Commercialising space

It's a wake-up call for newcomers such as India

US president Donald Trump has signed an executive order that allows private citizens and companies to own and exploit natural resources on celestial bodies like the moon, Mars, comets, and asteroids. This formalises America’s legal framework for the future commercialisation of outer space and adds a new dimension to 21st century geopolitics. The key international agreement on activities in space is the “Outer Space Treaty” or OST (formally The Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies). This was drafted in 1967 and was signed by the US, the USSR, and the UK. It has been since signed and ratified by 100-odd nations, and signed but not yet ratified by many others. Every major space power, including China, Japan, India, and France, is a signatory. 

The OST was drafted during the Cold War when the US and the USSR were fierce competitors in the space race. The military implications of dominating space were obvious. The early space rockets were based on German V-2 rockets, which had a devastating impact late in the Second World War. Both Soviet and American research programmes employed German rocket scientists who developed that weapon. The OST explicitly prohibits deploying nuclear weapons in space and the signatories also agree to forgo claims of sovereignty to celestial real estate, and to avoid harmful contamination of space. But it doesn’t ban military activity (including surveillance and science experiments with military applications) and doesn’t prohibit deploying non-nuclear weapons. It is ambiguous with respect to commercial activities, such as mining. There has never been a consensus on whether the treaty’s prohibitions about sovereignty automatically exclude private ownership and exploitation of off-world resources. 

Many nations have subsequently drafted, or are drafting, their own rules and regulations regarding commercialising outer space. In 2015, the US Congress passed The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, which allows US citizens and industries to “engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of space resources” including water and minerals but not living creatures (if any are found). On April 6, the Trump Administration took this one step further with the executive order on Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources. This says: “Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery, and use of resources in outer space, consistent with applicable law,” and that the US does not view space as “global commons”. The order also claims “successful long-term exploration and scientific discovery of the moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies will require partnership with commercial entities to recover and use resources, including water and minerals, in outer space”. 

This opens the door for prospectors and space mining companies like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries. It could, however, according to critics, lead to a new phase of colonialism where nations and private investors which develop the requisite technical capacity end up hogging off-world resources. That may lead to conflicts analogous to the colonial wars that raged across Asia, the two American continents, and Africa for 300 years. The executive order has already been condemned by Russia. Space mining is a hugely attractive prospect. Many minerals in short supply on earth are abundant in space. Apart from rare isotopes of helium, industrial metals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, niobium, molybdenum, lanthanum, europium, and tungsten are also available aplenty on asteroids.

Space miners will have to solve many daunting technical and logistical problems. But using robotic craft, it may be possible to mine those resources, use them to 3D-print tools onsite, and also transport minerals back to earth. It has been speculated that the first successful space miners will become trillionaires. For newcomers to the space race, like India, this is a wake-up call. While adhering to the OST, India must develop the ability to stake its claim if space mining does become viable. This involves drafting analogous legislation, and encouraging investment in cutting-edge research required to build these capacities.