Lunar Power Systems Like SPS, LPS is based on microwave power beaming. LPS uses the moon as the platform to collect and transmit power, instead of Earth orbiting satellites. LPS would collect solar energy at facilities located on opposite limbs of the moon. These facilities would contain solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity, and microwave transmitters to send this energy to Earth and to other locations in space, where it would be converted back into electric power. NASA estimates show that about 100 kg of imported components and consumables would be needed to emplace each megawatt of (received) power. Most of the facility components would be made out of locally available materials. Since each lunar power system facility would be directly illuminated by the sun only half the time (daytime), large mirrors, or “lunettas,” would be placed in lunar orbit and used to reflect sunlight onto LPS facilities so that they may produce power continuously. Lunettas, essentially solar sails, would be constructed primarily of lunar materials. LPS is a large and complex undertaking. By first providing power to an advanced lunar base, LPS technology could be proven and brought to readiness for commercial use. This would in turn open the moon up to large scale commercial projects to exploit its natural resources, such as the helium 3 reserves in the regolith, estimated to be adequate to provide all mankind’s energy needs for a millenium. But nobody has yet addressed the question of how these projects relate to the current legal regime governing the moon. Sources of Law Governing Activities on the Moon The “Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies” of December 18th, 1979 (the “Moon Treaty”) which came into force on July 11th, 1984 gives the philosophical reason for the treaty’s existence in Article 11, paragraph 1: “The Moon and its natural resources are the common heritage of mankind...” Whereas the preceding 1967 “Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies” provides in its Article 1 that the space environment and its natural resources may be freely and equally explored, exploited and used by all States, Article 11 para. 7 a to d of the 1979 Moon Treaty stipulate: (a) The orderly and safe development of the natural resources of the Moon; (b) the rational management of those resources;
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