Editing Moon (section)

==Legal status==
{{See also|Space law|Politics of outer space|Space advocacy|Colonization of the Moon}}
Although ''[[Luna program|Luna]]'' landers scattered pennants of the [[Soviet Union]] on the Moon, and [[Lunar Flag Assembly|U.S. flags]] were symbolically planted at their landing sites by the [[Apollo astronauts]], no nation claims ownership of any part of the Moon's surface.<ref name="unoosa_q6" /> Likewise no [[Extraterrestrial real estate|private ownership of parts of the Moon, or as a whole]], is considered credible.<ref name="unoosa_q7" /><ref name="iisl_2004" /><ref name="iisl_2009" />

The 1967 [[Outer Space Treaty]] defines the Moon and all outer space as the "[[common heritage of mankind|province of all mankind]]".<ref name="unoosa_q6" /> It restricts the use of the Moon to peaceful purposes, explicitly banning military installations and [[weapons of mass destruction]].<ref name="unoosa_q5" /> A majority of countries are parties of this treaty.<ref name="unoosa_q4" />
The 1979 [[Moon Agreement]] was created to elaborate, and restrict the exploitation of the [[Lunar resources|Moon's resources]] by any single nation, leaving it to a yet unspecified international regulatory regime.<ref name="The Space Review 2021">{{cite web |title=The Space Review: Is outer space a de jure common-pool resource? |website=The Space Review |date=October 25, 2021 |url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4270/1 |access-date=April 9, 2022 |archive-date=November 2, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102004759/https://thespacereview.com/article/4270/1 |url-status=live}}</ref> As of January 2020, it has been signed and ratified by 18 nations,<ref name="unoosa_moon" /> none of which have [[human spaceflight]] capabilities.

Since 2020, countries have joined the U.S. in their [[Artemis Accords]], which are challenging the treaty. The U.S. has furthermore emphasized in a presidential [[executive order]] ("Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources.") that "the United States does not view outer space as a 'global commons{{' "}} and calls the Moon Agreement "a failed attempt at constraining free enterprise."<ref>{{cite web |first=Kiran |last=Vazhapully |title=Space Law at the Crossroads: Contextualizing the Artemis Accords and the Space Resources Executive Order |date=July 22, 2020 |website=OpinioJuris |access-date=May 10, 2021 |url=http://opiniojuris.org/2020/07/22/space-law-at-the-crossroads-contextualizing-the-artemis-accords-and-the-space-resources-executive-order/ |archive-date=May 10, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210510140033/http://opiniojuris.org/2020/07/22/space-law-at-the-crossroads-contextualizing-the-artemis-accords-and-the-space-resources-executive-order/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite press release |url=https://spaceref.com/press-release/administration-statement-on-executive-order-on-encouraging-international-support-for-the-recovery-and-use-of-space-resources/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20240201151140/https://spaceref.com/press-release/administration-statement-on-executive-order-on-encouraging-international-support-for-the-recovery-and-use-of-space-resources/ |archive-date=February 1, 2024 |url-status=live |title=Administration Statement on Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources |via=SpaceRef |date=April 6, 2020 |publisher=White House |access-date=June 17, 2020}}</ref>

With Australia signing and ratifying both the Moon Treaty in 1986 as well as the Artemis Accords in 2020, there has been a discussion if they can be harmonized.<ref name="Australian Institute of International Affairs 2021">{{cite web |title=Australia Between the Moon Agreement and the Artemis Accords |website=Australian Institute of International Affairs |date=June 2, 2021 |url=https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/australia-between-the-moon-agreement-and-the-artemis-accords/ |access-date=February 1, 2022 |archive-date=February 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201052259/https://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australianoutlook/australia-between-the-moon-agreement-and-the-artemis-accords/ |url-status=live}}</ref> In this light an ''Implementation Agreement'' for the Moon Treaty has been advocated for, as a way to compensate for the shortcomings of the Moon Treaty and to harmonize it with other laws and agreements such as the Artemis Accords, allowing it to be more widely accepted.<ref name="The Space Review 2020">{{cite web |title=The Space Review: The Artemis Accords: repeating the mistakes of the Age of Exploration |website=The Space Review |date=June 29, 2020 |url=https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3975/1 |access-date=February 1, 2022 |archive-date=January 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125075833/https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3975/1 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="The Space Treaty Institute – Dedicated to Peace and Sustainability in Outer Space. Our Mission">{{cite web |title=The Space Treaty Institute – Dedicated to Peace and Sustainability in Outer Space. Our Mission: To give people Hope and Inspiration by helping the nations of Earth to build a Common Future |website=The Space Treaty Institute – Dedicated to Peace and Sustainability in Outer Space. Our Mission |url=http://www.spacetreaty.org/ |access-date=February 1, 2022 |archive-date=February 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220201060827/http://www.spacetreaty.org/ |url-status=live}}</ref>

