Our current space laws and why they need reform to fit the upcoming Space Race
By: Sophie Verska
Tags: Space Exploration, Elon Musk, Space

Our current space laws and why they need reform to fit the upcoming Space Race Sophie Verska Mar 7·3 min read

Within the next century both countries and companies will want to claim territory in space, but this is not possible with our current laws. We need to change them or be ready to face the consequences.

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

In the 20th century, the hostile Cold War set the stage for the space race to begin. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union led to the first manned space flight in 1961 and eventually to the moon landing in 1969. Both countries made spectacular scientific discoveries, but the race brought attention to the need for space laws to keep space a neutral territory. Nobody wanted one of these countries to be able to claim territory in space and use it to solely further their national interests. The US and Soviet Union agreed that signing a treaty to keep space open to all countries was beneficial to both parties, and thus the Outer Space Treaty (O.S.T.) was signed in 1967. The O.S.T. was devised in the United Nations and ratified by all five members of the Security Council (United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, and France). All countries agreed that no weapons of mass destruction should be brought to space and no countries should be able to claim a celestial body. Instead, all countries should be able to explore and utilize space freely (which includes being able to mine resources). This treaty has been instrumental in the exploration of space that happened in the 20th century, but recently criticized for being too vague for the 21st century.

Back then, countries were only interested in outdoing the other and going as far as the moon to win. Technology was far less advanced and the scope of resources available in space was unknown. Throughout the last 60 years, we have discovered many new ways to make use of space that the O.S.T could never have predicted. Now we are aware that mining asteroids and other celestial bodies could yield gold, silver, platinum, and valuable water sources. The US, Russia, and China have all expressed interest in finding these resources in the future. This use was somewhat expected by the O.S.T., but it does not make the execution any less complicated. What happens if two different countries want to mine the same asteroid? Neither can technically claim the celestial body per the O.S.T., so eventually disputes will occur.

Photo by Bill Jelen on Unsplash

Another issue that the O.S.T. did not predict was the massive influx of private companies that would want to explore space for the same reasons as countries. In the US, multiple companies have been created with the purpose of mining resources, growing our presence in space, and even bringing tourists into space. One example is Elon Musk’s company SpaceX, which has promised to eventually bring one million people to Mars and colonize it. This now is possible because of the executive order signed in 2020 by Trump that allows all Americans have the right to explore space and utilize its resources under the guidelines of the O.S.T. This solves the legal problems for private corporations in the US, but it does not solve everything.

In the 21st century, private companies have the ability to make billions of dollars. Some might even have more money to invest in space exploration than the government has in their budget. The lure of valuable resources in space will tempt both countries and companies to race to reach those resources first. Currently, all of them have the right to take those resources but eventually will fight over them with no legal boundaries in place. The international community and individual countries alike need to take the initiative to set up laws to prevent this otherwise conflict in some form is inevitable. It will be difficult to write rules for all parties to have claim over resources in space without actually having claim over territory in space, but this level of planning ahead will become necessary in the near future.