People want the Moon's resources – can space law keep up?

+ chasing room-temperature superconductors; public radio to save local news? US Edition - Today's top story: Back to the Moon: A space lawyer and planetary scientist on what it will take to share the benefits of new lunar exploration – podcast [View in browser]( US Edition | 24 March 2023 [The Conversation] [The Conversation]( Top headlines - [Polarization threatens decades of educational gains]( - [3D-printing silicone organs for research]( - [Did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz!]( Lead story By 2030, both the U.S. and China plan to establish bases on the Moon. As wild as it may sound, competition between nations and private entities for resources on the Moon is already being discussed in places like the United Nations. According to Michelle Hanlon, a legal scholar who studies space law and policy, the primary challenges for this next generation of Moon activity are more legal than technological. “We have companies that can get up there, and we have companies that can mine the Moon, but we have no idea how to protect those companies from competitors at this point.” The resource that space agencies are most concerned with is water. There is only so much of it on the Moon, and it is hard to access, as Mahesh Anand, a planetary scientist at the Open University in the U.K., explains: “The hypothesis is that actually there is a lot of water present as ice in permanently shadowed craters, which are very difficult to reach and difficult to see inside of.” There is an existing body of space law that lays out some guidelines on how this new era of space exploration might work. To hear how the exploitation of lunar resources [might play out in the coming decades, listen to this week’s episode of The Conversation Weekly podcast](. [[Sign up here to our topic-specific weekly emails.](] Daniel Merino Associate Science Editor & Co-Host of The Conversation Weekly Podcast Within the next year or two, people will set foot on the surface of the Moon for the first time in 50 years. NASA [Back to the Moon: A space lawyer and planetary scientist on what it will take to share the benefits of new lunar exploration]( Daniel Merino, The Conversation; Nehal El-Hadi, The Conversation A US-led coalition and China are both planning to establish bases on the Moon. How the two nations will navigate actions on the Moon and how other countries will be involved is still unclear. Science + Technology - [How do superconductors work? A physicist explains what it means to have resistance-free electricity]( Mishkat Bhattacharya, Rochester Institute of Technology Superconductors are materials that can transmit electricity without any resistance. Researchers are getting closer to creating superconducting materials that can function in everyday life. - [3D-printing the brain’s blood vessels with silicone could improve and personalize neurosurgery – new technique shows how]( Senthilkumar Duraivel, University of Florida; Thomas Angelini, University of Florida Organ models that more accurately capture finer details could reduce surgical error and lead to personalized implants. Politics + Society - [Public radio can help solve the local news crisis – but that would require expanding staff and coverage]( Thomas E. Patterson, Harvard Kennedy School The local news crisis is more than a problem of shuttered newsrooms and laid-off journalists. It’s a democracy crisis. And public radio can help fix it. But it needs more money and staff to do that. - [Reaction to bronze sculpture of Coretta and Martin Luther King Jr. in Boston hasn’t been good – and that’s not bad for art that shatters conventions]( Kristin Ann Hass, University of Michigan A memorial to Coretta Scott and Martin Luther King Jr. has received stinging criticisms, but time will tell whether ‘The Embrace’ will endure as a cherished work of public art. Ethics + Religion - [30 years later, Waco siege still resonates – especially among anti-government extremists]( Art Jipson, University of Dayton; Paul J. Becker, University of Dayton Waco has been used as a rallying cry for decades, two scholars of domestic extremism explain. Economy + Business - [Federal Reserve’s ‘soft landing’ goal has become bumpier with rate hike plan hit by bank turbulence]( Ryan Herzog, Gonzaga University The Fed’s decision to raise rates is likely to put more pressure on regional banks, which will make it harder to avoid a recession. Education - [40 years ago ‘A Nation at Risk’ warned of a ‘rising tide of mediocrity’ in US schools – has anything changed?]( Morgan Polikoff, University of Southern California Polarization among the public and politicians threatens to undermine educational progress made over the past few decades. From our international editions - [Xi and Putin meeting signals the return of the China-Russia axis and the start of a second cold war]( - [How the bottled water industry is masking the global water crisis]( - [Fear and Wonder podcast: how scientists know the climate is changing]( The Conversation Quiz 🧠- Here’s the first question of [this week’s edition:]( Tennessee just passed a bill that prevents what from being performed in public spaces? - A. Baby talk to dogs - B. Shakespeare’s “Othello” - C. Drinking and ax-throwing - D. Drag shows [Test your knowledge]( - - More of The Conversation Like this newsletter? 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