Society has entered a "New Space Race". But are there any "Space Laws"?

Big names like, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk are competing to create a presence in space. But what responsibilities and privileges do those bring?

Even though the $460 billion space business is expanding swiftly, the laws are unclear.

The space tourism business started by Mr. Branson, Virgin Galactic, declared on Thursday that it would fly its first commercial spaceflight this month and join Mr. Bezos' Blue Origin and Mr. Musk's SpaceX in transporting paying customers into space. However, the tourism sector is just one newly developing area of the economy, which is primarily supported by U.S. and foreign government contracts. The industry includes businesses in the manufacturing, solar energy, satellite and communications, and even mining industries. By 2025, Orbital Assembly, one company, plans to debut a five-star hotel on another planet.

By 2040, according to Citigroup analysts, the space industry will generate $1 trillion in income.

Legal issues are raised by all of this activities.

In theory, everyone has a right to space. The United Nations ratified a treaty that states no country can claim territory in space in 1967, when the US and the USSR were increasing their nuclear arsenals. According to Michelle Hanlon, co-director of the aviation and space law school at the University of Mississippi, "We didn't want to bring the Cold War into space."

Since then, a U.N. space committee has produced five sets of principles and four additional treaties, covering topics including liability for space object damage and arms control. They are all founded on the idea that time "should be devoted to enhancing the well-being of all countries and humankind, with an emphasis on promoting international cooperation."

According to Curt Blake, a space attorney at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and the former CEO of a space start-up, that viewpoint is set to clash with reality. He said, "Anything of common good, like the waters and air, has been so poorly regulated by humans. "Are we going to look after the moon better?"

One forthcoming test is a race between China and the US to reach the moon's poles and extract water, which might enable the production of fuel in space. There is little knowledge of what will occur after they both arrive.

Will they dot their bases or live on different sides? Miss Hanlon enquired. Because of these regulatory gaps, we are unsure.

Another possible dispute is developing because of the 170 million "space trash" objects, like as satellites left in Earth's orbit, which complicate and endanger exploration. Space is shared by everyone, therefore it's not always obvious who is responsible for keeping it clean. The Federal Communications Commission adopted regulations in September requiring businesses to decommission inoperable satellites in five years instead of twenty-five.

At conferences like The Hague Space Diplomacy Symposium this week at the Leiden University in the Netherlands, which focused on collaboration amid rising geopolitical tensions and rivalry, lawyers are grappling with these kinds of concerns.

Some gaps have been purposefully left by the US government. Essentially a free pass, or "learning period," Congress established a moratorium on safety rules for commercial space launches in 2004. The moratorium is slated to expire in October. It has persisted for so long because new regulations can't be based on enough progress. The RAND Corporation issued a report in April that discouraged further extension, and the Federal Aviation Administration is preparing to increase regulation.

Despite the fact that we need regulations, business executives warn against overregulation that would drive innovation elsewhere. Additionally, futurists have a long and wide perspective by nature. Many people worry that we'll use up space's resources before we can "access the infinity of the universe."