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On board the working lander is the Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope which will be used to study the Earth’s plasmasphere. China is cooperating with the International Lunar Observatory Association to share access to
the Chinese telescope in exchange for time on the ILOA’s telescope, the International Lunar Observatory. A
small version of the ILO, the ILO-X, will be launched aboard the Moon Express inaugural flight to the moon
in 2015. The larger 2-meter ILO-1 will be delivered by Moon Express to the moon’s south pole in 2017. The
ILOA will use China’s Lunar Ultraviolet Telescope for a program they call Galaxy, Astronomical Imaging for
Global 21st Century Education. The ILOA’s own ILO-1 is planned to be the start of a lunar base for research,
prospecting, and future human habitation. So far the plans for the ILO include the Galaxy First Light Imaging
program, and access for professional and amateur astronomers on a commercial basis. The smaller ILO-X
will be accessible on the internet and available for citizen science projects. So with the mutual, and in part
open-access use of these telescopes, we still have the kind of cooperation that sees the moon as belonging
to all humans, even in this new phase of big commercial interest in the moon. Private enterprise is helping
nations to move past a few proprietary barriers. This may be simply in the slip stream of the drive for profits
since private companies are taking advantage of the lack of rules for themselves that keep countries from
claiming parts of the moon.
An artist concept of the
International Lunar Observatory,
shown after landing near the
moon’s south pole in 2017 by the
Moon Express spacecraft. Photo
credit: ILOA/Moon Express
ICY SCIENCE | QTR 1 2014