The BBC's Horizon programme today posed the question of whether mankind should exploit the moon for Helium 3 - a gas that could be used in a nuclear fusion reaction. There is such an abundance of this gas on the moon that it could provide clean and safe power on Earth for hundreds of years.

However, in order to make use of this fuel, the moon will need to be mined and due to the huge costs involved in bringing the gas back it is likely to be a commercial enterprise that undertakes this mining. This means a loss of the moon as a scientific resource.

It's quite a difficult question to answer. Should we leave well alone. Send small teams of people to make the scientific discoveries (such as we do in Antarctica), or should the moon be colonised and exploited?

Well my answer is not to choose either one or the other, but to have an agreement in place that means perhaps 5 square miles of lunar land is allocated to mining the moon. Within this region, colonisation can take place leaving the rest of the moon safe for scientific exploration and discovery. Preferably this region should be located at the edge of the light side the surface in order to protect the landscape.

The science should start on the boundary of the colonisation region so that as the region needs to expand, it can do so into the regions where all science has been learnt.

In order to safeguard the natural beauty of the moon as much as possible, areas should be designated as Areas of Beauty, much as is done here on Earth. Construction should be planned to integrate with the landscape we see from Earth to minimise visual damage.

The problem here then is how to enforce this plan? Well an International Lunar Coilition should be formed. Those countries that wish to have an involvement in both scientific and commercial activities on the moon would have to sign up to the group which would set out clear conditions on what can and cannot be done on the moon. Breaching the agreement could have heavy financial penalties and perhaps a ban from accessing the satellite. Of course, this would have to be setup under international law but again that's been done for Antartica so it should not be a problem.

I think we have to look at our neighbouring space objects such as the Moon and Mars as potential resources in order to ensure a good future for the Human Race. If we don't, we'll eventually exhaust what resources we have regardless of how careful we are with them.

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Tags: moon, space