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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 03 2016, @05:29PM   Printer-friendly
from the treaty-obligations dept.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/2/12275980/moon-express-private-mission-spaceflight-us-government

Private spaceflight company Moon Express will soon announce it has been granted regulatory approval by the US government to send a lunar lander to the surface of the Moon, according to a source familiar with the matter. If so, that means the company will be the first private company to have received permission from the government to send a vehicle beyond Earth orbit and on to another world.

Moon Express is a private spaceflight company with long-term hopes of mining the lunar surface. But in the short term, the company is focused on simply getting to the Moon first. The venture is developing the MX-1 — a 20-pound lunar lander designed to "hop" across the Moon's surface. MX-1 is in the Google Lunar X Prize competition, an international contest to send the first privately funded spacecraft to the Moon. In order to win that competition, Moon Express has to get its lander to the surface of the Moon before December 31st, 2017.

[...] Currently, there's no regulatory framework in place that allows the US government to oversee private missions beyond Earth orbit.

And that's a problem, since the US has to adhere to obligations set by the Outer Space Treaty — an international agreement that guides how nations conduct missions in space. Specifically, the US has to adequately oversee private missions to other planetary bodies, as well as ensure that companies don't violate planetary protection.


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  • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:04AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:04AM (#383827) Journal

    The treaty already provides all the framework they need.

    Article VI anticipated space travel by private parties:

    States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with the provisions set forth in the present Treaty. The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State Party to the Treaty.

    --https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Outer_Space_Treaty [wikisource.org]

    As I understand it, treaties apply to the countries that sign them. They don't apply to companies or citizens. A treaty can be implemented in a country's laws which do apply to non-state actors. The article appears to be saying that the United States has not yet enacted internal law to enforce the Outer Space Treaty, but that Planet Express took the initiative and asked the United States to approve its project.

    It[']s clear as hell this isn't about contamination.

    The matter is addressed in Article IX of the treaty, which specifically mentions the Earth and the Moon:

    States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter and, where necessary, shall adopt appropriate measures for this purpose.

    Recall that Article VI calls for "conformity with the provisions" of the treaty by non-state actors, so the obligation not to contaminate is supposed to apply to them. The article mentions it as an aside--"as well as ensure that companies don’t violate planetary protection"--and you were the first commenter here to mention it.

    The guidelines [nasa.gov] of the Committee on Space Research (a group of scientists) regarding planetary protection seem to have been adopted by NASA. [nasa.gov] For the Moon they recommend:

    Category II includes all types of missions to those target bodies where there is significant interest relative to the process of chemical evolution and the origin of life, but where there is only a remote chance that contamination carried by a spacecraft could jeopardize future exploration. The requirements are only for simple documentation. This documentation includes a short planetary protection plan is required for these missions, primarily to outline intended or potential impact targets; brief pre-launch and post-launch analyses detailing impact strategies; and a post-encounter and end-of-mission report providing the location of inadvertent impact, if such an event occurs. Solar system bodies considered to be classified as Category II are listed in the Appendix to this document.

    It amounts to four reports per journey. It doesn't seem onerous, in the scheme of things.

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