Trends in Outer Space Activities—Legal and Policy Challenges

Abstract

Outer Space activities, which were mainly driven by public sector or government actors in the initial decades of their advent, have been increasingly undertaken by private sector in the recent past. The impetus for growth in space activities now is mainly derived from the commercial uses of space, which are diverse in nature. Innovative applications of technologies enable space systems to directly communicate even at individual consumer level—thus vastly multiplying the potential for space applications to the benefit of human society. While future survival of human race itself in the face of several risks of cataclysmic nature to human life on earth depends upon its spreading into Outer Space in the longer term, such a prospect requires giant leaps in technologies, systems and strategies for wider human access and control of Outer Space environment for long-term habitation. The implications of recent disruptive trends in space activities, particularly those brought about by increased private sector roles and increased number of actors in Outer Space, need a review from the perspectives of policy and legal challenges that they pose. There is much attention now to the governance of Outer Space which enjoys a unique international legal regime but was unable to cope with the dynamics of changing environment. This article analyses the policy and legal challenges from three main perspectives of the role of Outer Space as a driver of economy, as an instrument of security and as a means for exploring future destiny of human race by considering multiple dimensions of Outer Space activities involving spacecraft, space transport systems, space operations, investment trends, issues relating to security, space environment and governance.