Declan J O'Donnell is President of the World Bar Association6841 South Yosemite, Suite 3C, Englewood, CO 80112, USA
Abstract:
This viewpoint argues that the barriers preventing human expansion into space are not scientific but political and legal - an inability to secure funding; artificially high costs created by punitive insurance premiums and excessive bureaucracy; and uncertainty and disagreement about the extent and implications of legal regulation of space activities. Construction on Earth of a ‘metanation’ to oversee the governance of outer space is advocated as a possible solution.