Billionaires Could Destroy the Moon - Scientists Are Worried - video Dailymotion

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Some scientists are worried that billionaires might mess up the Moon. Private companies and super-rich people are planning trips to the Moon and might even start building stuff there. But the Moon is super old and untouched, and scientists want to keep it that way to study its history. If too many people start digging or building, it could ruin important spots forever. Right now, there aren’t many rules about who can do what on the Moon. So experts are saying we need to act fast and make some to protect it before it’s too late.

Transcript

00:00In 2025, humans will have a unique opportunity – travel to the moon.

00:06So far, only 12 people have walked on Earth's natural satellite.

00:10But a private company is offering tourists a chance to change that.

00:14If you are hog-stinky-rich, you can pay $750 million to spend several days exploring the moon and watching Earth from a distance.

00:24You can even join unique scientific experiments.

00:28Humans also want to build their forever homes on the moon.

00:31In fact, NASA believes that North Americans may have their own share of the moon by 2040.

00:37And you don't even need to be an astronaut to buy a plot of land on the moon.

00:43Of course, billionaires are already making plans.

00:46Their first idea is to exploit natural resources.

00:50The moon is packed with stuff that is rare here on Earth, like helium-3 and many rare Earth minerals,

00:56or, more precisely, rare moon minerals.

00:59But I digress.

01:01Hey, if you can get your hands on some of it, you may get even richer.

01:06First, helium-3.

01:08It's great for clean nuclear energy, but it's super rare on Earth because it escapes into space.

01:14The moon, though, has tons of it, enough to power Earth for a thousand years.

01:19Rare Earth minerals are not actually rare on Earth, but they're hard to mine, because they react with oxygen.

01:25On the moon, hey, there's no oxygen.

01:29So we could easily get loads of these materials to make better tech, like electronics and batteries.

01:36Scientists aren't thrilled about this.

01:38For the first time, they have a chance to explore 4.5 billion years of space history.

01:44Because the moon's soil has stayed the same for billions of years.

01:48Studying its rocks could reveal lots of secrets about the universe's origins.

01:52But if billionaires mine the moon and destroy these rocks, all that knowledge could be lost forever.

01:59Another problem with exploring the moon is the size of it.

02:03The moon is big.

02:04But the best spots, the ones with water and sunlight, are limited.

02:09Most of the lunar surface is dangerous because of earthquakes or moonquakes, radiation and meteorites.

02:15That means tourists, scientists, and mining companies would be elbowing each other in three small regions.

02:23The first region is called the peaks of eternal light, because there's always sunlight over there,

02:29making it a great energy source for telescopes or human colonies.

02:32The second spot is the far side of the moon.

02:37Here, radio signals from Earth are not so strong.

02:40It's not just peaceful and quiet there.

02:42It's also a great place to set up a telescope and study the universe.

02:47The third place is called the pits of eternal darkness.

02:51It's where all the trolls on social media go on vacation.

02:54Nah, it's really because no sunlight reaches that area.

02:57This place is even better for scientists, because they can use special astronomy tools

03:02to study the most distant parts of the universe.

03:06This is also where you can find about a billion tons of water.

03:10If scientists could visit the moon and study it, they would make amazing discoveries.

03:15But today, there are no international laws protecting space.

03:20No country can own the moon.

03:21But this can't stop a private mining company from calling dibs on a particularly good spot.

03:27In the past, a bunch of nations signed the Outer Space Treaty,

03:32and they agreed that space exploration was supposed to benefit all humankind.

03:37But exploring it is not cheap in the first place.

03:40Taking a single gallon of water from the moon to the Earth is extraordinarily expensive.

03:46And I bet not everyone can afford that.

03:49Human activity on the moon is also extremely dangerous,

03:53because it might change its atmosphere.

03:55Now, to understand it better, let's look at the surface of the moon.

03:59This floating rock has many craters that have been forming for billions of years.

04:04When a meteorite crashes into the moon, fine dust, called regolith,

04:08with particles so tiny they can cut like glass, rises into the air.

04:13This process once created the atmosphere of the moon.

