Shaping a legal framework for the commercial use of outer space: recommendations and conclusions from Project 2001

Private and commercial activity in outer space still poses challenges to space law and policy. Within ‘Project 2001’—a legal research project by the University of Cologne's Institute of Air and Space Law and the German Aerospace Center (DLR)—six international expert working groups examined international and national laws, in order to identify gaps and, where necessary, propose improvements to the present legal framework for private space activities. The results were presented and discussed at an international colloquium in May 2001 in Cologne, Germany, where final conclusions have been drawn. This report presents a summary of the project's work and main conclusions, which are documented in full in a comprehensive book to be published in May 2002.     

Basic space science and developing countries

Basic science — including space science — is vital for national development, but developing countries often meet obstacles to participation in the international scientific community. This can be mitigated by international cooperation, particularly in the field of education. The author calls for a concerted effort to increase such cooperation regionally, internationally and bilaterally; international organizations should also become involved. Various forms of cooperation are suggested and UN efforts in the promotion of basic space science are described.     

Space commercialization and the law

This article examines the current legal status of commercial activities in space and describes the legislation — both national and international — existing for their regulation. The question of who is responsible for the action of non-governmental entities is thoroughly discussed, as is the notion of freedom of enterprise. Finally the author looks at the most commercialized areas of space activities — telecommunications and Earth observations — before drawing some conclusions on likely future trends in the privitization and regulation of space activities.     

Surreal estate: addressing the issue of ‘Immovable Property Rights on the Moon’

At a time when scientific and commercial interest in the Moon is being reinvigorated it is becoming fashionable for ordinary individuals to ‘buy’ plots on the lunar surface, with the ‘vendors’ arguing that an absence of specific prohibition of individual private activity in space makes such action legal. It is therefore time for the legal community to address this situation by investigating just how legal such activity is—and bringing their findings to the attention of governments. This can be done through an examination of the relationship between national law and international space law, of the provisions of international space law—especially Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty—and by answering any claims to private ownership of immovable property. Aside from the fact that individuals appear to be being duped, the pursuit of property claims on the Moon could impede future activities aimed at benefiting society.     

International coordination of space solar power related activities

Because the need for energy is global, and many energy networks are already interdependent, because no one country has sufficient technological capability or sufficient funds to provide a space solar powered solution on its own, and because any such solution will require international regulation, international coordination will be vital to any attempt to produce energy for Earth from space. This will be made easier by the fact that work on the subject has already been widely publicized and distributed and cooperative efforts have already been made. Various coordinating approaches are described and the need to forge partnerships between government, industry and academia — with greater involvement of all non-space groups concerned with energy — is emphasized. A “terracing approach” to the actual implementation of SPS is suggested and outlined.     

The emerging China–EU space partnership: A geotechnological balancer

Through a techno-nationalist lens, this paper will assess the growing China–European Union (EU) space partnership, and its implications for international space cooperation and competition. Techno-nationalism (jishu minzuzhuyi), the idea that technological strength is an effective determinant of national power in a harshly competitive world,³ informs both Chinese and US perceptions of China's space development. Using this lens elevates all space activities—manned, unmanned, military and scientific—to the strategic level. It is our contention that because of the increasing China–EU space partnership, the USA must re-evaluate its approach to China—away from the containment approach, which has thus far predominated, toward an approach which would offer the USA the opportunity to influence and, thereby, decrease the importance of the emerging partnership.     

Europe's space plans and opportunities for cooperation

This is a slightly abridged and edited version of the welcoming speech made by European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen at the ‘Winning through co-operation: sharing the benefits of space’ conference held in Brussels on 17–18 February 2005 as part of European Space Week. The importance of space for Europe across many areas—now explicitly acknowledged by the European Commission—is highlighted. Future initiatives are discussed and the Union's approach to international cooperation is outlined. It was hoped that the conference would provide an opportunity for participants to identify the best opportunities for partnership in space.     

Is there really any duplication in Europe''s space activities?

At a time of declining space budgets in Europe, and of a consequent need to make savings, accusations of wasteful duplication—resulting from the large number of national agencies pursuing programmes alongside ESA—are rife, as are calls for the space industry further to consolidate. This viewpoint argues that duplication is not really the issue, however, since most national agencies have become specialists in particular fields. Nor would industry restructuring be straightforward, given the fact that Europe cannot be satisfied with a single source of supply. What is needed is better coordination between space agencies upstream to avoid later duplication, as is now being pursued through ESA's ‘harmonisation process’. The move to create a Network of Centres could also promote worthwhile collective action. These initiatives are more realistic than the technocratic aim of completely restructuring European space.     

