Space diplomacy

The International Space Station, representing the collaboration of multiple nations in the exploration of space.

Science diplomacy and space, or Space diplomacy refers to the integration of the collaboration of the knowledge, technology, and legislation involved in science diplomacy with the expanded exploration of space. As diplomatic relationships are integral to the mitigation of various health, scientific, natural or technological issues across nations, space diplomacy is a growing field in which various nations can come to a consensus on what is fair when it comes to the exploration and commercialization of space travel. Space travel is a necessary resource for people around the world, especially when considering the use of satellites in areas like research or telecommunications. With the human exploration of space, there are growing issues, such as environmental concerns and pollution or the monopolization of space travel. Science diplomacy in the area of space allows for such concerns to be taken into account, as country officials, scientists, environmental activists, and private corporations can come together and allow for both national and private space exploration to prosper in countries around the world.

International Space Law

Established International Laws and Regulations for Space

Current international regulations for space travel have been set by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which governs that space exploration and the use of celestial bodies remain used for “peaceful purposes” and for scientific research, as established in Resolution 2222 (XXI). The treaty states that no country will be able to achieve sovereign control on regions of space. Consequently, the treaty requires that the use of space should be carried out as a resource of all people. Space law itself is relatively new as a branch of international law, encompassing the need to designate the access and freedom to explore space. Especially with the establishment of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in 1959, participating countries within the United Nations have worked throughout the years to establish five main international treaties to regulate further human expansion into space. These treaties include the rescue agreement, the international liability for damage, the registrations of whatever is sent into space, and the moon agreement, which regulates the activities done on celestial bodies. Other agreements aside from the main five also were also established in efforts to avoid the use of military weapons of mass destruction in space, such as the, the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963, which bans the testing of nuclear based weapons on domains such as space, water, and the atmosphere.

Rising Pressure to Reform Space Law Treaties and Principles

As the Outer Space Treaty was signed in 1967 as a consequence of the space race between the United States and the Soviet Union, continuous updates to the international agreement to space accounts for the great expansion of space travel in the past 20 years. In 2020 alone, there have been 114 global attempts at orbital launches, of those 104 were successful. The “NewSpace” sector of private industry, which refers to the civilian space activities funded by companies such as SpaceX, has been an increasingly competitive entity in the exploration and commercialization of space travel. Representing a contemporaneous space race, the growing network of privatized space flight requires legislation that would facilitate the union between both the public and private sectors of space travel and research across nations. Coupled with orbital and suborbital launches across the world, there is a growing need to reform the established legislation set by the United Nations. Another consideration for law reformation is the increase in space trash and debris as a result of international orbital launches and exploration.

The Outer Space Treaty and other principles of space law bans the use or testing of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear warheads, including in stations in the Earth's orbit. Yet, it is still possible for a nation to participate in space military activities, such as the launching of a nuclear missile through space. Aside from private spaceflight or rover launches in the field of research, nations around the world have recognized the potential to use the domain of space for military defense. For example, the United States and Russia, a couple of the main actors in the current space race, have not signed the Moon Agreement, and so have not agreed to the stipulations of the peaceful treatment of celestial bodies. Signed under the Trump administration in December of 2019, the Space Force represents a new branch of the Defense Department and served to establish formal military jurisdiction in the Earth's orbit. The release of the 2020 Defense Space Strategy represents another effort by the United States to expand the national military and defense into space. Other nations have also been involved in security considerations, such as the effort by the nations within the European Union to establish its own policies towards space security. This collaboration of European countries builds upon current shared policies while prioritizing sustainability and security of space travel.

Prevention of the Militarization of Space

The members of the UN have been discussing provisions to the Outer Space Treaty since the 1980s. In 1981, the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space was presented by the UN general assembly and has been discussed during the Conference on Disarmament as a resolution that reestablishes the principles of peace outlined in the original Outer Space Treaty. However, due to the clash between the priorities of the UN members, discussions for a Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space initiative have never come to full fruition. In 2008, both China and Russia drafted and proposed the Prevention of an Arms Race in Space Treaty, which would serve to reaffirm the principles of the Other Space Treaty, while also preventing the militarization of space.

Space Privatization

Over the past few decades, the space environment dramatically changed as private companies entered the space exploration domain as opposed to the sector being preserved solely by the government and its space agencies such as NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Unlike the space race that occurred between the United States and Russia, this new era of the space race is accelerated by the competition of customers. Private companies in many nations have been involved in satellite market for many years and their efforts have paved the way for many entrepreneurs to develop their own vision and contribution to space exploration.

Space Privatization in the United States

Some examples of private companies in the United States that have contributed to the space industry are SpaceX, Scaled Composites, Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, Bigelow Aerospace, and so forth. Among these companies, the three most prominent companies involved are SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic. All three competitors are focused on reducing the cost of access to space, through reuse of launchers and spacecraft, making space accessible to people and not just trained astronauts.

SpaceX

SpaceX was created in 2002 by entrepreneur, engineer, and inventor Elon Musk with the mission of taking humans to Mars and revolutionizing space technology. Within the past couple decade, the company specialized in the manufacture and launch of rockets that directly competed with the United Launch Alliance, the contract holder for the launch of NASA and Department of Defense rocket launches. SpaceX was the first private company to dock a ship at the International Space Station (ISS) with the development of the Falcon 9 launch and Dragon spacecraft. SpaceX designed the Falcon Heavy to not only launch future satellites into space and carry cargo, but to launch people to destinations like the moon, or even Mars. The company’s ability to design a successful orbital transport system with far less capital investment than NASA programs such as the space shuttle gained the interest of the government. Contracting out space program functions to private companies was a way for government space agencies to cut costs and redirect their efforts on other areas.

