At minimal, we would wish Moon bases, lunar mining infrastructure, large-scale storage, and a solution to launch the dust into space.
No human has even set foot on the Moon in additional than 50 years. Whereas China is trying to set up a Moon base by 2028, adopted by the U.S. in 2034, a well-functioning mining and dust launching system is probably going many many years away.
One other benefit of solar geoengineering is supposed to be fine tuning.
Injecting aerosols into the ambiance can in idea be fine-tuned to scale back adverse negative effects. Altering the place aerosol injections happen, for example, can drastically change potential side effects and its risk profile.
A large space cloud presents no such precision.
A legislation and coverage vacuum
To make issues worse, the world at present has little in the way in which of coherent coverage or governance for space and the Moon. Many elementary questions on human exercise in space, comparable to learn how to handle the growing layer of bullet-speed space junk orbiting Earth, are unanswered.
Additionally unanswered is one other elementary query: is Moon mining even authorized? Who “owns” space, and the sources in it?
At current, we’ve got a patchwork of contradictory insurance policies.
The 1967 Outer Area Treaty prohibits “appropriation” of space sources (implying a ban on mining), and Article 11.3 of the 1979 Moon Treaty states that the Moon’s sources can’t change into property of a rustic, group or particular person.
Nonetheless, the U.S., Russia, and China haven’t signed the Moon Treaty. In actual fact, the U.S. has Obama-era legislation, a Trump-era executive order, and a non-binding international agreement — the Artemis Accords — that every one emphasize industrial useful resource extraction.
With such contradictory coverage in place, lunar mining is a fundamental legal gray area. Capturing Moon dust off into space is one other authorized dilemma a number of steps down the road.
As above, so beneath
Such a authorized patchwork exists due to broader political firewalls.
Equally to how the Twentieth-century space race mirrored Chilly Battle geopolitics, modern space governance is formed by as we speak’s political rifts. Russia and China have not joined the Artemis Accords, deciding (mockingly collectively) to go it alone. However disagreements over a non-binding settlement are simply the tip of the iceberg.
Political disagreements over Moon dust deployment might show way more harmful. Totally different nations might favor totally different extents of cooling, or whether or not Moon dust cooling ought to be used in any respect.
