Science fiction references aside, the reason as to why Shimuzu came up with the farfetched idea of building a gigantic lunar belt of solar panels is derived from one of the Japanese firm's central principles, which is that "a shift from economical use of limited resources to the unlimited use of clean energy is the ultimate dream of all mankind." As such, the company firmly believes that "virtually inexhaustible, nonpolluting solar energy is the ultimate source of green energy" that could more or less fulfill all of Earth's energy needs.
To clarify, Shimuzu has released plans to someday cover the moon's equator with a 248-mile wide solar panel belt, one that Shimuzu calls the "Luna Ring." If constructed, the Luna Ring would, in effect, convert the moon into a miniature sun designed to supplement solar energy to a future Earth that will likely be in dire need of energy-based resources. According to Shimuzu, the Luna Ring would beam energy back to Earth and its inhabitants via massive antennae, each having a diameter of 12 whole miles. Shimuzu also states that the Luna Ring would have the ability to generate the gargantuan sum of 13,000 terawatts of energy; to put things in perspective, the United States generated a total of 4,500 terawatts in all of 2011. Shimuzu proposes constructing most of the Luna Ring with robots, as well as using existing lunar resources as much as possible in the building process. For instance, Shimuzu says that water can be produced from reducing lunar soil with hydrogen (imported from Earth of course), and that bricks, glass fibers and other such structural materials can be produced via the use of solar-heat treatments. For those of you who would like to see all of the details of Shimuzu's Luna Ring plans in their entirety, see the following link: http://www.shimz.co.jp/english/theme/dream/lunaring.html.
Of course, despite Shimuzu's carefully-orchestrated plans for effectively constructing the Luna Ring as well as the Luna Ring's valuable potential for generating such massive amounts of precious energy, there are many predictable problems. Constructing and operating the Luna Ring in the manner Shimuzu proposes would be fantastically expensive, so much so that the energy that would have to be invested would likely never be recovered. Furthermore, it is undeniable that beaming power from space back to Earth in the way that the Luna Ring would do it would be a complex, expensive and mostly untested realm; the levels of risk would be enormous. Other obvious challenges to Shimuzu's proposed project would include maintenance and upkeep, a hostile space environment that would degrade solar panels much more quickly than what is experienced on Earth and the sheer cost of constructing the unavoidably-colossal infrastructure that would be required to transmit the energy in the first place. Bottom line: Shimuzu needs to come up with a more cost-effective plan of action that incorporates future advances in space-related technologies if it ever hopes to see the Luna Ring built one day.
That said, a less obvious issue that the hypothetical construction, and even mere existence, of the Luna Ring would bring about are the corresponding legal implications in the context of international space law; in particular, how the relevant system of ownership rights would actually be structured with respect to both a fully-operational Luna Ring as well as the moon itself.
First off, pursuant to the regime of international space law that is currently in force, not a single sovereign nation on Earth recognizes bare-bones human claims to extraterrestrial real estate; this includes "land" on the moon. Nevertheless, if an individual or entity had enough money to travel to the moon and desired to do so, there would be no aspect of international space law (as it presently exists) that would legally prevent that individual or entity from going to the moon and, say, constructing a lunar solar-paneled belt. That being said, the 1979 Moon Treaty specifically states that no one can own any part of outer space ever......but only 11 states have signed it.
However, a grand total of 129 nations so far have signed and/or ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which states in relevant part that outer space is not subject to national appropriation; at the same time, though, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty says nothing as to a private individual or company with respect to owning part of outer space. As such, it is still currently quite risky for individuals and corporations alike to attempt to claim and/or use extraterrestrial territory due to the fact that the 1967 Outer Space Treaty explicitly says that outer space is the "common heritage of mankind," meaning that outer space (as well as the "celestial bodies" that comprise it) belongs to all of us and only to all of us in a collective, non-individualistic sense.
As for what national entities can actually "own" in outer space pursuant to current international space law, anything that a national entity launches into outer space and permanently places in outer space is deemed to be owned by that national entity. In particular, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty states in short that the items that national entities launch and permanently place out in outer space (i.e. such as the United States leaving behind its lunar rovers and other equipment on the moon from its various Apollo missions) remain the property of the original owner forever (meaning that the United States' leftover equipment and leftover lunar rovers on the moon remain the property of the United States and will remain as such forever).
Thus, in the event of the construction and eventual implementation of the Luna Ring (and provided that current international space law regime remains constant), I am of the opinion that Japan (per Shimuzu as a Japan-based firm) would likely maintain national ownership of the Luna Ring provided that all robots and equipment would presumably be sent up into space and placed on the moon per Japan's own national space program. That said, if the transporting of the robots and equipment to the moon would ultimately end up involving various national space programs from different national entities, then this could definitely create a tremendous dilemma as to which national entity or entities, if any, would be deemed to be the true owner(s) of the Luna Ring.
At the same time however, and once again assuming that the Luna-Ring-based circumstances above come to fruition, I am also of the opinion that no entity, national or private, could legitimately claim ownership of the entire moon itself due to the fact that outer space (including the celestial bodies that comprise it) is considered to be the "common heritage of mankind." Even though the 1967 Outer Space Treaty glaringly fails to discuss how outer space as a "common heritage of mankind" applies to private entities and their respective ownership rights, I do not think that the treaty drafters intended this to be a "loophole" that would indirectly allow private entities to be able to lay claim to certain aspects of outer space while national entities would simultaneously be barred from doing the same. To me, allowing private entities to do so would appear to fly in the face of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty's underlying principal of maintaining outer space as an international "commons" of sorts, one that no human and/or Earth-based entity can be excluded from accessing in any way by any other human and/or any other Earth-based entity. Nevertheless, the various provisions and principles regarding international space law are certainly subject to change, and in the year 2035 and beyond, who really knows what the system of international space law will have possibly evolved into by then.
I suppose that one of the main lessons to be learned from the foregoing discussion on the Luna Ring and outer-space ownership rights is that we as an international community still have not come to a concrete universal understanding of how extraterrestrial real estate (including lunar real estate) works or even ought to work with respect to national and private actors. That said, this absence presents a great opportunity for us space law enthusiasts to be a part of the solution for resolving this unsettled issue of international space law in the years to come.
Regardless, I for one think it would be pretty awesome for us to have the "Death Star" as our moon someday.
*If you would like to delve deeper in to this topic, then here are two great online videos that wonderfully outline Shimuzu's plans for the Luna Ring in much greater detail: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUL_rDeKIeU / http://www.weather.com/video/they-want-to-put-what-on-the-moon-41862.
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