When NASA attempted to return to the Moon for the first time in 50 years on January 8, more than just $108 million worth of development and equipment was at risk.
The agency earned the ire of Native American Navajo people, who proposed halting the launch because of its unusual inclusion in the payload.
The Peregrine lander (which completed its controlled re-entry into the atmosphere late last week) was carrying human ashes, including those of famed science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. A commercial partnership also allowed paying customers to send their souvenirs to the moon.
As space exploration becomes increasingly specialized and commercialized, you can now send your favorite things to the moon. So what does this mean, both ethically and legally?
Relating to: Private Peregrine moon landing failure won’t halt NASA’s ambitious commercial lunar program
Moon is open for trading
US company Astrobotic owns Peregrine, which is about the size of a small car. Shortly after launching from Cape Canaveral on a Vulcan Centaur rocket, it encountered fatal fuel problems.
There are “make-up boxes” on board. The idea emerged from a partnership between the company and global shipping company DHL.
Under the agreement, anyone can send a 2.5 centimeter by 5 centimeter package to the lunar surface for less than $500. Besides size, there were a few other limitations on what each package could contain.
Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Astrobotic is one of several U.S. companies providing commercial lunar payload services to NASA to deliver science and technology to the Moon. Peregrine also carried scientific instruments from six countries and many scientific teams.
Perhaps surprisingly, sending ash into space is nothing new in suborbital and Earth orbit flights.
Two American companies, Celestis and Elysium Space, are doing business with this service, with prices starting from just a few thousand dollars. The practice is adopted by many people, including astronauts in space.
A lunar funeral (yes, you can buy it) is more expensive; approximately US$13,000.
Commercial payloads launched from US soil must be approved, but this approval process only covers security, national security and foreign policy.
If Peregrine had achieved this, it would have been the first commercial burial on the Moon. Although this is not the first time it has appeared, this is uncharted territory as other worlds become available.
NASA had promised future consultations after outcry over Navajo carrying some of Eugene Shoemaker’s ashes to the Moon with the Lunar Prospector probe 20 years ago. Like many other indigenous cultures, the Navajo Nation considers the Moon sacred and opposes its use as a memorial site.
But NASA said in a press briefing that it had no control over what happened on Peregrine, highlighting gaps between commercial enterprise and international space law.
A legal minefield
Another question concerns rules in individual nations about where and how human ashes can be found, processed and transported, and how they can be dispersed into space. For example, in Germany, ashes must be buried in a cemetery.
As the privatization of space accelerates, the ethical and legal maze deepens.
The Outer Space Treaty (OST) declares space the “province of all humanity” while prohibiting national appropriation.
But it fails to address what private companies and individuals can do.
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The latest Artemis Accords, signed by 32 countries, extend protection to historically important lunar sites. But these protections apply only to governments, not commercial missions.
And no one owns the Moon, any other world or celestial body in a way that gives them burial rights.
The agreement requires states to authorize and supervise activities in space. It requires “due respect” for the interests of other states.
Many countries, such as Indonesia and New Zealand, have space laws that include grounds for rejecting payload items that are not in their national interest.
Nations without such an assessment, including Australia and the United States, may need to consider expanding this template as the commercial world emerges in a traditionally government-based sphere.
Where should the line be drawn?
Earth’s orbit is already clogged with obsolete satellites and even more distant objects like Elon Musk’s Tesla.
We’ve already deployed space probes to other worlds, including the Moon, Mars, Titan and Venus, but most of them could be treasure rather than trash, according to space archaeologist Alice Gorman.
For example, Apollo astronauts left official mementos, such as a plaque marking the first human footprints on the lunar surface. Some also left personal photos, such as Apollo 16’s Charles Duke, who left a framed family photo.
But sending a clipping of your hair or your pet dog’s ashes to the Moon may not be culturally or historically significant.
The question, therefore, is where we want to draw a line in the sand as we step into the cosmos and towards the shores of other worlds.
We cannot and should not turn back the clock on private space ventures.
But this failed mission, full of ashes and flashy cargo, exemplifies unexplored questions in the legal and ethical infrastructure to support business operations.
It is worth pausing to consider future commercializations such as asteroid mining and the eventual colonization of space.