Lunar Development Cooperative May Set Stage For Profitable Exploration

HOUSTON—A senior advisor at the DGA-Albright Stonebridge Group is leading initiation of a for-profit Lunar Development Cooperative (LDC) concept for future human operations on the Moon’s surface—activities with a potential for economic growth.

The effort is intended to reduce risk and cost as well as protect property rights, encourage interoperability and mitigate harmful interference—objectives found in NASA’s Artemis Accords and the 1967 United Nations Outer Space Treaty.

“Space offers vast resources that can fuel growth, and we are right on the verge of being able to mine those resources and of nations trying to control access,” Michael Castle-Miller noted at the start of a Jan. 23 Future in Space Operations (FISO)-hosted seminar on the concept. Castle is a career lawyer and policy advisor for governments, the private sector and international development organizations.

“The costs will be enormous, more than taxpayers will allow, but within reach of investors if their investments are protected,” he said. “Some people say we should forbid development like we have done with Antarctica, but the Moon does not have an ecosystem. Developing it will actually be pivotal to our long-term sustainability. No matter what development looks like, it’s going to happen on the Moon. And so it’s not really a whether, but a how.”

The LDC is envisioned as a for-profit, multinational, public-private partnership that includes as many nations and individuals as shareholders as possible. Nations could hold up to 49% of the total shares with individuals and private sectors owning the remainder, but with a 10% cap on any one investor’s ownership.

Developing countries and indigenous groups would have special access to LDC shares in order to make the concept affordable and as accessible as possible, establishing humanity as the holding company for the Moon, according to the concept.

The concept includes limits on individual, corporate and national control to prevent manipulation of the LDC for their own independent commercial, political or military agendas.

Under the Outer Space Treaty and provisions of the Artemis Accords, which has 53 nation signatories, enterprises could currently own what they mine from the Moon. Potential examples include life support and rocket propellant resources like subsurface lunar ice or helium-3, a light and nonradioactive nuclear fusion fuel resource. But ownership of the lunar landscape from which the resources were mined could not be claimed.

Proposed LDC operations would include robust accountability mechanisms, and profits linked to the Moon’s long-term economic, social, and environmental outcome.

The LDC would function as an infrastructure and public service provider, an incentive for entitled operations on the Moon for those that agree to become contractually bound members willing to abide by rules of conduct

“This is not just a model for the Moon. The same rules could be used for asteroids, Mars and other locations throughout the Solar System,” Castle-Miller explained. “Think about it like a club that builds a seaport for its members. Anyone can become a member and use the seaport as long as they follow the club’s rules.”

The concept includes a corporate structure with “robust accountability” that features a board of advisors, an independent inspector general for conducting internal investigations, issuing publicly available reports and filing lawsuits—all to hold LDC management accountable.

The LDC’s charter would include language holding it legally accountable and establish a registry in which members would record plans for using the lunar surface for research bases, mining, building propellant depots or habitats and log plans for restricted areas reserved for radio astronomy.

“So, the registry serves as a system for protecting investments in land without anyone owning the land, and these rights will be marketable, allowing members to buy and sell them,” Castle-Miller said. “The obvious primary source of revenue will be membership fees, and those won’t be based on the member’s income or what they develop. So, the fees will be based on the value of the rights they have recorded in a registry.”

As envisioned, the LDC could possibly develop two lunar spaceports with landing and launchpads with power and communications resources and detailed information on the surrounding terrain, roadways, storage facilities, emergency shelters and backup supplies for members, he added.

“It’s much easier, safer and cheaper to become a member and plug into all of this than to build it yourself,” Castle-Miller said.

If what Castle-Miller called a “bad actor” approached an LDC asset with an independent mining desire, it would be forced to develop its own infrastructure or attempt to confront LDC’s built-in security measures.

“With many nations as investors, this would create a major backlash,” he predicted. “At this point, most nonmembers will realize it will actually be more profitable to change their practices and just become LDC members.”