Moon cargo like human ashes, drink containers spark legal debate

Unconventional plans to exploit the moon, including using it for human ashes and sports-drink containers, raise concerns about oversight and legal questions.

An array of unconventional, privately-funded plans to exploit the moon, including as a site for human ashes and sports-drink containers, has gathered steam in recent years as NASA pushes to make Earth’s natural satellite more accessible.

Concerns about possible gaps in U.S. oversight and legal questions about proper use of the moon have rocketed to the forefront.

Landers built by private companies and emerging space powers are expected in the next few years to join the U.S. flag and other vestiges of past programmes to the moon.

Other initiatives could include using the moon as a site for capsules of human remains, advertising sports drinks, and maybe, even a two-storey-tall Christian cross made of the moon’s own dirt.

“We’re just at the beginning of exploring the moon, and ... we need to be careful we’re not contaminating it — not just with biological and chemical contamination but with litter,” said Leslie Tennen, an attorney practicing international space law.

Among the payloads aboard a recent private moon mission by U.S. company Astrobotic — which ultimately failed to reach the moon’s surface — were dozens of capsules of human ashes and a can of Japanese sports drink Pocari Sweat. The exact purpose of the can was unclear.

Under U.S. law, those items and anything else can go to the moon, as long as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and other agencies certify a rocket payload’s launch off Earth does not “jeopardise public health and safety ... U.S. national security ... or international obligations of the United States.”