Chapter 8
Moon Farside Protection, Moon Village
and PAC (Protected Antipode Circle)
Claudio Maccone
Abstract The Moon Farside is the only place in space, and not too far from the
Earth, where radio transmissions and noises produced by Humanity on Earth may
not reach since the spherical body of the Moon blocks them, acting like a shield. Thus,
protecting the Moon Farside from all kinds of non-scientific future exploitations (e.g.
real estate, industry and military) has long been a concern for many far-sighted space
scientists as well as for several IAA Academicians. We started facing this problem
in the 1990s, when the French radio astronomer Jean Heidmann of the Paris Meudon
Observatory first promoted an IAA Cosmic Study about which areas of the Moon
Farside should be reserved for scientific uses only. But Heidmann passed away on
July 2, 2000, and his work had to be continued by others. This author took over
his IAA Cosmic study and a paper describing both the scientific and legal aspects
of the problem was published in 2008. Later, on June 10, 2010, this author was
the first scientist to present the case for the Moon Farside Protection at the United
Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs in Vienna during a meeting of UN-COPUOS,
the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Unfortunately,
the undeclared but quite real “current, new race to the Moon” complicates matters
terribly. All the space–faring nations now keep their eyes on the Moon, and only
the United Nations might have a sufficient authority to Protect the Farside and keep
safe its unique “radio-noise free” environment. But time is money, and the “Moon
Settlers” may well reach the Moon before the United Nations come to agree about
any official decision concerning the Farside Protection. Quite an URGENT ISSUE.
In this paper, we propose that the new “Moon Village” supported by the vision of
the ESA Director General, Jan Woerner, be located OUTSIDE the PAC (Protected
Antipode Circle) obviously not to interfere with the detection of radiation coming
from space, but also SOUTH OF THE PAC, to be “close” to the South Pole as much
as needed to benefit of water there. It thus appears the best venue for the “Moon
Village” would be on or around the 180 degree meridian and south to the −30 degree
in latitude of the PAC, possibly much more south of that, almost at the South Pole,
thus resolving Moon Village VENUE ISSUE.
C. Maccone (B)
International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Torino
(Turin), Italy
e-mail: claudio.maccone@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Montebugnoli and A. Melis (eds.), The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,
Springer Proceedings in Physics 260, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63806-1_8
75
Moon Farside Protection, Moon Village
and PAC (Protected Antipode Circle)
Claudio Maccone
Abstract The Moon Farside is the only place in space, and not too far from the
Earth, where radio transmissions and noises produced by Humanity on Earth may
not reach since the spherical body of the Moon blocks them, acting like a shield. Thus,
protecting the Moon Farside from all kinds of non-scientific future exploitations (e.g.
real estate, industry and military) has long been a concern for many far-sighted space
scientists as well as for several IAA Academicians. We started facing this problem
in the 1990s, when the French radio astronomer Jean Heidmann of the Paris Meudon
Observatory first promoted an IAA Cosmic Study about which areas of the Moon
Farside should be reserved for scientific uses only. But Heidmann passed away on
July 2, 2000, and his work had to be continued by others. This author took over
his IAA Cosmic study and a paper describing both the scientific and legal aspects
of the problem was published in 2008. Later, on June 10, 2010, this author was
the first scientist to present the case for the Moon Farside Protection at the United
Nations Office of Outer Space Affairs in Vienna during a meeting of UN-COPUOS,
the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. Unfortunately,
the undeclared but quite real “current, new race to the Moon” complicates matters
terribly. All the space–faring nations now keep their eyes on the Moon, and only
the United Nations might have a sufficient authority to Protect the Farside and keep
safe its unique “radio-noise free” environment. But time is money, and the “Moon
Settlers” may well reach the Moon before the United Nations come to agree about
any official decision concerning the Farside Protection. Quite an URGENT ISSUE.
In this paper, we propose that the new “Moon Village” supported by the vision of
the ESA Director General, Jan Woerner, be located OUTSIDE the PAC (Protected
Antipode Circle) obviously not to interfere with the detection of radiation coming
from space, but also SOUTH OF THE PAC, to be “close” to the South Pole as much
as needed to benefit of water there. It thus appears the best venue for the “Moon
Village” would be on or around the 180 degree meridian and south to the −30 degree
in latitude of the PAC, possibly much more south of that, almost at the South Pole,
thus resolving Moon Village VENUE ISSUE.
C. Maccone (B)
International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF), Torino
(Turin), Italy
e-mail: claudio.maccone@gmail.com
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. Montebugnoli and A. Melis (eds.), The Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence,
Springer Proceedings in Physics 260, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63806-1_8
75