A private American space mission plans to transport the ashes of the deceased to the Moon next month, but this lucrative activity has aroused the anger of the indigenous Navajo tribe, which criticizes the “desecration of a sacred place”.
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The Moon “is part of our spiritual heritage, an object of reverence and respect” holding a “sacred position in many Native American cultures,” wrote Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation, one of the largest tribes in the world. UNITED STATES.
In his letter sent at the end of December to the American Department of Transport and NASA, he requested the postponement of takeoff.
On Thursday, the American space agency, which itself sends scientific experiments aboard the same mission, responded by emphasizing that it was not, however, directly responsible, as it was carried out by the private sector.
While companies are called upon to play an increasingly large role on the Moon, this controversy illustrates the debates which are sure to multiply on its future use by private interests.
The lander in question here, named Peregrine, was developed by the American company Astrobotic. Its takeoff is scheduled for Monday from Florida, aboard a new rocket from the ULA industrial group. The moon landing is scheduled to take place on February 23.
Among the twenty on-board loads: those from the companies Celestis and Elysium Space, specializing in “commemorative spaceflights”.
Celestis confirmed to AFP that it was sending “a symbolic portion of DNA and/or the cremated remains of 69 people” aboard the lunar lander.
The creator of Star TrekGene Roddenberry, and science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke, appear on the list published by the company, which says it offers this service from $12,995.
The cargo will not be deposited on the surface, but will remain in the moon lander, said Astrobotic, which assured that it complies with “all regulations and laws for commercial activities beyond Earth’s orbit”.
Elysium Space did not respond to AFP’s questions.
Embarrassment at NASA
“No culture or religion should exercise veto power over space missions,” Celestis said in a statement. According to the company, this mission is “the exact opposite of a desecration, but a celebration.”
NASA seemed more embarrassed.
Because a precedent exists: in 1999, a space agency probe deliberately crashed on the Moon, with the ashes of geologist Eugene Shoemaker on board. A mission in which Celestis says she took part.
Even then, the Navajo Nation expressed its discontent. “NASA had issued an apology and promised to consult the tribes before authorizing any other mission transporting human remains to the Moon,” Buu Nygren noted in his letter. But NASA does not seem to have “kept its word,” he added.
Assuring that he takes the tribe’s concerns “very seriously,” Joel Kearns, a senior NASA official, announced that an “intergovernmental meeting” would be organized with Navajo representatives.
A response “will be examined and developed,” he promised during a press conference, while emphasizing that the American space agency had no right to review cargo from private missions.
“Whole new industry”
This privatization movement is, however, indeed encouraged by NASA, which seeks to develop a true lunar economy. By relying on private companies, the space agency hopes to be able to send more equipment there, for less money.
It has therefore signed a contract with several companies, including Astrobotic, to send experiments and technologies to the Moon, as part of a program called CLPS. This thus provides companies with crucial financing.
Astrobotic could become the first private company to land on the Moon at the end of February, but many others are in the running.
This is a “whole new industry,” said Joel Kearns, recognizing that companies could use these new means of transportation for “industrial” or even “advertising” purposes, thus generating “different problems or concerns “.
“I’m sure that over time there will be changes in the way we see things,” he said. And added that the industry could “perhaps itself set standards or recommendations” on how to operate.