"Policy Issues and Threat Mitigation for Lunar based Astronomy" - by CWP alum Alanna Krolikowski

March 15, 2024
Policy Issues and Threat Mitigation for Lunar based Astronomy

The Moon is becoming a plausible place to put powerful astronomical observatories. However, most proposals for major new lunar observatories are often demanding in their site selection criteria. As a result there are only a few special locations on the Moon at which most can function optimally. The astronomically valuable properties of the sites are fragile and easily disturbed by other activities on the Moon. Yet without those other activities the infrastructure needed to build large astronomy facilities will not exist. Anticipating the need to protect these sites will require astronomers to perform careful site surveys, define levels of acceptable interference, propose technical mitigation steps where feasible, and work with other scientists who need lunar sites for their research. Astronomers will also need to work with policy making institutions, such as the ITU and UN COPUOUS, to implement measures that preserve these sites of extraordinary scientific interest.

  • Elvis, Martin ;
  • Krolikowski, Alanna
  • https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024AAS...24323606E/abstract
  • Publication: 243rd Meeting of the American Astronomical Society, id. 236.06. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 56, No. 2 e-id 2024n2i236p06
  • Pub Date: February 2024

Dr. Alanna Krolikowski is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), where she specializes in policy for science, technology, and innovation.  Her research and teaching focus on policy for space activities, the Chinese and U.S. innovation systems, and China’s foreign relations. 

Dr. Krolikowski’s research has been published in the academic research journals Space Policy, Global Policy, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society (A), the Journal of International Relations and Development, the Chinese Journal of International Politics, New Space, and the International Studies Review. She has twice testified before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission for the U.S. Congressional record and is a frequent contributor to news coverage of international developments in outer space.

Before joining Missouri S&T, Dr. Krolikowski was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies and the University of Alberta’s China Institute and a visiting professor in the society and economy of China at the University of Göttingen. 

Photo Credit: https://pixabay.com/users/pexels-2286921/

Dr. Alanna Krolikowski