by There is a growing and passionate demand to preserve radio silence on the far side of the moon.
A first-of-its-kind international symposium is being held this week, addressing what is being sought by protecting lunar real estate exclusively for dedicated scientific purposes. Despite the moon being surrounded by a vacuum, the meeting has an air of urgency.
Held under the auspices of the International Academy of Astronomy (IAA), the first IAA Farside Moon Protection Symposium takes place March 21-22 in Turin, Italy. The goal of the gathering is to set up a wake-up call that informs the global scientific, political and industrial community about a growing list of concerns.
Related: The moon could be perfect for cutting-edge telescopes – but not if we don’t protect it
Electromagnetic pollution
Earth’s neighboring celestial body has the unique property of naturally shielding radio waves that generate conversations on and around Earth. What some meeting organizers see is the need for a radio silence zone, naming it a shield zone on the moon.
That idea has been advanced by Claudio Maccone of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (National Institute of Astrophysics). In December 2021, the IAA established a new permanent committee focused on the protection of the far side of the moon, chaired by Maccone as the IAA’s technical director.
Maccone and his colleagues argue that the far side of the moon is a region of great scientific importance because it provides an environment free of the electromagnetic pollution typical of Earth.
Maccone points to the rapid pace of lunar missions by multiple nations that could irreversibly jeopardize the current state of lunar radio silence.
Maccone explains some of the branches of science that would greatly benefit from working in the distance, are cosmology, astrobiology, planetary protection, as well as the search for other intelligent life that humans may have in the heavens.
Lunar deliverables
The science of the moon is already taking shape, says Jack Burns, professor emeritus in the Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
“Radio astronomy started from the moon,” says Burns.
Burns recently took NASA’s first radio telescope, ROLSES, to the lunar south pole, according to Burns. ROLSES stands for Radio-wave Observation at the Lunar Surface of the Photo-Electron Surge. He is a co-investigator of the ROLSES instrument which is now on the moon.
In addition, two more NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services landers are scheduled to land additional radio telescopes in 2026: ROLSES-2 to the far end and the Lunar Surface Electromagnetic Experiment – Night (LuSEE- Night) on the other side. Burns is a LuSEE-Night co-investigator.
Years of anticipation
“After many years of anticipation, we are actively doing radio science from the moon. Therefore, we must also work actively to protect, in particular, the far side of the moon from frequency interference radio from lunar orbiting satellites and infrastructure on the moon’s surface,” Burns tells Space.com.
This week’s lunar side defense workshop brings together thought leaders in science, engineering, space policy, and space law, Burns says, to develop a modern approach to protecting the far side of the moon. protection from anthropogenic radio emission.
“We need to preserve the beyond for exciting science including measuring magnetic fields of potentially habitable exoplanets and unraveling the mysteries of the Dark Ages of the early universe – using radio frequency observations low.” says Burns.
Top level tasks
There are several themes running through this week’s symposium.
And how some branches of science benefit from defining a zone of radio silence, the IAA’s Maccone emphasizes high-level exploration tasks:
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Cosmology: Detecting the very weak radiation of the hydrogen line at 1,420 Megahertz and transferring it to much lower frequencies. Radio silence on the side of the moon would ensure a major step forward in research.
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Astrobiology: To study pre-biological interstellar molecules by searching for weak spectral lines using an advanced radio telescope combined with radio silence on the far side of the Moon.
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Planetary protection: From afar, radar and optical telescopes can be used for accurate measurements of near-Earth objects to increase the time of their detection and to warn that a space rock could corrupt our planet.
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SETI and technosignatures: To search, with very low noise, for “signatures” of alien civilizations that would be extremely faint to us due to the great distance between the stars in the Milky Way, if not from other galaxies.
Shield belt
Recent lunar missions and, even more, newer programs will bring more and more artificial systems around and on the surface of the moon, occupying space and emitting radio waves at different frequencies, explains Maccone.
There are already international regulations and resolutions aimed at protecting any protection zone on the moon – SZM in lunar lingo – such as the radio regulations of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
“Nevertheless, it is essential to take another step, to extend the protected frequencies to include all other scientifically relevant ones – in addition to those already included – and to preserve some of the beyond for installations purely scientific,” suggests Maccone.
Diplomatic efforts
There is an urgent need, says Maccone, to elevate regulations into enforceable and binding contracts for all space agencies and private companies.
Maccone says that all objectives can only be pursued and achieved through diplomatic efforts involving spaceship nations, current and future, around the world.
The ultimate goal of the IAA committee and the newly established symposium is to help form an international agreement, ideally under relevant specialized organizations, such as the ITU and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, for example.
Agreed expression
Richard Green chairs the International Astronomical Union’s group which looks at issues related to performing astronomy from the moon. He is also assistant director for government relations at the Steward Observatory, run by the University of Arizona in Tucson.
“I think this meeting is important because we can make some progress on a unified articulation of astronomy needs and a proposed policy approach for the moon,” says Green.
Furthermore, there is an immediate opportunity to do so, Green explains, through a proposed United Nations scientific and technical space subcommittee action team.
That the UN action team would explore communication and cooperation for lunar activities and it could be approved at the full meeting of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space last June, according to Green.
The case of the Wild West
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“My concern is that lunar projects are developing rapidly and are not being coordinated,” says Joseph Silk, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland and a professor of physics at the Institut d’ Astrophysique de Paris.
Science projects are at the forefront, Silk says, like unique radio telescopes that can peer back in time to the dark ages of the universe. The far side offers a unique environment, he said, and optical telescopes in permanently shadowed polar craters will eventually image the nearest exoplanets.
“But we risk a Wild West situation because of the competition between competing space agencies and commercial interests,” Silk tells Space.com. “The number of desired lunar sites is limited. The last major outer space treaty dates to 1967, and there is no enforcement mechanism. A new International space treaty is urgently needed,” he concludes.
Note to the editor: This story was updated at 11:20 pm ET on March 21 to fix a typo: The hydrogen line is at 1,420 MHz, not 142 MHz.
