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Episode 76: Space law

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Bayar Goswami

One of the earliest characteristics of human civilisation (large populations living together in organised cities) was the creation of rules or laws that everyone who lived there agreed to abide by.

The 50th anniversary of first humans to visit the Moon is celebrated later this year. In 1968 it was pretty much just two countries and a few space missions per year. Today, over 70 countries have something in the way of a space programme and along with a blossoming private space sector, space is likely to become very busy in the next decade or so. This surge of space activity will determine how the laws in space will apply and begin to set the scene for human civilisation beyond Earth.   On earth, most nations follow international laws most of the time.

International rules for operating in space were defined by the UN in five treaties established between 1967 – 1984.

  • 1967 – The Outer Space Treaty: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.
  • 1968 – Rescue Agreement. Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
  • 1972 – The Liability agreement. Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects.
  • 1976 – The Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.
  • 1984 – The Moon Treaty. Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies.

How will these laws fair in space? For example, will all governments

  • “authorise and supervise” their  “non-governmental entities” in space?
  • comply with international liabilities for physical damages caused by their space objects?
  • agree on who can build what and where on the Moon?
  • establish mining and ownership rights to materials on the Moon and other celestial bodies?
  • maintain the principles of human rights in space.

These are some of the questions I discuss with  Bayar Goswami, a Doctoral student at the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University (IASL) in Canada. A TedX speaker, Bayar has an interest in space as well as law and I started by asking him what came first.

The distinction between terms, such as signed, ratified and accessioned, is described here. A status of which nations have signed which treaty is maintained by the UN here. A summary of the five treaties is available here.

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Episode 75: China -back to the Moon with Chang’ E 4

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Ye Quan-ZhiOne mission two spacecraft, China is going back to the Moon with Chang’E 4 mission that I think is the most exciting lunar mission since the 1970s. By the end of 2018, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) will launch Chang’E 4 that will explore the far side of the Moon with a lander and a rover. Since it is on the other side of the Moon, it will be totally out of sight from the Earth. To facilitate communication, a relay satellite will be launched in advance of the lander/rover’s arrival at the Moon.

In addition to engaging private sector companies in China, Chang’E 4 will include a significant level of international collaboration, with payloads from Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, and Sweden.

Ye Quan-Zhi is a postdoc astronomer who specialises in small bodies in the solar system. Like me, he started off as an amateur astronomer but now uses telescopes with apertures measured in meters rather than inches!  In addition to his research, he writes about space in the Planetary Society’s blog.   As a Chinese national, Quan-Zhi has an interest in and insight into the Chinese Space Programme, and in this episode, we spoke about the upcoming Chang’e E-4 mission and the prospects of collaboration between India and China in space.

Change’ E 4 Mission – An overview

Relay Satellite
Named as “Queqiao” or magpie bridge, it will be launched in May 2018 and placed in the Earth/Moon L2 orbit (also known as a halo orbit) about 60,000km from the Moon (450,000 km from the Earth) in the opposite direction of the Earth. From there, it will always have a line of sight to the far side of the Moon and Earth at the same time. Its primary purpose is to act as a relay providing all the communications from the Lander/Rover that will land on the Moon in late 2018 or early 2019.

The two microsatellites from the Netherlands are called “Longjiang-1″ and “Longjiang-2”. They will enter an elliptical lunar orbit and conduct low-frequency radio astronomy experiments.

Lander & Rover
Due for launch in December 2018 or early 2019

The lander and rover are backups to the highly successful 2013 Chang’E 3 mission. Whilst identical in most respects, lessons learnt from Chang’E 3 have been incorporated in modifications to Chang’E 4.

Lander
• Landing Camera (LCAM)
• Terrain Camera (TCAM)
• Low-Frequency Spectrometer (LFS) to investigate radiation bursts from the sun and cosmos.
• Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry (LND), a neutron detector from the University of Kiel in Germany
• A mini “lunar biosphere” experiment designed by 28 Chinese universities, consisting of a 0.8 litre capacity enclosure weighing 3 kilograms. The biosphere contains silkworm eggs and seeds for cress and potatoes. Once on the lunar surface, this mini biosphere will maintain a humidity and temperature (1 to 30 degrees centigrade) whilst the lunar surface temperature varies from +100 to -100 degrees centigrade. An HD camera will live-stream from the lunar surface, showing the hatching eggs and sprouting seeds during the first two weeks of the mission.

Rover
• Panoramic Camera (PCAM)
• Ground penetrating radar (LPR) to investigate the lunar crust and mantle
• Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (VNIS), for imaging spectroscopy
• Advanced Small Analyser for Neutrals (ASAN), to investigate how solar particles interacts with the lunar surface.

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ISRO’s Chandrayaan-1 – detected in lunar orbit

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Using an innovative radar technique, NASA has been able to detect two spacecraft in lunar orbit from the surface of the Earth. NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched in 2009 and was in lunar orbit at the same time as Chandrayaan-1. Although a joint experiment was designed for both spacecraft, it did not work out. LRO is still operating in Lunar Orbit today. Communication with India’s Chandrayaan-1 was lost in August 2009.  At the time ISRO engineers estimated that Chandrayaan-1’s orbit would decay and it would impact on the surface of the Moon by around 2012.  The new microwave radar technique using three of the world’s largest radio telescopes (Goldstone, Arecibo and Green Bank) first located the Chandrayaan-1 in July 2016. Remarkably it was still pretty much in its 200km polar orbit going round the Moon every 2 hours.

Chandrayaan-1 was originally (November 2008) in a 100km orbit which was raised to 200 km (May 2009)  to overcome internal heating problems. Although not welcomed at the time because the resolution of the data captured by several of the onboard instruments was reduced given the higher altitude. This raised orbit is probably the reason it survives in lunar orbit today.

One of the better write-ups, from 2009 about the demise of the Chandrayaan-1 mission from an accomplished Indian journalist T.S. Subramanian here.

Episode 67: Technik Museum Speyer

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IMG_3306This episode is a preview of some of the space-related exhibits in Europe’s largest aerospace museum – Speyer Technik Museum, in Germany. If you ever go and the following may entice you to do so: four space exhibits to look out for include the following:

Soyuz TM19 – The landing capsule Soyuz TM-19 was used by the German astronaut Ulf Merbold to return to Earth on 4th November 1994 following his launch in Soyuz TM-20 on 3rd October 1994.

Buran – The Soviet Space shuttle Buran was a the Soviet response to the American Space Shuttle. Two complete working vehicles were made.  The Buran was unmanned and, although reusable, was never actually reused. One made a single flight to space and was later destroyed when the hangar housing it collapsed. The other made 25 test flights, also unmanned, but only in the Earth’s atmosphere.  Following an unexpected find in the Persian Gulf by German journalists, it was brought to Speyer in 2008.

Bor-5 – To assist the Soviets in designing the Buran, they built and flew BOR-5, a 1:8-scale model of the Buran. Bor-5  made five unmanned sub-orbital test flights between 1984 and 1988.

Moon rock – One of the largest pieces of Moonrock I have seen on public display. It is from the Apollo 15 mission but was unveiled at the Museum in June 2013 by Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. 

If you do go, it is a big place – one day is not enough!

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