Kenya should not be left behind in the race to colonise the moon

At the time of writing this article, the moon, Earth’s primary celestial satellite, has no owners. Some Bantu dialects call such entities ‘witemere’ – idle land, which is yours for the taking if you can land there first.

But the status quo may not last. Donald Trump’s fickle temperament and toxic belligerence could torpedo the Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (the standard operating procedures for any parties undertaking space exploration) at any time. And why not? In terms of prospects, lunar landscapes infinitely exceed Canada, Greenland, and any other climes the American President has been profusely salivating for.

Already, there are reports that prominent American politicians are seriously pressing on National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to return astronauts to the moon, this time with the express objectives of building habitats, buttressing space dominance, harnessing resources and enhancing America’s national security. Reportedly, this new urgency is prompted by the fear that China, ever hungry for resources to sustain its massive industrial complex, is conniving to arrive there first in this new space dispensation. Japan, France, Russia and others are not far behind.

I write this article to challenge Kenya’s leaders, policymakers and visionaries to lay aside their dreary menu of succession politics for a minute, and instead turn their eyes to the enormous opportunities lying in outer space.

Space exploration history is quite intriguing. On October 4, 1957, the USSR successfully launched Sputnik, the first man-made earth-orbiting object, taking the United States of America - a tech braggart even then - by complete surprise. Four short years later, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was orbiting in space.

Astonished, America could stand it no longer. An intense battle for space supremacy between the two titans (which President John F Kennedy packaged as a battle between freedom and tyranny) ensued, and continued well into the 1970s. When it fizzled out as a result of necessary symbiosis between the two superpowers, America had already sealed its win by landing the July 1969 Apollo mission on the moon. This detente took the oomph and public interest from the celestial rivalry.

It happens that the last time humans set foot on the moon was half a century ago in 1972. No serious follow-up has taken place since. This lacuna has sparked persistent conspiracy theories which claim that the original moon landing was itself a hoax. So persistent have been the naysayers that in 2002, NASA was forced to hire author James Oberg, a former rocket scientist, to write a book to debunk them. He didn’t deliver because he doubted the moon landing himself!

And verily, the circumstantial evidence often adduced to ridicule the moon landing, particularly the numerous aspects of the lunar photographs of the time that simply do not add up, can jolt the faith of a core scientist. Often, I’ve quickly flipped pages to avoid conversion myself.

All said, the dominance of the United States of America in the space industry is indisputable. The list of all the 12 humans who’ve ever walked on the moon, starting with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, features only American males. The entry in 2002 and subsequent quick domination of the American aerospace company SpaceX, whose egocentric owner, Elon Musk, can seize the moon as a trophy, has caused other countries to feel hopelessly outpaced in matters of space.

Guided by its stated goal of enabling “humans to colonise Mars”, SpaceX has significantly lowered the cost of space trips: Its rockets today reportedly cost about 97 per cent less to launch than the Soyuz rockets of the Soviet era.

In advertising lunar ‘witemere’, I am merely preaching to the converted, since the lucrativeness of land speculation resonates well with almost every Kenyan. Few of us ever see an idle plot of land without starting to figure out how we could own it now and sell it exorbitantly later.

With the Kenya Space Agency already in place, we have a substantial head start in space exploration. It may come as a surprise for many to learn that over 29 rockets have already been launched from the Broglio Space Centre in Malindi (a project of the Italian Space Agency) for customers who range from NASA and SpaceX to the European Space Agency. Kenya’s first own space satellite was the 1KUNS-PF, launched in 2018.

It therefore makes sense for Kenya to plant its flag on some moon acreage soon. The good news is that we do not need to reinvent the wheel by designing heavy-lift Saturn V-like rockets. SpaceX, the new interplanetary taxi service, has reduced the cost of lifting cargo to the moon substantially. At only $1,600 per kg (as opposed to an estimated inflation-adjusted $250,000 per kg during the initial NASA missions), we are absolutely good to go!

Sadly, the day China or the US stakes ownership of the moon, Kenyans will barely notice. Ever fixated on our political monomania, we leaders and all will be too busy tearing out each other’s throats over the likely winners of the next general election (as usual)!