Current calls to remove orbital debris come from nearly every corner, including governments, militaries, private corporations, and the scientific community. While debris poses a clear threat to space operations, and while this threat will continue to grow over time, too little energy has been spent considering the second-order effects of developing the ability to remove orbital debris. An unintended

On April 6, 2020, the White House issued the Executive Order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources. Due to the controversial matter that it addresses, as well as the unilateral approach that it embraces, unsurprisingly, the Executive Order has spurred a great deal of attention both in the press and academic circles. In light of its significant implications

Using a longitudinal study (the Longitudinal Study of American Life), we test the degree of stability present in the public's attitudes toward space exploration and examine how those attitudes developed over the course of the longitudinal study. Emphasis is placed on how socialization factors such as parental interest in space exploration as well as parent–child space discussions influence attitudes

The global space situational awareness sector is rapidly evolving as government and commercial entities around the world increase their ability to monitor the space environment. In many cases, these entities are increasing capabilities by creating or joining international organizations, forging partnerships, and purchasing data or services from new sources. The ways in which these entities engage with

Sending humans to Mars has been a component of the official US space policy of multiple presidential administrations. Additional stakeholders with interests in visiting Earth's terrestrial neighbor in the coming decades include private companies and the space agencies of other spacefaring nations. Numerous motivations exist for humans to explore and settle on the Martian surface, including environmental

Extraterrestrial bodies contain a number of resources that are likely targets for future resource extraction operations. There is an increasing interest in extracting resources from these bodies, particularly to reduce the amount of material that must be launched from Earth and, in turn, the cost of space missions. While the economic and technical feasibility of space resource extraction is the focus

This article considers the Voyager records as a means to raise some implications related to the covert biases present in the content included. I argue that messages like the Golden Records have the potential to be understood as misleading and could pose an existential threat to humanity, depending on how they are interpreted by whomever might encounter them. The argument I develop here is based on

Over the past decade, an increasing number of satellite images and other earth observation (EO) data have become available to a wide range of final users, including economists and other social scientists, boosting the amount of information they can obtain to study, analyze, and manage different research topics in their fields. In turn, economists are promoting advancement in the quantification of the

Australia is one of the world's most wealthy nations. Yet to the surprise and puzzlement of many observers, Australian governments over many years steadfastly refused to become involved in space activities in ways judged to be commensurate to the nation's wealth and place in the world. Repeated calls to establish a space agency were ignored or firmly rejected and civil and commercial investment in

Even if our messages are unlikely to be heard, the threat to our species that contact with extrasolar entities poses means that determining what content to include in Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligence (METI) messages presents serious ethical questions. I tackle one of those questions: Should our opening move in interstellar diplomacy be a peaceful overture or a belligerent warning? Those in favor

During the last few years, the amount of space debris has been frequently mentioned as a potential risk to current and future space operations. The purpose of this article was to describe the discussions held at the First Sustainable Space Economy Workshop held in Finland 2019. The workshop gathered together experts with economic, legal, regulatory, technological, and environmental backgrounds, with

This article discusses the current state of the law concerning the liability of private entities for damages caused with respect to space activities. A significant and continuous increase in the involvement of private companies in space activities risks damages being caused to other entities as multilateral treaties of international law, adopted between 1967 and 1979, are outdated and do not correspond

The article argues that near-future space colonization missions exceeding a certain number of colonists raise new questions about social organization and colony governance challenges. Although small crewed missions can be governed by a mission commander, dozens of people living on another celestial body will naturally create a community, and hundreds will require intentional implementation of a governance

National space law in general aims to implement a State's obligations under the UN Space Treaties to authorize and supervise public and private sector space activities and to limit the liability risk exposure of a State. However, Earth observation data regulation is becoming of increasing importance as the Earth observation sector becomes more mature, although until recently only a few States have

Crowdsourcing increases the value of satellite data by supplying human resources for processing them and providing complementary data. This article reviews previous research to clarify the stakeholders and their relationships in business ecosystems where satellite data and crowdsourcing are combined for new products and services. Crowdsourcing has three functions in satellite data businesses: analyzing

