— Ch. 1 · 17th Century Visions And Early Space Age —
Colonization of the Moon.
~4 min read · Ch. 1 of 5
John Wilkins published A Discourse Concerning a New Planet during the first half of the 17th century. This text imagined human life on another world long before rockets existed. The book described lunar travel as a plausible future for humanity. It set a literary precedent for later scientific efforts to reach the Moon.
The Space Age began in earnest after 1959 when artificial objects first reached the lunar surface. Luna landers scattered pennants of the Soviet Union across the dark side and near side alike. U.S. flags were symbolically planted at landing sites by Apollo astronauts shortly thereafter. These actions created physical markers without establishing legal ownership. No nation claims any part of the Moon's surface today despite these visible remains.
Russia, China, India, and the United States all signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967. That document defined the Moon and outer space as the province of all mankind. It restricted use to peaceful purposes only. Military installations and weapons of mass destruction became explicitly banned from the lunar landscape. The treaty aimed to prevent territorial disputes before they could begin.
International Legal Frameworks And Treaties
Laying claim to the Moon has been declared illegal through international space law. No state has made such claims despite having probes and artificial remains on the ground. The commercialization of the Moon remains a contentious issue for national and international regulation. Laws like the Moon treaty attempt to govern resource extraction and settlement activities globally.
The United States opposed the 1979 Moon Agreement which aimed to restrict exploitation of the Moon and its resources. Subsequently the treaty has been signed and ratified by only 18 nations as of January 2020. None of those signatories engage in self-launched human space exploration. This creates a gap between legal frameworks and actual capabilities among major powers.
Current projects focus on building moonbases rather than colonizing the Moon itself. These bases serve exploration goals and to a lesser extent enable resource exploitation. States have explicitly refrained from calling for lunar colonization or laying any claims of territory. They follow international bans on any such claims while pursuing scientific presence instead.