Sally McPherson reports that in late October, 2015, Christopher Pyne, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, announced that the Australian Space Activities Act 1998 would be reviewed to ensure it reflects the modern world position on space mining, resources rights, and management of the space environment, such as space debris. He appointed an international space law expert and Professor at Western Sydney University, Steven Freeland, to conduct the review. Pyne said that we must ensure that civil space regulation effectively stimulates innovation and investment in this growing industry sector. Since the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957, space mining and exploration have been very real and present issues. Just a decade after that first foray, in 1967, the United Nations Outer Space Treaty was signed. It addressed a variety of issues concerning the right of all nations to access space for scientific purposes, and prohibiting the appropriation of space by any one nation. However, things have changed. It is no longer countries that are leading the charge, but corporations.
Just last year, the U.S. announced new legislation, the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. The fundamental purpose of the Act is to provide U.S. companies with the right to profit from resources they gain from space mining ... essentially, they gain the right to own things in space. This has a strong chance of contradicting the Outer Space Treaty, although there is yet to be any real legal challenge. Steven Freeland explains that the Outer Space Treaty generally provides that out-of-space and celestial bodies cannot be appropriated by any country, and by extension by individuals, which means there is no claim of sovereignty over asteroids or the moon. However, the lines are blurred when it comes to space mining. It is not entirely clear whether that international regime extends to not being able to claim the resources that are extracted from these celestial bodies.
Original URL: http://blog.iseekplant.com.au/blog/news/news/news/news/news/news/news/test/blog/space-mining-will-australia-lead-the-way
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