3 Reasons Why We Haven't Conquered Space Yet, #1: Uncle Sam is No Queen Isabella

When Columbus accidentally discovered the New World, it sparked an age of exploration and colonization that changed humanity forever. People now look at space and wonder why we’ve not done the same thing. There’s so much out there: potential wealth, new lands to explore, and opportunities for adventure. The only thing holding us back from similarly conquering the Final Frontier is technology, right?

Wrong. The world has changed since we launched from safe shores to parts unknown, where maps ended with “Here be Dragons.” We are more bureaucratic, more legalistic, and more cautious. Space exploration raises questions of economics and policy for which there are no historical precedents. The hurdles to conquering space aren’t just in the areas of science and engineering. Before we can truly branch out to other worlds, we will need to conquer the non-technological challenges of this world.

Legalities:

The UN Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space has negotiated five treaties, four of which were ratified by the United States. Those treaties, which were all written before 1980, spoke from a more nationalistic approach to space travel and use than a commercial one. In general, they call for international cooperation and the international sharing of resources from space for the benefit of all mankind. While the major spacefaring nations maintain that individual nations are permitted to “use” and exploit space, there are still issues.

When we colonized the New World, there was an understanding that the profit and materials gathered there belonged to the colonists, company or country funding the endeavor. In space, there’s no such assurance. Right now, we’ve not had an issue because all we’ve sold is information gathered in the use of space. How we handle selling physical materials, not just in sale but resale, needs to be addressed before companies can confidently take their industries outside our atmosphere.

Property rights are also an issue. When we colonized the New World, people had governments to back up their right to an area of land. Currently, no nation is allowed to stake claim to any part of a celestial body, whether an area of the moon, an asteroid, or even the space above their nation. There is the understanding that if an area is occupied (or in the case of robots, in active use), no other nation or organization will infringe upon that area. However, what if the settlement is temporarily abandoned or the machines shut down? There’s no law or enforcement to prevent another organization from stepping in and taking over.

Finally, there’s also a mandate that nations are responsible for the things that launch from their territory, even if it’s done by a commercial service. For example, if Asteroids, Inc., launches a satellite out of French Guiana, France becomes the nation responsible for the satellite’s actions. That’s fairly straightforward when it comes to satellites, but what about a large mining or asteroid transfer operation, where Asteroids, Inc., may launch several pieces of its operation out of multiple nations? If the op fails – such as the asteroid missing its mark and hitting a station or the Earth – several nations could be held responsible. Naturally, any nation that is responsible for a company is going to want to have regulations to make sure that the company doesn’t break international laws, and to have liability agreements worked out. Plus it will need the ability to enforce regulations and to work cooperative agreements among other nations.

While some of this work has already been started for satellite launch and operations, there is still much to do. Here in the United States, Congress recently addressed this issue with the Asteroids Act, HR 5063, which was proposed in July 2014 and pushed to the 2015 session of Congress. It gives more definite interpretations of the Outer Space Treaty and its role in enforcing it as well as calls for the government to reduce barriers to the development of space industries. In the meantime, the FAA has issued a letter to Bigelow Aerospace declaring the government’s support of non-interference in private sector operations and a company’s need to protect its assets. However, we have a long way to go in this arena.

A Push-Me-Pull-You Relationship with the Government:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcdDb-cbadw

For all that NASA has high hopes and grand plans, it depends on government approval of its budget and activities. It’s difficult to keep a space program going and focused on a coherent space mission when presidencies change every 4-8 years, and Congresses even more often than that. The priorities of the government are terrestrial. Since our government isn’t going to make a significant short-or-long-term profit on space, its members are going to be more focused on the immediate needs of jobs, economy and welfare.

Really, if we’re going to get a true foothold in space, we cannot depend on the government to do it.

However, commercial industries are still dependent on the government for money, for protection, for regulation, and because of the treaties. That means companies need to play politics in addition to getting their technological game on.

As the commercial role in space expands, the government’s bureaucracy will expand, too. Currently, NASA and the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation handle regulations and supervision, but its focus is on launches. Whether it expands to meet the needs of mining, colonization and trade, or if a new department is created, there will be growing pains. Further, we face a chicken-and-egg issue: the government won’t address these issues until they become “real,” but space industries can’t move forward until they know they have government backing.

The bureaucracy won’t just cover operations, either. For all that governments talk about cooperation, they will protect economic secrets and set rules on which countries they will trust with cooperation. Even in the area of space launch, the government has controls throughout the process, right down to with whom locally-based companies can discuss their research or set up contracts. As Elon Musk noted, red tape can delay even discussing a launch for months.

What happens when we start mining, industry, colonies? It’s easy to believe that once we are Out There, we can move past nationalism, terrestrial regulations and bureaucratic red tape, but as long as the home offices are Earthbound, governments will have responsibility and influence.

What Does It Mean?

What this boils down to, then, is patience and politics, lawyers and lobbyists. Unlike exploring new lands, conquering Outer Space is truly forging new frontiers – in law as well as territory. Uncle Sam is no Queen Isabella who according to some accounts, took a leap of faith and sponsored his dangerous and fateful trip. In all fairness, we can’t work that way anymore; the world has gotten too interdependent, too complex.

However, as companies show themselves willing to take the leap, governments will have to also step forward with the regulations and concrete agreements that will allow those companies to not only make use of space’s materials but profit materially from that use – while making sure not to strangle budding companies in red tape.