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Not for profit website/blog on astronomy, space and my writing

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 in this mission 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 and an insight into the Chinese Space Programme and in this episode, we spoke about the upcoming Chang’ E 4 mission and the prospects of collaboration between India and China in space.

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Change’ E 4 Mission – An overview

Relay Satellite
Named as “Queqiao” or magpie bridge 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 of 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”. The 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 the backup lander and rover 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 burst from the sun and cosmos.
• Lunar Lander Neutrons and Dosimetry (LND), a neutron detector from the University of Kiel University 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 fro 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. A HD camera will live stream from the lunar surface 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.

Episode 74: Space Debris and Sustainable use of Space

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Dr Brian Weeded
Dr Brian Weeden

Space, as the author Douglas Adams said “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is”. After 6 decades of launching spacecraft, some orbits are now congested with space debris from collisions and poor end-of-life mission management. This has now become a serious hazard and even a danger to operational spacecraft. With plans to launch thousands of additional satellites, the Mega Constellations, in the coming decade, the need for some sort form of “traffic management” in orbit has never been greater.

The Secure World Foundation was established in 2002 by philanthropists Marcell Arsenault and his wife Cynda Collins Arsenault. It’s vision of “sustainable and peaceful uses of outer space contributing to global stability and benefits on Earth” is timely. In the last decade, the urgency to address the profound impact of climate change on Earth has finally been (almost) heeded,  the next decade will focus on space. The SWF is informing and leading this debate.

Dr Brian Weeden is the Director of Program Planning for Secure World Foundation. In the past, his responsibilities included intercontinental ballistic missile(IBM) operations, worked at Cheyenne Mountain and Vandenberg Airforce Base and specialised in Space Situational Awareness in the US Air Force and Strategic Command’s Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC).  In this episode, he talks about the key issues of space debris, preventing, militarisation of space, raising awareness of cyber threats to spacecraft, developing resources for the many nations that are now developing a space programme, fostering standards and policies for commercial uses of space.

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The SWF produces some very interesting and readable resources. A selection below

PDF – Weapons and Conflict in Space: History, Reality, and The Future. A really good primary from Brian Weeden and others

PDF – Handbook for new actors in space

PDF – Global Counterspace Capabilities: An Open Source Assessment

PDF – Tomorrow’s Battlefield: Emerging Areas of Military Competition – Space,

PDF – Weapons and Conflict in Space: History, Reality, and The Future

MP3 – Big Data, Big Space, Big Risk: Addressing Cyber Security Threats

PDF – Preparing For a “Normalized” Space Domain – Secure World Foundation

Episode 73: Using Commercial Of the Shelf (COTs) Components to build spacecraft

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If you follow this podcast, you will notice a very long pause since the previous episode. I have been busy writing my second book, the Indian Space Programme which is now finally complete. So I am now back to my familiar but irregular podcasting mode.

The growth in the space sector now widely estimated to be worth annually over 300 billion USD globally. It is primarily being driven by the commercial sector.  The bulk of the expenditure is in satellite television, communication services, Earth observation and businesses enabled by global navigation. In the past, it was technological development driven by the national space programmes that triggered the development of low-cost consumer products. Today it’s the other way round. Sophisticated manufacturing methods and high public demand for digital products have produced low-cost consumer devices which without too much modification can be qualified for use in space. This is particularly true in the sudden growth of the small satellite market.

In this episode, I speak with Dr Rajan Bedi the founder and CEO of Spacechips, a UK based company offering CEO of Spacechips Ltd, which provides industrial R&D and space electronics design consultancy and training services to manufacturers of satellites and spacecraft around the world. I was intrigued by Rajan’s 2017 blog post entitled  “Using and selecting COTS components for space application”. In this episode, I want to understand to what extent spacecraft manufacturers can buy components for spacecraft from the high street.

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