Looking After the Moon: PlanetStewards Debuts the Lunar Governance Map at the Copernicus Institute’s 25th Anniversary
19 October 2026
On 6 October, Utrecht University's Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development celebrated its 25th anniversary at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, exploring the theme of “What comes after Sustainable Development?” Founded in 2001, the Copernicus Institute is Utrecht University’s research institute for sustainable development, where researchers work across climate, biodiversity, circular economies and societal transformation to understand and guide the transition to a sustainable future. The event saw close to 600 attendees including professors, researchers, alumni, students, and partners. The celebration featured a wide range of activities including exhibitions and interactive demonstrations, among which, the PlanetStewards Project team presented the first public demonstration of the ‘Lunar Governance Map’, extending the institute’s sustainability mission beyond Earth and into space.
The Lunar Governance Map, created by our research and data engineer Bart Janssen, is an interactive 3D lunar globe that combines the demonstration of the lunar sites to which humanity has been, our changing environmental influence on the Moon, and the governance challenges now shaping its future. Visitors can virtually explore the Moon, discover any site of human influence, and learn about its intertwined stories of activity and emerging governance challenges. Mapping lunar human activity includes every crewed landing, robotic lander, rover, and impact, stretching from Apollo 11 to Chang’e 6, which is viewed according to national actor. In addition to this first output of the map is the key governance challenges, offering a novel tool for examining the normative frameworks and policy approaches currently dictating lunar futures. Grouped according to the type of dominant governance challenge, the map allows examination of the key lunar sites around which critical questions for policymakers arise. Examples of such sites include permanently shadowed polar craters, a prospective scientific preserve, heritage landing sites, a far-side radio-quiet zone, resource-rich maria, and more.
The Lunar Governance Map aims to visualize and facilitate the fast-moving knowledge and policy landscape surrounding lunar futures. As activity on and around the Moon accelerates, decisions about how it is stewarded are being made now, often in disconnected forums. By combining human lunar impact and governance approaches on a single globe, the map turns abstract stewardship questions into something researchers, policymakers, and the public can explore in a tangible and holistic way.
The goal of the Lunar Governance Map is to facilitate the development of new sustainability indicators and management of tradeoffs to inform a stewardship plan for the Moon. However, in this first phase of the map, we will gather more information from a diverse field of knowledge on lunar developments and governance. This phase establishes the foundation: human activity and the main governance approaches under discussion. Future phases will layer in more data and, importantly, deeper cultural and ethical dimensions. We see this as a living, collaborative project, welcoming researchers who work on lunar policy, planetary protection, heritage questions, or lunar science that could enrich the map to collaborate. We also extend broader invitation to the Earth-Space Sustainability (ESS) network to engage with us and the evolution of the Lunar Governance Map.