The Financial Times raises the frightening prospect of a future despoiling of the moon. California-based TransOrbital plans to deliver (in fact, crash land) payloads to the moon for bored American millionaires.
Fortunately, some people have spotted the problem. Richard Steiner from the University of Alaska notes, “The moon is owned by everyone. A farmer in Zimbabwe should also have a say. This has huge historic importance.” And the FT quotes Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the moon in Apollo 14. “It’s just an ego thing and we’ve got enough ego things going on here. We are messing up the Earth fairly rapidly; I would not like to carry our insanity further.”
Salam Pax in The Guardian: “I am not discussing the moral correctness of blood money. This is the way things are done here and if this money will stop any sort of revenge killings then it is worth it. No, I only have one comment: being foreigners, they paid too much. Habibi, everything is bargainable here, and paying 15 million in blood money will ruin the blood money market – it is way too much. You should improve your tribal connections and get someone to bargain for you.”