Strategic, technological and ethical aspects of establishing colonies on Moon and Mars

With the vast experience gained by Aerospace Community in the last five decades, the natural future course of action will be to expand Space Exploration. Our understanding of Moon is relatively better with a number of unmanned satellite missions carried out by the leading Space Agencies and manned missions to Moon by USA. Also a number of unmanned satellite missions and surface rover missions were carried out to Mars by those Space agencies generating many new details about Mars. While the future exploration efforts by global community will also be centered obviously on Moon and Mars, it is noteworthy that already NASA had declared its plans for establishing a Surface Base on Moon and developing the technical infrastructure required. Surface Bases on Moon and Mars give rise to a number of strategic, technical and ethical issues both in the process of development, and in the process of establishing the bases. The strategic issues related to Moon and Mars Surface Bases will be centered around development of enabling technologies, cost of the missions, and international cooperation. The obvious path for tackling both the technological development and cost issues will be through innovative and new means of international cooperation. International cooperation can take many forms like—all capable players joining a leader, or sharing of tasks at system level, or all players having their independent programmes with agreed common interfaces of the items being taken to and left on the surface of Moon/Mars. Each model has its own unique features. Among the technical issues, the first one is that of the Mission Objectives—why Surface Bases have to be developed and what will be the activity of crew on Surface Bases? Surface Bases have to meet mainly the issues on long term survivability of humans on the Mars/Moon with their specific atmosphere, gravity and surface characteristics. Moon offers excellent advantages for astronomy while posing difficulties with respect to solar power utilization and extreme temperature variations. Hence the technical challenges depend on a number of factors starting from mission requirements. Obviously the most important technical challenge to be addressed will be in the areas of crew safety, crew survivability, adequate provision to overcome contingencies, and in-situ resource utilization. Towards this, new innovations will be developed in areas such as specialized space suits, rovers, power and communication systems, and ascent and descent modules. The biggest ethical issue is whether humankind from Earth is targeting ‘habitation’ or ‘colonization’ of Moon/Mars. The next question will be whether the in-situ resource exploitation will be only for carrying out further missions to other planets from Moon/Mars or for utilization on Earth. The third ethical issue will be the long term impact of pollution on Moon/Mars due to technologies employed for power generation and other logistics on Surfaces. The paper elaborates the views of the authors on the strategic, technical and ethical aspects of establishing Surface Bases and colonies on Moon and Mars. The underlying assumptions and gray areas under each aspect will be explained with the resulting long-term implications.     

A code of ethics for conducting business in outer space

The aim to increase commercial economic activity in space will be facilitated by the introduction of a code of ethics for the businesses involved, something that is now commonplace on Earth. A proposed such code—comprising 12 principles—is presented below. It covers areas such as environmental stewardship of space, the promotion of honest dealings, making safety an important concern, ensuring a free-market economy and disclosure of conflicts of interest or political contributions.     

Kazakhstan's space policy in a changing national and global context

In the wake of its transition to a market economy and the political and social reforms that have accompanied this, Kazakhstan—home to the renowned Baikonur space complex—is experiencing greater demand for space services. This article reports on the drivers behind and main features of the country's current space program and analyzes Kazakahstan's space policy. Key priorities are capacity building, maximizing revenue from the lease of Baikonur, international cooperation, in particular with Russia, as a means of gaining know-how and entering the world space industry, developing Earth observations and broadcasting expertise, and placing the country's activities within a legal framework.     

Future for CIS space industry

The following is the executive summary of Volume 1 of Euroconsult's four volume study, Space Industries and Markets in Russia and Other Countries of the Former Soviet Union. The material reproduced covers space policy and industry in CIS countries, providing a transversal view of CIS space activities and organizations. Generic problems across all fields of applications are analysed; the final focus is on trade with foreign countries. The other volumes cover prospects for satellite communications in the CIS to 2000; prospects for Earth observation satellite systems in Russia and Ukraine to 2000; and prospects for space transportation systems in the CIS to 2000. Information on the whole — some 650 pages — may be obtained from Pauline Byrne at Euroconsult, 71 Boulevard Richard Lenoir, 75011 Paris, France.     

A new paradigm for international cooperation in space exploration

In announcing a new Vision for the US space program, President George Bush committed the USA to “a long-term human and robotic program to explore the solar system”, via a return to the Moon, leading to exploration of Mars and other destinations. He also stated that other nations would be invited to join the vision. Many other nations have, or are developing, ‘exploration visions’ of their own. The potential for international cooperation therefore exists, both at the vision and program/project levels. This paper, based on Working Group discussions as part of an AIAA space cooperation workshop,¹ presents an approach for maximizing the return on all global investments in space exploration. It proposes an international coordination mechanism through which all these various national activities could be integrated into an inherently global enterprise for space exploration, a ‘virtual program of programs’. Within the context of the coordination, individual activities would utilize the full range of cooperative mechanisms for implementation. A significant benefit of this mode of conducting cooperation is that it would not require the negotiation of complex overarching international agreements as a precondition for initiating international activity.     

