this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
32 points (97.1% liked)

Space

1627 readers
14 users here now

A community to discuss space & astronomy through a STEM lens

Rules

  1. Be respectful and inclusive. This means no harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  2. Engage in constructive discussions by discussing in good faith.
  3. Foster a continuous learning environment.

Also keep in mind, mander.xyz's rules on politics

Please keep politics to a minimum. When science is the focus, intersection with politics may be tolerated as long as the discussion is constructive and science remains the focus. As a general rule, political content posted directly to the instance’s local communities is discouraged and may be removed. You can of course engage in political discussions in non-local communities.

Related Communities

🔭 Science

🚀 Engineering

🌌 Art and Photography

Other Cool Links

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
ZafiraHUN@mander.xyz
otter@lemmy.ca
Bitswap@lemmy.world
otter@mander.xyz
32
Nobody owns the moon—researcher suggests that could be a problem (phys.org)
submitted 3 days ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/space@mander.xyz
8 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Shortly before launch, the Navajo Nation lodged a formal complaint with NASA and the US Department of Transportation, saying that sending human remains to the lunar surface violated its sanctity. The letter said, in part, "It is crucial to emphasize that the moon holds a sacred position in many Indigenous cultures, including ours. The act of depositing human remains and other materials, which could be perceived as discards in any other location, on the moon is tantamount to desecration of this sacred space."

If a religion gets to say what can and can't be on the moon, that's hardly a solution.

Like, an important location on ancestral lands is one thing...

Claiming the entire fucking moon is another.

[–] azi@mander.xyz 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Is it another thing? I don't see how this is different from respecting areas that are held sacred by different religions, like much of the major holy sites in India or Palestine-Israel. Just because it's shared that doesn't give you a right to desecration.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Just because it’s shared that doesn’t give you a right to desecration.

Well, I'd think an important metric would be "how much space is being set aside for a single religions holy sites".

For the moon, thats...

About 14,500,000 square miles.

For reference Asia is the largest continent at 17,300,000 and Africa is the second largest at about 11,000,000.

And that's not even getting into an absolute shit ton of other religions also worship some aspect of the moon and have the same "claim" to be able to say what happens. Or even to say that now that it's able to be done, they want their ashes to rest on their own most sacred site?

That's the point between a local small area and the freakin moon.

Exclusivity of "ownership".

load more comments (1 replies)