Phased governance research
A realistic research program for how lunar governance systems could evolve from current law, current capabilities, real geography, and plausible future development.
At a glance
The Lunar Project models how governance could evolve from today’s law and missions into future settlement institutions.
Why this matters
Fragmented governance, infrastructure coordination, resource competition, safety, and public health may become practical problems as activity increases.
Representation, accountability, dispute resolution, legal continuity, and international legitimacy matter before operational practices harden into expectations.
Environmental stewardship, conflict prevention, and durable public administration are governance problems, not only technical mission problems.
Current context
Foundational propositions
Build incrementally from current law.
Legitimacy needs transparency and representation.
Settlement governance is more than property law.
Health, safety, infrastructure, and environment are governance issues.
Project framework
Outer Space Treaty principles, national authorization, responsibility, liability, and institutional continuity.
Governance bodies, registries, public records, representation, and accountability.
Local services, dispute intake, records, standards, and public-facing procedures.
Landing zones, power, communications, mobility corridors, and shared systems.
Scarcity rules, transparency, monitoring, and coordination with non-appropriation principles.
Interfaces with states, operators, researchers, and international institutions.
Operations interface
A compact scenario interface for rovers, base systems, and governance queues.
CGI references LunCoSim as design inspiration only.
MoonDAO Project 248 LunCoSim alpha LunCoSim repositorySettlement and location framework
A research visualization, not a claim of existing lunar infrastructure.
Drag to rotate. Select a city to focus.
Hypothetical institution
The Lunar Administration is a proposed governance concept for CGI scenario work. It is not an existing public body, treaty organ, or operational authority.
Maintain public records, notices, operator filings, and settlement activity logs.
Coordinate landing areas, traffic windows, safety notices, and exclusion timing.
Support rescue protocols, emergency authority, warnings, and shared risk reporting.
Set fair-use rules for power, communications, mobility corridors, and shared systems.
Protect high-value research zones, instrument fields, samples, and open-data practices.
License resource-support activity, monitor impacts, and coordinate scarcity rules.
Review contamination risks, dust impacts, waste handling, and site-preservation data.
Provide an early channel for operational conflicts before escalation becomes political.
Align habitat, mobility, communications, safety-buffer, and public-reporting practices.
Sustainable space operations
Sustainability is treated as an operations discipline: fewer avoidable conflicts, clearer duties, and shared infrastructure rules before fragile sites become crowded.
Dust and contamination control for landing, mobility, habitats, and instrument fields.
End-of-life planning for equipment, packaging, surface debris, and abandoned systems.
Landing-zone deconfliction, safety buffers, route notices, and emergency priority.
Shared power, communications, and corridor access rules for scarce infrastructure.
Protection of high-value research sites, samples, sensors, and open-data practices.
Transparent resource-use reporting, monitoring, and scarcity review.
Emergency and rescue obligations for public missions, private operators, and visitors.
Preservation of historic, cultural, and scientifically significant surface locations.
Methodology and evidence standard
Each claim is labeled as present fact, planned activity, projection, design proposal, or long-range scenario.
Treaty text, national authorization systems, real geography, and current missions.
Publicly described missions, architectures, or programs.
Scenario assumptions tied to current capabilities and technical constraints.
Proposed public functions, procedures, and coordination bodies.
Hypothetical settlement and institutional models used to reveal governance needs.
Roadmap
Primary sources and foundations
Research participation
CGI welcomes legal, administrative, engineering, health, economics, planning, environmental, diplomatic, and security expertise.
The Lunar Project distinguishes current law and present activity from projections and hypothetical institutional design. Its scenarios are research tools for policy analysis, not claims that lunar settlements or authorities presently exist.