Meeting the needs of the new millennium: passenger space travel and world economic growth

Without doubt, humans’ most urgent need at the start of the new millennium is the continuation of economic growth, which is the only means by which the great majority of the world population can lift themselves out of the poverty in which they live. A sine qua non for continuing economic growth is for the rich countries to continue to develop new industries—as they did throughout the 20th century, thereby creating high-productivity employment for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Arguably the most significant of these thus far is the development of passenger air travel from zero in 1900 to 1.5 billion passengers per year by 2000. It is becoming clear that passenger space travel could grow to reach a similar economic scale—and that no other space activity has comparable potential. The paper describes the potential contribution to world economic growth of passenger space travel; the failure of government space agencies either to aid its development or to make a contribution to economic growth commensurate to their cost; and the value for economic policy of prioritising the realisation of passenger space travel. The faster passenger space travel services grow, the more the space industry will contribute to “Meeting the Needs of the New Millennium”.     

New roles in space for the 21st century: a Uruguayan view

In the economic and social circumstances of the 21st century globalized world, there is a need to rethink the traditional roles and positions in space of international intergovernmental organizations, states, both developed and developing, and humankind itself. Uruguay provides an example of a non-typical country that has managed to carve an important niche for itself in the field of space law. Although globalization is an irreversible phenomenon, which has had a devastating effect on the weakest countries, following the attacks of 11 September 2001 insecurity has become globalized for everyone. From the point of view of a state such as Uruguay, this crisis must be looked upon as an opportunity to renew and inspire intelligence, education and culture. In this way—and by continuing to argue for a global space organization—it can contribute to making the Space Age an era of global and planetary solidarity for the benefit of humankind.     

Forecasting space markets

Space Policy is here reprinting edited extracts from two reports — one French, one American — which aim to forecast the market for space applications and launch services over the next 10 and 15 years respectively. Euroconsult 1986 edition of The World Space Industry Survey: Ten-Year Outlook gives a country-by-country analysis of policies and programmes; an evaluation of markets for space applications and a forecast of the market for launch systems. The Report on the 1986 Outside Users Payload Model, prepared by Battelle, Columbus Division, for the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration, provides an estimate of demand for launch services for payloads in a range of mission categories flown by countries outside the Soviet bloc. Using different starting points and methodologies, the two reports nevertheless draw convincingly similar conclusions.     

The biosphere 2 project and its potential role in assisting space exploration

Space Biospheres Ventures is developing technologies for its Biosphere 2 project — a 3 acre materially closed ecological system with human habitat, intensive agriculture and five wilderness biomes — and other life-support testbeds for space habitats in microgravity and the Moon and Mars, as well as for ecological research pertinent to the biosphere of Earth. These include soil bed reactors for air purification and biomass production; aquatic waste processing systems; real-time analytic systems; and computer systems of control and management. A space policy pursuing joint Earth and ‘space biospheres’ objectives and implications is discussed.     

25 YEARS OF SPACE AT SURREY—PIONEERING MODERN MICROSATELLITES

Space at Surrey has developed over 25 years from very modest beginnings in 1974 to an international space centre by 1998. It has pioneered small satellites and succeeded in launching 14 low cost but sophisticated microsatellites over the course of two decades. In the 1990s, small satellites have become fashionable—but this was not always so! This paper describes the 25 years history of “Space at Surrey”.     

Quo vadis COPUOS?

Since 1958, the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) has been an international forum working to build a body of space law by universal consensus, a method of working which has been essential to ensuring the enforce-ability of its decisions. This consensus has degenerated in recent years, slowing the progress of space law — which has now fallen dangerously behind the development of space technology. Some important recent decisions have had to be taken by majority voting rather than consensus, to overcome the paralysis of COPUOS. This, however, can only be a temporary solution. The author makes an urgent plea for a return to COPOUS and its methods.     

Brazilian participation in the International Space Station (ISS) program: commitment or bargain struck?

The invitation to Brazil to join the International Space Station (ISS) program illustrates the way that foreign-policy makers in the USA favor short-term decisions over long-term commitments, while, in accepting the invitation, Brazil was also promoting other objectives. In taking the initiative to invite Brazil, President Clinton provided a unique opportunity to a middle-to-low-ranking spacefaring developing country to join the program as part of NASA's quota for the ISS. However, this action was the result of exchanges and bargains between the two countries, involving domestic and international interests on both sides—not all directly related to ISS activities—targeted at security and industrialization issues. These included the international non-proliferation regime, the commercialization of space systems and facilities (particularly Brazil's Alcantara Launch Center) and intellectual property.