do, we just need to be thoughtful about who we鈥檙e doing it for, what we represent. If you think about Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong鈥檚 on Apollo 11 ... it says, 鈥淲e came in peace for all mankind.鈥� If you put that in the context of the Cold War, which is when this happened, that鈥檚 a really extraordinary thing to have said.

I think that鈥檚 how we should consider this whole project going forward: that it鈥檚 for everyone.听The moon belongs to everyone, which means it belongs to no one.听

How do you think we should care for the moon?聽

We need to be thoughtful about what we do to it, the way we hopefully are thoughtful about how we treat this planet. You hear a lot more lately 鈥� I think I hear a lot more 鈥� the phrase 鈥渂e a good ancestor.鈥� A lot of this is in the climate movement context of stewarding the Earth and stewarding our natural environment for people who are going to be here after us.听

I think we really need to extend that point of view to the moon. ... There鈥檚 a lot of excitement and there鈥檚 a lot of interest in making money or creating a new lunar economy of some kind. I think there maybe is less discussion about how that should look, or who should get to have a part in that, or who should get to have a say.听

You wrote in a New York Times , 鈥淎nything we do to it will last forever.鈥� Are you concerned about physical changes to the moon?

Yeah, I mean, because there is no erasure of anything we put up there or that we do up there. The Apollo landers and the Apollo rovers are still sitting on the lunar surface and have been probably bombarded by micrometeoroids, space dust flying around, definitely bombarded by radiation from the sun and cosmic sources. But they鈥檙e not going anywhere. There鈥檚 no wind. There鈥檚 no rain to wash it away. ... I feel like in this headlong new space race that we鈥檙e experiencing, maybe people aren鈥檛 being as thoughtful about those things as they could be.听

Who鈥檚 responsible for raising these discussions 鈥� NASA, the press, other stakeholders?聽

All of the above. NASA is a very powerful institution in terms of how people feel about the entire Earth and the entire space environment. I don鈥檛 think they鈥檝e done anything wrong, I just think there needs to be a broader consideration. ... There鈥檚 international bodies that can be more proactive.听

I think NASA鈥檚 trying 鈥� the new [are] like a version of a space treaty, essentially. That confirms the existing , which is from 1967, but introduces a few new concepts and ways of working together. ...听There鈥檚 not like an international body in charge here. There鈥檚 really no one in charge.听

How far away are we from mining moon water?聽

That鈥檚 one of the stated goals of the entire program and of NASA, generally 鈥� they really hope CLPS fosters the development of new companies that will go up there and do stuff like that, and extract things like lunar water.

They鈥檙e launching another rover [potentially in late 2024, whose] entire purpose is to look for water, and it鈥檚 going to the south pole. That鈥檚 where there probably is some level of abundance of water stored in either hydrated minerals or maybe in some sort of deposit under the surface that people could access and, in theory, use 鈥� either for human use, but more likely for things like rocket fuel.听