What would happen if I died on the Moon? Or do I get divorced on Mars?

2024-03-05 18:05:00

The success of the Odysseus mission, the module that reached our only Natural satellite on February 22, 2024, reactivated numerous doubts regarding how human life can develop when a very possible space colonization. Numerous companies are already working on it and it is expected that a ship from the Artemis program will reach the Moon in 2026 with astronauts on board, with the aim of beginning to plan bases on the satellite.

But as was made clear by the failed unmanned mission to the Moon that preceded Odysseus, the Peregrine probe, the space adventure It opens up many legal, ethical and even religious questions. For example, what would happen if a Jewish or Muslim astronaut died on the Moon? Will strict religious precepts be followed there? Will there be cemeteries on the Moon?

The allusion to the theme of religion is not whimsical: the Peregrine, which took off from Earth on January 8, 2024, had on board the cremated remains of regarding seventy people (and a dog) to give them a “space burial”, a commercial venture that generated widespread controversy.

The most intense criticism came from the spokesmen of the North American indigenous people of the Navajo. The Moon, said that nation’s president, Buu Nygren, “occupies a sacred place in Navajo cosmology.” Nygren stressed that the idea of ​​transforming it “into a resting place for human remains is deeply disturbing and unacceptable to our people and many other tribal nations.”

In any case, these “space burials” did not take place. The Peregrine suffered a loss of propellant material shortly following separating from the Vulcan rocket that had sent it towards the Moon. The ship remained in orbit for six days and upon entering back into the Earth’s atmosphere it was completely burned, including all its cargo.

Likewise, the controversy has already settled. To begin with, the production and management of the Peregrine was carried out by a private company, Astrobotic Technology (the same was true for the Odysseus module, developed by Intuitive Machines), and neither NASA nor the US government has much power over what is taken. aboard these lunar probes.

It is, as has been happening for several years now with space exploration, a business. For example, relatives of people whose remains were cremated and placed on Peregrine paid regarding $13,000 for the “space burial.” The US space agency itself paid $108 million to the company that developed Peregrine to transport the equipment to carry out six scientific experiments on the probe.

The Odysseus module in lunar orbit / Photo: Intuitive Machines

Astrobotic billed with “space burials” and with a company that shipped a can of its powdered sports drink to Peregrine… so that future astronauts can mix it with “lunar water.”

Returning to the problem of human remains on the Moon, in the midst of the controversy with the Navajo, two experts in religious affairs shared an analysis of the future problems that will arise on that front. “Death rituals in the world’s religions were shaped by millennia of tradition and practice,” recalled professors Joanne Pierce and Mathew Schmalz of the College of the Holy Cross, a private American Catholic university based in Worcester, Massachusetts.

Although the ashes did not reach their destination, their presence in the probe “raised some important religious questions: beliefs regarding the contaminating nature of the corpse, the acceptability of cremation, and the sacredness of the Moon vary between traditions,” Pierce noted. and Schmalz in an article for The Conversation.

Cemeteries on the Moon

For the Jews, for example, funeral rituals They are very strict and are generally respected by a large majority of people who profess the Hebrew religion. Jews usually bury their dead as soon as possible. In the supposed case of the Jewish astronaut or the future settler who is working in a company on the Moon: does the surface of our satellite count as ‘earth’? And who will recite the traditional funeral prayers? Who will carry out the solemn ritual of washing the body of the deceased person? Will Jewish cemeteries be available on the Moon?

For Muslims, on the other hand, cremation is strictly prohibited. Islam dictates that, following death, the deceased must be ritually washed, wrapped in shrouds and taken for burial in a cemetery as soon as possible.

Pierce and Schmalz recalled that in 2007, as Malaysia’s first Islamic astronaut was preparing to take off, the Southeast Asian nation’s space agency “issued religious directives on burial rituals for Muslims in space.” Those rules said that if it was not possible to bring the body back, then it had to be “buried” in space following a brief ceremony. “And if water was not available for ceremonial rituals, then ‘holy dust’ should be swept over the face and hands ‘even if there is no dust’ on the space station.”

The United States returned to the moon following 50 years

Although they may still seem like matters of fantasy, these issues are more urgent than ever. In fact, the Peregrine and Odysseus probes are part of the process to return to take humans to the moon and, from there, at some point, perhaps to Mars.

NASA’s Artemis program had its first mission, without crew, in 2022. The second, already with a human team on board, is on the agenda for 2025. And Artemis 3, it is expected, will take astronauts to the Moon in 2026.

The Artemis program missions will bring humanity’s space future even closer. In a report published on the website Space.com, researcher Monisha Ravisetti pointed out that, at least for now, there are no laws on the Moon. “With the success of Odysseus, we now know that both space and non-space agencies can begin to populate the Moon with various things they want to send there,” she noted.

“As the acceleration of privatization of spacethe ethical and legal labyrinth deepens” outside our planet, wrote Professor Carol Oliver, from the University of New South Wales, in Sydney, Australia. Oliver opined that “you cannot go back in time.” and disable private space companies like Astrobotic and their “burials” on the Moon, “nor should we.” However, the failed Peregrine mission, with its cargoes of dubious usefulness “exemplifies the unexplored questions in the legal and ethical infrastructure for support commercial activities” in space.

The Earth and its natural satellite / Photo: Arek Socha

Cited by Ravisetti, astrophysicist Martin Elvis, an expert at Harvard and the Smithsonian complex, recalled that the only firm type of “space regulation” that exists at the moment is the Outer Space Treatyfrom 1967, which describes principles such as “states shall be responsible for damage caused by their space objects” and “states shall avoid harmful contamination of space and celestial bodies.”

For its part, the most current Artemis Agreements were launched by the United States as part of an effort to get the largest possible number of countries interested in space “to agree on peaceful exploration,” says the Space note. .com. “It is named following NASA’s ambitious Artemis program, whose goal is to reach the Moon in the next two years, and one day also to Mars,” the author highlighted. But the problem is that they are not binding. “Even if they provide a useful framework for the day when space laws are finally written,” Ravisetti noted, “they are not laws.”

“If you take a stone (on the Moon) and put it in a bag, it’s yours“Elvis warned regarding the Artemis Accords. Whatever is found in space, he insisted, “belongs to the agency or the state” that discovered it.

This is a good time, Oliver stressed, to “stop and think” regarding the future world, with its “asteroid mining and eventual colonization of space.” Or think regarding how to reconcile religion, ethics, science and business.

A version of this article was published on IsraelEconomico.com

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