Posted on

SpaceX will need suppliers for Mars settlement

In a thread on Twitter, Kevin Cannon suggests that suppliers for services that SpaceX will need to settle Mars such as sanitation, medical supplies, entertainment, finance and others, get started sooner rather then later laying out their plans if they want to be selected to help settle a new world.

Image
Image credit: Kevin Cannon
Posted on

Governance of space resources

Artist’s illustration of mining activity on the moon (Image: © James Vaughan)

In an essay in the The Space Review, Kamil Muzyka, a PhD Candidate at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, lays out the space governance framework for profitable and sustainable operations through intergovernmental agreements (IGA). According to Muzyka, any new regulation should address:

  • Safety and security of operations
  • Governance and reciprocal approach to authorization of space activities
  • Dispute resolution
  • A platform for information sharing for commercial, safety, and scientific use
  • A framework for processing, manufacturing, and construction using space objects with the use of obtained resources
  • Liability for damage caused by people and machines
  • The use of synthetic organisms within space objects or on the surface of a celestial body
  • Addressing the issues of extraterritorial intellectual property suits
  • Recommendations for space debris removal, recycling, reuse, and protection of national heritage sites (space objects and their direct vicinity) on the surface, subsurface, atmosphere, or orbit of a celestial body

The Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group is already working on the Building Blocks of an International Framework on Space Resource activities that will lead to eventual codified space law in this area.