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Outer space is boundless, yet this hasn’t deterred humanity from attempting to impose its laws upon it. There are more opportunities for individuals to reach space than ever before, and the upcoming decades are poised to witness the US and China sending astronauts back to the Moon.
Both nations aspire to establish permanent research outposts on the Moon’s surface, somewhat akin to those currently present in Antarctica. However, could disagreements among these two countries — and potentially others, like Russia or India — emerge regarding the placement of bases on the lunar terrain? Might similar conflicts arise over claims to the Moon’s resources, including the water ice found in craters at its poles?
Nations will be eager to extract this ice because it can be converted into rocket fuel for future missions and for sustaining life at their lunar facilities. In fact, the notion of “space water conflicts” may be closer in time to reality than the objective of providing clean drinking water for everyone in developing nations.
Nonetheless, the legal discussions surrounding rights to space water and other resources are intricate. Legislation is also enforced to ensure that countries do not pollute celestial bodies like the Moon during their explorations.
Additionally, there is a distinction between harvesting space resources like lunar ice, which are essential for further exploration, and retrieving resources from space solely for their monetary worth. The latter issue pertains to the emerging sector of asteroid resource extraction.
A variety of firms, primarily based in the US and Luxembourg, have proposed missions to asteroids (the residual fragments from the formation of the solar system) to extract precious minerals and metals, which would subsequently be transported back to Earth. However, there is a question as to whether the reintroduction of resources complies with the Outer Space Treaty.
Endless responsibility?
According to both the Outer Space Treaty and the UN’s Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (1972), nations are accountable for any destruction inflicted by their space apparatus and are required to prevent harmful contamination of space as well as celestial bodies. This will extend to countries intending to extract resources from the Moon and other nearby celestial entities, like Mars.
But what occurs when spacecraft venture beyond our Solar System and journey to the distant areas of our cosmic surroundings? Can nations still be held accountable for pollution or damage so far removed from Earth?
The Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft, which were launched by Nasa in 1977, have already exited the Solar System, with others on paths that will ultimately lead them out as well. In the treaties it is a party to, which include the Outer Space Treaty and the Liability Convention, the US appears to have consented to perpetuate lawful space activities indefinitely into the vastness of space.
This indicates that, from the conceptual phase, scientists should design their spacecraft and instruments in a manner that ensures, even when beyond human control on Earth, they do not contribute to pollution in outer space.
For instance, certain spacecraft utilize radioactive materials as energy sources. The careless dispersal of radioactive materials would constitute a breach of international space law, particularly when the use of such hazardous substances is not disclosed to the UN bodies overseeing these matters.
According to the Moon Agreement, there is a requirement to inform the UN prior to the deployment of radioactive materials on the Moon, and about their intended use. However, in the scenario that communication with a spacecraft is lost, should nations still be bound to their liability responsibilities across the vastness of space?
Space activities are rapidly progressing into deeper realms of the cosmos. Pioneers 10 and 11, launched in the 1970s by Nasa, are on trajectories that will eventually lead them beyond the Solar System – potentially in the coming decades. Nasa’s New Horizons spacecraft passed Pluto in 2014 and is presently traversing a remote region known as the Kuiper Belt.
One possible response to these legal inquiries is that human laws should logically terminate where our capacity to conceive and execute space operations ceases. For instance, there are valid reasons to confine space law to our Solar System – as it may become impractical for states to exert control over operations once they venture farther, irrespective of their potential to inflict harm or pollution on more distant celestial objects.
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