Blue Origin

Blue Origin was founded by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos, in September 2000, with the goal of making space travel more accessible and cheaper through reusable launch systems. Unlike SpaceX, Blue Origin wishes to target the space tourism industry. The company development a vertical launch vehicle, called the New Shepard, that can reach an altitude of 100km and can descend back to Earth by landing vertically.  Blue Origin has also created The New Glenn rocket which is a reusable heavy-lift launch vehicle that can carry payload to orbit. Both innovations by Blue Origin demonstrate the competition that is occurring in the private sector. Similar to Elon Musk’s intention with SpaceX, Bezos wishes to make innovations that will allow future generations to inhabit space. Specifically, Blue Origin’s goal is to promote future generations to construct a space station in orbit around Earth, perpetually in motion to produce artificial gravity, where humans would re-create cities, national parks, even famous sites.

Virgin Galactic

Another competitor in the private sector of space is Virgin Galactic which describes itself as “the world’s first commercial space line”. This space company was founded by Richard Branson, a technology and retail entrepreneur, in 2004. Virgin Galactic planned to carry six passengers at a time into sub-orbital space and provide them six minutes of weightlessness in the course of a two and a half our flight. The technology differed from SpaceX and Blue Origin in that the launch into space was not from the ground, but from a jet airplane. This ship flies to an altitude of about 18km and releases a smaller, rocket powered spacecraft called SpaceShip Two which is propelled to an altitude of about 100km . Like SpaceX and Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic wishes to transform the space sector by making space exploration easier for people.

International Space Privatization

Not only is space privatization becoming prominent in the United States, competition amongst space programs in Russia, Europe, Japan, India, and China has been growing significantly. The European Space Agency was established before the alliance between Russia and US in 1975, following many years of independent aeronautical engineering research by individual nations. Similarly, the Chinese, Japanese and Indian space agencies began in the 1960s. A number of smaller countries including the United Arab Emirates also are participating in the space competition.

China became the third nation to independently launch a human into orbit in 2003 and its capabilities have since grown. China’s visions include sending people to the moon and building a space station as well as creating its own robotic explorer. Meanwhile, India launched its first unmanned mission to Mars in late 2013, and its probe entered Mars’s orbit in September 2014. Since then, the Indian Space Research Organization has reached an agreement with NASA on subsequent explorations of Mars. China and the United Arab Emirates successfully sent spacecraft to orbit Mars in February 2021, which was when NASA landed its rover there.

Environmental Consequences

Due to the lack of established international space laws that create boundaries and define the regulation of space, space exploration and private ownership of space imposes probable negative consequences to the environment of the Earth and to space itself. Rocket and space launches have been steady since the space race starting from 1955. However, the recent space race between Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have significantly increased the amount of space launches. In 2019 alone, there have been 443 launches. Space launches provide in-depth knowledge of space, creation of markets, and space diplomacy however increases launches at such high rates can have negative effects on the Earth.

Carbon Dioxide Emission

The launches pose a problem to the environment because it can emit an unequivocal amount of carbon dioxide depending on the size of the spacecraft or rocket into the environment. Furthermore, because there aren’t strict space regulations on environmental maintenance, the amount of carbon dioxide emitted is left unregulated causing environmental issues such as greenhouse gas pollution. However, space companies are aware of the issues at hand and are actively innovating ways to combat the large emission. For example, Virgin Galactic will burn fuel for only 60 seconds to limit the environmental effect.

Black Carbon Accumulation

Another environmental consequence is that launching rockets and spaceships that are kerosene-fueled adds black carbon, also known as soot, to the upper layer of the atmosphere. Black carbon is a particle that absorbs solar energy and in comparison to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it absorbs energy more than one million times of CO2. The accumulation of black carbon that absorbs solar energy in the atmosphere can warm the atmosphere and can significantly increase the rate of global warming. Black carbon also does not only stay in the atmosphere but precipitate back into the Earth while lowering the reflecting power of surfaces. The reflecting power of surfaces is important to maintain a cool temperature but with the accumulation of black carbon, that reflection is replaced with absorption. The increased absorption targets snow covered regions such as arctic ice caps. Because of the absorbance of solar energy in the ice, the arctic ice cap is melting at an alarming rate. The sea levels are rising as a consequence which threaten many cities and countries from becoming underwater. However, space companies, such as Orbex, plan on cutting out black carbon in order to be more space conscious.

Space Junk

There is an issue in the amount of space junk in space. Space junk is human made and are the remnants of rockets and spaceships. There are 4,000 active and inactive satellites in space which are in danger of being struck by space debris. Additionally, these satellites can accelerate towards earth and harm the Earth’s environment and people. There is also another problem in removing such space junk because with the increasing amount of space equipment put out by numerous countries, it would be difficult to know if one space junk removed was another country’s active space property. Although the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs developed a space debris mitigation guidelines where space launches should have a proper plan to remove the junk within 25 years, it is only voluntary and is followed by 40% of all space missions. Additionally, there is no international agreement on the best way to remove space junk.