In the face of such increasing commercial and national interest, particularly prospecting territories, U.S. lawmakers have introduced in late 2020 specific regulation for the conservation of historic landing sites<ref name="HowStuffWorks 2021">{{cite web |title='One Small Step' Act Encourages Protection of Human Heritage in Space |website=HowStuffWorks |date=January 12, 2021 |url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/us-law-protect-lunar-landing-sites.htm |access-date=November 1, 2021 |archive-date=November 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211101214329/https://science.howstuffworks.com/us-law-protect-lunar-landing-sites.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> and interest groups have argued for making such sites [[World Heritage Site]]s<ref name="For All Moonkind">{{cite web |title=Moonkind – Human Heritage in Outer Space |website=For All Moonkind |url=https://www.forallmoonkind.org/moonkind-mission/human-heritage-in-outer-space/ |access-date=November 1, 2021 |archive-date=November 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211101214336/https://www.forallmoonkind.org/moonkind-mission/human-heritage-in-outer-space/ |url-status=live}}</ref> and zones of scientific value protected zones, all of which add to the legal availability and territorialization of the Moon.<ref name="Alvarez 2020 p.">{{cite thesis |last=Alvarez |first=Tamara |title=The Eighth Continent: An Ethnography of Twenty-First Century Euro-American Plans to Settle the Moon |date=January 1, 2020 |url=https://www.academia.edu/43890727 |access-date=November 1, 2021 |page=109-115, 164–167, 176 |archive-date=February 5, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205171101/https://www.academia.edu/43890727 |url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2021, the ''Declaration of the Rights of the Moon''<ref name="Declaration">{{cite web |title=Declaration of the Rights of the Moon |date=February 11, 2021 |publisher=Australian Earth Laws Alliance |url=https://www.earthlaws.org.au/moon-declaration/ |access-date=May 10, 2021 |archive-date=April 23, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423050426/https://www.earthlaws.org.au/moon-declaration/ |url-status=live}}</ref> was created by a group of "lawyers, space archaeologists and concerned citizens", drawing on precedents in the [[Rights of Nature]] movement and the concept of legal personality for non-human entities in space.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Tepper |first1=Eytan |last2=Whitehead |first2=Christopher |date=December 1, 2018 |title=Moon, Inc.: The New Zealand Model of Granting Legal Personality to Natural Resources Applied to Space |url=https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/space.2018.0025 |journal=New Space |volume=6 |issue=4 |pages=288–298 |doi=10.1089/space.2018.0025 |bibcode=2018NewSp...6..288T |s2cid=158616075 |issn=2168-0256 |access-date=July 30, 2022 |archive-date=June 28, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628015902/https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/space.2018.0025 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Evans 2021">{{cite web |last=Evans |first=Kate |title=Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A Declaration of the Rights of the Moon |website=Eos |date=July 20, 2021 |url=http://eos.org/features/hear-ye-hear-ye-a-declaration-of-the-rights-of-the-moon |access-date=April 9, 2022 |archive-date=February 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220206102833/https://eos.org/features/hear-ye-hear-ye-a-declaration-of-the-rights-of-the-moon |url-status=live}}</ref>

===Coordination and regulation===
Increasing human activity at the Moon has raised the need for coordination to safeguard international and commercial lunar activity. Issues from cooperation to mere coordination, through for example the development of a shared [[Lunar time]], have been raised.

In particular the establishment of an [[Internationalism (politics)|international]] or [[United Nations]] regulatory regime for lunar human activity has been called for by the [[Moon Treaty]] and suggested through an ''Implementation Agreement'',<ref name="The Space Review 2020"/><ref name="The Space Treaty Institute – Dedicated to Peace and Sustainability in Outer Space. Our Mission"/> but remains contentious. Current lunar programs are [[Multilateralism|multilateral]], with the US-led [[Artemis program]] and the China-led [[International Lunar Research Station]]. For broader international cooperation and coordination, the [[International Lunar Exploration Working Group]] (ILEWG), the [[Moon Village|Moon Village Association]] (MVA) and more generally the International Space Exploration Coordination Group (ISECG) has been established.