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Comment by audionerd | Hacker News Reader

In 2009, David Kent Jones proposed “shadow shaping” / “shadow farming” technology, in which robots would alter the moon’s surface in such a way that shadows from sunlight on the moon would form company logo’s and advertising messages.

This method, however, was clearly banned by 2005 legislature on “obtrusive space advertising” (see: 49 U.S.C. 70109a) and potentially violates the “Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies” (that prohibits “disruption of the existing balance of its environment”).

The Moon Treaty of 1979 specifically bans “altering the environment of celestial bodies”

To advertise on the Moon, its environment would have to remain unharmed.

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The Moon Treaty of 1979 specifically bans “altering the environment of celestial bodies”

But in a legal sense, how am I, a private individual, bound by the Moon Treaty of 1979?

If I did choose to go and carve my name into the Moon, who would punish me? Unless the United States (or whatever country I happen to be in) followed up the signing of the Moon Treaty by the passing of a law which prohibits citizens from carving their name into the moon, there's nothing they can charge me with, right?

edit: Actually now I come to look it up (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty) the Moon Treaty wasn't even signed by the United States. In fact, it was signed by only thirteen countries, none of which has the capabilities of getting anywhere near the moon.

Yes, the Moon Treaty was never ratified by the US. I think it's worth noting to show both the historical precedent of respect for the preservation of the Moon's environment, and that such respect is widespread throughout the world.

and that such respect is widespread throughout the world.

By thirteen out of nearly two hundred countries?

Let's face it, nobody actually wants someone to burn a huge logo onto the moon. And that's okay, because nobody can afford to burn a huge logo onto the moon anyway. In terms of other uses, there's some reasonable disagreement -- for instance the Moon Treaty says that no private individual should be allowed to own any land on the Moon, whereas I think that granting land rights on the Moon to whoever can manage to set up a permanent settlement there is a great idea.

I would disagree with the statement "nobody can afford to burn a huge logo onto the Moon". If the only constraint is who can "afford" it, the advertising world has some pretty deep pockets.

How would you do it, exactly? Bear in mind that any logo visible on the Moon from Earth would have to be roughly the size of... oh, say, the United States.

Right, you can't project from Earth and get that kind of broadly visible image. You'd have to setup projection via satellite orbiting the Moon.

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