04:16And this atmosphere is quite different from the atmosphere of Earth.

04:21A big rocket landing on the moon can launch this fine dust into the lunar sky.

04:26And the difference here is that the space objects crashing into the lunar surface are actually gentler.

04:32A rocket landing is so intense, it can increase the number of atoms in the sky 100,000 times.

04:39If the number of atoms in the atmosphere grows, the air turns into a dusty plasma.

04:45This means that you'll be breathing in air as toxic as the one that poisoned miners in the olden days.

04:50Such an atmosphere could end space tourism too,

04:53because it makes electronics malfunction and machinery shut down.

04:58Well, truth be told, our own presence on the moon is already dangerous.

05:03When scientists discovered water on the surface of the moon,

05:05they were super excited to study it.

05:08This was their chance to understand where this water came from,

05:12and even figure out how water appeared on Earth.

05:15But when our spacecraft land on the moon, outgassing occurs.

05:20This means that the water on the surface evaporates.

05:23This evaporated water can contaminate the water on the moon,

05:27ruining all scientific data.

05:29Because when astronauts take a sample of the lunar water to study it,

05:32they will get the water from Earth they have brought along.

05:36Bummer, really.

05:38And it's not just the water we contaminate.

05:41It's everything.

05:43A spaceship can carry any living thing from Earth to the moon.

05:47It can also bring extraterrestrial life forms back to Earth.

05:50This type of contamination is extremely dangerous,

05:54because it can put human lives at risk.

05:56Something similar happened when Europeans were exploring unfamiliar lands they came upon in the Americas.

06:04They accidentally introduced new microbes to the natives they met.

06:07And since the immune systems of the native population were not used to those new bacteria and viruses,

06:13they got sick and worse.

06:16At the same time, Europeans also became ill with diseases their bodies didn't know about yet.

06:21And even though moon tourism is not happening yet,

06:26humans are already littering the lunar highlands like their own backyard.

06:31In 2024, an artist named Jeff Koons sent a sculpture to the moon.

06:37The sculpture is a transparent box filled with spheres,

06:41and it got to the moon thanks to a ride on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

06:46In each sphere, Koons engraved the name of a human he considered super important to humankind.

06:52Like Aristotle, David Bowie, and Leonardo da Vinci.

06:56Thankfully, you don't have to go all the way to the moon to see this sculpture.

07:00You can purchase an NFT of each sphere.

07:03Or not.

07:05Back in 1971, the crew members of Apollo 15 also left a couple of things on the moon.

07:11A figure created by a Belgian artist,

07:14and a commemorative plaque to honor other astronauts who couldn't be there.

07:19And it's not just art that humans dumped on the moon.

07:24If you take a walk, you might just stumble upon 413,000 pounds of materials left behind,

07:31including a gold olive branch,

07:33a falcon feather,

07:35a silver astronaut pin,

07:37a Bible,

07:37some golf balls,

07:40a hammer,

07:41and even leftover urine collection kits.

07:45Most of this stuff was left behind by the astronauts that explored space between the 60s and 70s.

07:51So you can find moon rangers,

07:54lunar probes,

07:55and orbiters that are decades old already.

07:58Now, to be fair,

07:59bringing back unnecessary equipment

08:01costs a ton of money.

08:03And back in the 60s,

08:05their priority was the safety of the astronauts.

08:08The sad truth is that the moon is already turning into an extraterrestrial landfill,

08:13and we don't even live there yet.

08:16But now, we want to settle there,

08:18so NASA is trying to get rid of all this trash.

08:21The good news?

08:22Hey, you can be part of this process.

08:24The space agency launched a competition called the Luna Recycle Challenge,

08:29and if you want to join it,

08:31you must find ways to reduce the amount of litter produced

08:34and recycle it into materials that can be used for space exploration.

08:39To win,

08:40you need to develop a way to completely recycle the trash that is on the surface of the moon.

08:45You will help science and win $3 million.

08:47And if you get this sum,

08:51well,

08:51you might finally afford a ticket into space.

Billionaires Could Destroy the Moon - Scientists Are Worried

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