The luxuries of the modern-day living owe a lot to the services provided from outer space or passing through space. As the benefits of space technology permeate into our everyday lives, many new entrants, especially those from the developing regions of the world are initiating, synergizing, and expanding their national space programmes. Although having a space programme offers plenty of strategic and

This article builds a model for determining the law applicable to in-space assembled autonomous platforms and the services they are likely to provide. It makes a comprehensive inventory of the new challenges and emerging industry trends in the field of in-space assembly. It identifies some of the most significant industrial projects, which are currently engaged or contemplated. It then examines the

This viewpoint summarizes my personal involvement in Operation Burnt Frost, the U.S. government interagency undertaking to mitigate the human casualty risk of the reentry of USA-193 in 2008. In fact, my unique involvement dates back to shortly after the launch of the spacecraft, more than a year before its destruction. This operation has been the subject of erroneous public speculations surrounding

Although space traffic management (STM) has been the subject of numerous articles and reports in the last decades, there is still confusion around its nature, scope and objectives, with each study usually developing its own definition. Even the origins and historical developments of the concept are unknown to most experts. Although the terminology and concept of STM are usually attributed to Dr Lubos

The U.S. military's dependence on inherently vulnerable space assets creates an incentive for its adversaries to target U.S. space systems. Establishing mission assurance through resilience and reconstitution is a critical challenge for the United States. One of the U.S. approaches to strengthening resilience and reconstituting space systems is to engage in international cooperation with its allies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) – the ability of a computer or a robot to perform tasks commonly associated with intelligent beings – represents both a new challenge and a significant opportunity for the future of space activities. Indeed, increasing connectivity and symbiotic interactions between humans and intelligent machines raise significant questions for the rule of law and contemporary ethics,

The space governance landscape has shifted rapidly in recent years. As previous scholars have noted, this shifting environment has relied heavily on private actors and commercial interests. The space industry is now made up of not just a handful of nation states but also corporations large and small developing innovative technologies. These corporations operate alongside and in partnership with government

One of the main principles of the Hippocratic oath, which has guided medical practice for 2500 years, is Primum non nocere (first, do no harm). This means, among other things, that when the stakes are high (a patient's life) and one has no idea what one should do, it is better to do nothing at all than risk a treatment that might make things worse. We argue for a similar approach to a face-to-face

The search for extraterrestrial intelligence often postulates a convergence of behavior and technological development. Even if this is true, the success of interstellar communication between two species depends on the synchronicity of their technologies. The assumption that the potentials of these species do not necessarily develop uniformly is called developmental relativity. Consideration of this

With the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) ramping up efforts to return the United States to the moon, they have made concerted efforts to appeal to women, including naming the effort after the twin sister of Apollo, Artemis. Survey data from the General Social Survey indicate a persistent gap between men and women in terms of support for greater spending on space exploration. This

Over the last ten years, challenges associated with planning the human exploration of deep space in the next 50 years have received increasing attention. The issues to be considered are not confined to medical and technological, but also include political, social and ethical issues. Human space settlement may be regarded as the next step in human expansion, and this article discusses a broad set of

Many of the proposed and foreseeable activities on the Moon, Mars, and elsewhere in our solar system will require construction and similar actions. Most will, by intent, alter those natural environments in a variety of ways. Some impacts may foreclose future options for use of the area, hinder sustained access to resources, impede long-term human occupation, interfere with scientific or other purposes

A status report for an attempt to implement a project of education, teaching, and research in space science and technology in the spirit of the United Nations is briefly summarized in this Viewpoint.

