by Pittsburgh-based United Launch Alliance (ULA) and Astrobotic are about to make history.
On January 8, a ULA Landing rocket will launch the Astrobiotic Hawk towards the moon. If it lands successfully, the Falcon will be the first private lander ever to reach the surface of the moon. Also, ULA will have a new Vulcan Centaur rocket to celebrate the mission.
Riding the Falcon is a wide range of science instruments developed by NASA that will pave the way for future lunar exploration as part of the agency’s Artemis program. But sets of human DNA and remains, going up on commemorative spaceflights offered by two different companies, Celestis and Elysium Space, are hidden from the mission’s depiction. Celestis will send one of its memorial payloads to the final frontier of deep space on its Enterprise mission, and its Tranquility payload will proceed to the moon on the Hawk lander. Elysium Space will also send its own payload to the moon with the Falcon Hawk.
In response, the President of the Navajo Nation said, Buu Nygren, has filed a formal protest with NASA and the US Department of Transportation over what it calls an act of contempt. “It is important to emphasize that the moon holds a sacred position in many Native cultures, including ours,” Nygren wrote in a letter dated Dec. 21. anywhere else, on the moon it’s like destroying this sacred space.” Nygren asked NASA to delay the mission until the Navajo Nation’s objections are addressed.
In a pre-launch science briefing on Thursday (January 4), NASA representatives addressed the controversy over the payloads that included human remains on the mission, noting that the mission is a private, commercial endeavor and not but NASA made a contract for him. carry a scientific payload to the moon. “We don’t have the framework to tell them what they can and can’t fly,” said Chris Culbert, Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “The approval process does not run through NASA for commercial missions.”
Related: Navajo Nation opposes private lunar mission placing human remains on lunar surface
Culbert added that the private companies that send payloads as part of the CLPS program “don’t have to clear those payloads” before sending. “So these are real commercial missions, and they have an obligation to sell what they sell,” Culbert said.
Joel Kearns, associate deputy administrator for exploration at the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, acknowledged that these commercial missions could lead to additional controversies.
“With these new opportunities and new ways of doing business, we recognize that some non-NASA commercial payloads can be a concern for some communities,” Kearns said. “And those communities may not understand that these missions are commercial missions and not US government missions, like the ones we’re talking about.”
RELATED STORIES:
— DNA from four American presidents will be sent into deep space
— For an Astrobotic trip, big risk (and bigger reward) on the private launch of Peregrine’s moon landing on January 8
— The ‘Star Trek’ memorial flight adds 2 more names to its Enterprise mission
Kearns said some of these commercial payloads could even be used for things like advertising, which could cause more public outcry.
However, Kearns pointed out that these early missions will allow NASA and other agencies to learn more about how to regulate access to the moon in the future. “We will learn through these first landings, and the subsequent landings, the different issues or concerns that will create. And I’m sure, as time goes on, there will be changes to be made. how how we look at this, or how the industry itself sets standards or guidelines for how they’re going to proceed.”
The US government has formed an interagency group to review the Navajo Nation’s objections and delay request, agency representatives added during the briefing.
Celestis, for its part, does not consider those objections to be substantive.
“The regulatory process that approves space missions does not consider adherence to the principles of any religion in the process for obvious reasons. No single religion can or should dictate whether a space mission should be approved,” said Celestis CEO and co-founder Charles Chafer. in an emailed statement to Space.com.
“No one, and no religion, owns the moon, and, if the beliefs of the world’s many religions are considered, it is quite likely that no missions would ever be approved,” said Chafer. “Simply put, we do not and have never allowed religious beliefs to dictate humanity’s space endeavors – there is not and should not be a religious test.”
Note to the editor: This story was updated at 6:21 pm ET to reflect that Celestis has a cremated payload and DNA ride to the moon on the Peregrine lunar lander, as well as its payload on the initial Vulcan Centaur flight. It was updated again at 8:50 pm ET to include the statement from Charles Chafer Celestis.
