(Today’s interview was a little different. Thursday, December 17, 2020 will mark the 1 year anniversary of the project, and Andrea Leinfelder from the Houston Chronicle is working on an article about it. We also had a photographer, Michael Wyke, who you might notice in part of the recording. Also, at the end of the recoding, Andrea had a few questions for Michelle.)
Michelle Hanlon is a space lawyer focused on developing the laws and regulations that will responsibly promote commercial space ventures and support our sustainable transition into a multi-planetary species. In addition to leadership roles at both UMiss and and For All Moonkind, she am the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Space Law and Chair of the International Committee of the National Space Society.
During our interview we talked about the development of For All Moonkind, an organization that is working to preserve the first steps on the moon for future generations. We also talked about the challenges of space law. There four international treaties that govern activities in space. But these treaties do not provide for the preservation of historical sites like the first footprints.
Michelle is enthusiastic about our return to the moon, and is hopeful that humanity will be able to branch out into the rest of the solar system. She is actively working to bring up the need for additional space law and procedures with international and national organizations and is ensuring that law students are aware of this area of the law. In fact, within a few years it will be expected that every law school has at least one course on it.
Michelle would travel to space if given the chance. She would go to orbit, go see the footprints on the moon that she is working to protect, and she would even immigrate to Mars.