The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest and most complex international science and technology program in history. As such, it is a laboratory for a myriad of important policy issues. These include crisis decision-making. Begun by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, as Freedom, it was rechristened ISS in 1993 by President Bill Clinton. Completed in 2011 under President Barack Obama, it continues

Space Traffic Management (STM) is already acknowledged as a concept for the regulation of space activities by the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS). The current United Nations assumption is comprehensive for all space activities and facilitates this conceptualisation. However, very little is known about how the respective requirements

In the vigorous academic debate over the risks of the Search for ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and active Messaging ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence (ETI) (METI), a significant factor has been largely overlooked. Specifically, the risk of merely detecting an alien signal from passive SETI activity is usually considered to be negligible. The history of international relations viewed through the

The rapid growth in the number of private companies and start-ups active in the space sector has not gone hand in hand with a critical reflection on the most appropriate ways to guarantee that this industry operates in a sustainable manner. There is a risk that the technological developments delivered by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the private capital invested in the space industry will

An increasing direct participation of private companies in the space sector started in the early 2000s and became known as the New Space movement. Despite the media buzz from this movement and the corresponding increased interest in space, most analyses focus on a specific industry such as launch systems or satellites, producing limited insights. History shows that disruptive innovation usually comes

Owing to the growing markets for both suborbital and orbital launches, a market which made up 40% of the global spending of $323 billion on space activities in 2015 and still continues to show signs of increased revenue [2], there is a need for additional landing sites within the United States. This article explores the viability of conversion of current Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)–licensed

Earth's orbital environment is a common-pool resource which has been largely unregulated since the commencement of human space activity in the 20th century. Satellites – both operational and defunct – as well as upper stage rocket bodies have congested orbital patterns and increased the probability of asset conjunctures. The need to minimize waste in space adds requirements to the governance of space

Elon Musk has sought to position his private aerospace company, SpaceX, as the future of space exploration, even as the feasibility of its initiatives remains to be seen. Although the level of support for public space programs has been well established by previous research, we know less about how people perceive private space travel initiatives, particularly those—like the SpaceX Mars colonization

Article 1 of the US Constitution assigns the US Congress numerous responsibilities. These include creating new laws, revising existing laws, funding government programs, and conducting oversight of these programs' performance. Oversight of US Government agency space policy programs is executed by various congressional space policy committees including the House and Senate Science Committees, Armed

The main goals of the article are to describe space situational awareness (SSA) for safety and security purposes and to place SSA in the context of national and regional security law and policy. Building national or regional SSA systems should guarantee the security of people and infrastructure in outer space and on Earth from threats from space. Military aspects are also considered in the SSA system

Space science, technology, and its applications have the potential to make essential contributions to the implementation of global development agendas which encompass the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. Member States of the United Nations are ultimately responsible for implementing the development

The prioritization and improvement of ethics, planetary protection, and safety standards in the astrosciences is the most critical priority as our scientific and exploratory capabilities progress, both within government agencies and the private sector. These priorities lie in the belief that every single science mission—crewed or non-crewed, ground-based or not—should heed strict ethical and safety

This study tests the congruence between public opinion toward funding US space exploration and previously theorized rationales to justify space activities and examines how those motivations differ by political party and how they vary from 1973 to 2016. General Social Survey data are used to measure correlations between space spending preferences and other spending categories that proxy proposed rationales

This article describes a launch vehicle development roadmap that uses only proven technology and that could lead to a thousand-fold reduction in the cost of sending people to orbit within about 15 years. It could reduce the cost of the first lunar base by very approximately ten times. This would clearly revolutionise spaceflight and create a new space age. The roadmap involves a combination of full

We discuss how the space industry moved from a government dominated field to a commercially driven field. In the context of this industry shift, we explore how NASA's capabilities developed from its early hierarchical model to the intergovernmental and then commercial network models. We refer in particular to NASA's organizational, cultural, relational, and technological capabilities. These developments

Owing to recent changes in the structure of the aerospace sector and its relationship to government, the landscape of the space industry is now experiencing the emergence of a commercialization paradigm. Private space endeavors may soon be able to target the novel market segments of space research and exploration, space resources utilization, and human access to space and to further stimulate the growth

Data collection and information sharing are at the core of any traffic control system. In particular, Maritime Situational Awareness—restricted in this article to one of its main components, the automatic identification system (AIS)—and Space Situational Awareness (SSA) are the backbones of, respectively, maritime and space traffic control frameworks. While the AIS has been initiated by civil authorities

Commercial space transportation (CST) will occur in the foreseeable future. After the success of Virgin Galactic's first suborbital commercial human spaceflight in 2004, many believed that our generation will explore another frontier of technology. Despite technological advancements, however, the international law currently in place is not prepared to regulate and secure the safety of CST including

