MOON TO BE HUMANITY'S NEXT CONTINENT

by Flórián Hecker

Photos: Éberling András

- What is the significance of space research?

- Space technology is now relied upon for global basic services at the level of economic and civil applications, such as navigation, banking and telecommunications systems. It is also of particular importance in digital agriculture, measuring soil moisture or atmospheric composition. The drought of biblical proportions has drawn even more attention to this fact. Understanding the comprehensive background of climate change is based on a satellite database. It is also a cornerstone of security pol-icy: space technology is at the core of earth observation, navigation and remote sensing.

– We are clearly talking about a global sector. How does it relate to Hungary?

PARTNERSHIP IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER: THE JOINT DEVELOPMENT OF SPACE RESEARCH IS THE KEY TO THE SURVIVAL OF HUMANITY, ACCORDING TO ORSOLYA FERENCZ, MINISTERIAL COMMISSIONER FOR SPACE RESEARCH.

– Hungary has a long history of participating in the scientific side of space research, but its direct past dates back to the 1946 lunar radar experiment. In brief, the team of engineers led by Zoltán Bay and Károly Simonyi measured the Earth-Moon distance using radar signals, the second in the world to do so. Apart from them, only the US was engaged in such activities. In total, four countries have been able to build radars independently: the German Empire, the United Kingdom, the United States and Hungary. However, the World War front destroyed some of the equipment, while the Red Army captured other parts. Therefore, the Hungarian radar had to be rebuilt for the second time, but in the meantime the American team, a few weeks ahead of the Hungarians, successfully completed the experiment. In other words, this was essentially a silver medal equiva- lent, but what unquestionably is worthy of a gold medal is the Bay correlation reception technique, which is still key in everything from communications to radio astronomy.

- Where would the first space mine be established?

- The Moon could be humanity's next continent. It is not scientific or literary interest that drives people there, but specifically economic and security policy considera-tions. The Moon has large reserves of tritium compared to the Earth's surface. How-ever, it is important to see that lunar activity is a highly sensitive issue. Any activity that might interfere with this is a risk to humanity.

– And what is our current situation?

– Hungary emerged from the Soviet Interkosmos programme — within the framework of which, by the way, Hungary achieved significant results that led humanity to the everyday use of space — after 1990, and since 2015 it has been a fully fledged member of the ESA (European Space Agency) with wide-ranging cooperation opportunities. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFA) assumed oversight of this area in 2018, with a strong focus on space diplomacy and economic relevance. To this end, cooperation has been extended to all continents, although the main points of alignment are the EU, the ESA and NATO. But we have to recognise that this is a global game and everyone is involved.

- What could be the next big thing in the near future? Is there a ‘man in space’ project in the pipeline?

- It is not a matter of the near future, but it is here, it has arrived, there are already start-ups launched on its basis: space resource exploration, or more simply put, space mining. There are many free resources available in the solar system, and exploiting them could create the economic foundation for the coming era.

- Can human life be transferred to the Moon?

- There is no point in pursuing this idea. There will be no transfer, no plan B, no planet B. The human body is a ‘spacesuit’ optimised for terrestrial conditions. Numerous studies have shown that the Earth's gravity field determines the way our bodies work, how our blood circulates, how our muscles grow, how our bones thin, and so on. Mars is a legendary target in this respect, except that it has no magnetic field, which makes it incompatible with our DNA. We cannot even deal with the problems on Earth, how are we going to create a magnetic shield around another planet? Our task, instead, is to keep the Earth fit for human life.

The author is a journalist