The extreme conditions of all extraterrestrial environments restrict freedom of movement and encourage social, political and economic arrangements friendly to tyranny. However, deliberately engineered measures might be taken to maximise liberty in the space environment. For example, space settlements can be engineered to maximise the number of oxygen, food, water and power systems to disallow coercive

Planetary protection, or the protection of celestial bodies from potentially harmful contamination, has been required by international law since the ratification of the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space in 1967. At that time, scientists were concerned about the potential of contaminating the Moon or bringing back a life form of lunar origin

The global space industry has recently seen a structural transformation through the emergence of ‘New Space’, i.e., a significant expansion of the development of smaller, cheaper, and more modular space-related products in services. One example of this expansion is the emergence of a world-leading cluster of New Space industry in Scotland (UK). Critically, this development is being pitched as a new

Iran has a long-standing and increasingly comprehensive space program. Given the current technological and political developments worldwide, a logical next step is to start commercializing some of the country's space activities. After first reviewing the literature on the commercialization of technology, this article describes Iran's space program and the various organizations involved in it, before

Current calls to protect the Martian environment with “Planetary Parks” maintain environmental merit. However, they lack a sufficiently urgent timeframe for initiating protection and a robust scientific method for the establishment of noteworthy Martian natural landmarks as natural reserves. In response, if we return to the seminal environmental preservation teachings of Aldo Leopold and John Muir

Robert Lightfoot served as Acting Administrator of NASA a record-busting 15 months from January 2017 to April 2018. He led NASA through two budget cycles and coped with the tumultuous transition from President Obama to President Trump. Unusually for an Acting Administrator, he made a difference in policy. Not only did he help raise NASA's budget during his time in office, but he was central in two

GNSS-related activities qualify as ʻspace activities’, and it thus make international space law applicable. However, it is quite reticent to broadly interpret GNSS signals under the term ʻspace object’, due to the lack of material and physical properties. The discussions on whether GNSS damage qualifies as indirect damage, and whether the Liability Convention cover that indirect damage, are irrelevant

Among the greatest obstacles to the implementation of crewed space missions are human biological limitations. Difficulties were always envisioned in relation to both Earth's moon and Mars but more so for Mars because long spaceflights would also expose crew to prolonged microgravity conditions, in addition to radiation. The result could well be osteoporosis, bone fractures, and disability. In this

Constellation of Small Satellites for Mediterranean Basin Observation COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) is one of the most advanced and powerful assets in the Earth observation field in which Italy plays a key role at world level. CSK has been designed for dual-use purposes to fulfill both civilian and defense needs, providing useful scientific and commercial applications and strategic monitoring. Since 2008, thanks

Armed conflict in outer space could happen in two scenarios: first, a state may rely on relevant data obtained from the satellites to strengthen the effectiveness of its military action and second, a state may use either space-based or ground-based space weapons to attack a military target. Legally speaking, the above two scenarios constitute the use of force as defined in international law rules.

As it has accrued meaning over time, outer space has become as much a social construct as a physical reality. Because space is a product of the imagination, its contours are not stable and are subject to needs and desires that shift and evolve according to social, political, and economic priorities. This article examines differing relationships to space that shed light on the social and political dynamics

Outer space is a congested strategic domain. The issue of space debris mitigation is one of the key issues of safe space traffic. However, active debris removal (ADR) systems may raise concerns about their dual-use capabilities. In this article, the authors have analyzed the ADR systems focusing on their potential as space weapons. The article concludes that ADR systems can be utilized for harmful

This article reviews South Korea's response model for space object impacts, re-entries, and collisions. These are countermeasure models that are prepared for natural or artificial space objects falling in South Korea or colliding in space, and they employ the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) to perform 4 stages that include prevention, preparation, response, and restoration. However, the article

Governmental investments on the development of high-tech clusters are among the main policies for socioeconomic development, enabling countries to be part of global value networks. Our objective is to identify which are the strategies of countries that want to join global aerospace value networks, by means of an abductive case research. Countries were divided in 3 groups (A; B; C) according to their