Transporting a Legal System for Property Rights: From the Earth to the Stars
2006; University of Chicago Law School; Volume: 6; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1529-0816
Autores Tópico(s)Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life
ResumoI. INTRODUCTION By the year 2020, humans will return the moon and do much more than simply explore its surface. It is anticipated that an infrastructure will be developed encourage space tourism and commercial operations. The effective use and management of the moon, Mars, and other celestial bodies and their resources are integral the economic development of space and the expansion of business and industrial enterprise there. In January 2004, President George W. Bush announced his vision for the future of space exploration and the development of space resources and infrastructure. This vision is infused with A Renewed Spirit of Discovery1 aimed at exploring the moon, Mars, and beyond.2 It also encourages space-based commerce and industry. Later that month the President created the Commission on Implementation of United States Exploration Policy (Commission). This Commission held public hearings and heard testimony from individuals in industry, education, media, and various agencies and professional organizations3 on ways expand space exploration, discovery, and commercialization by private entities. In June 2004, the Commission published numerous recommendations in its final report, including ways streamline and reorganize NASA.4 These recommendations called for greater reliance on private industry in space operations, reducing NASA's involvement to only those areas where there is irrefutable demonstration that only government can perform the proposed activity.5 The Commission also addressed ways in which the government could engage private industry and expand commercial involvement in space. Specifically, the Commission recommended: [T]hat Congress increase the potential for commercial opportunities related the national space exploration vision by providing incentives for in space, by creating significant monetary prizes for the accomplishment of space missions and/or technology developments and by assuring appropriate property rights for those who seek develop space resources and infrastructure.6 Space holds the promise of vast new opportunities and untapped resources. The Commission recommends that the United States encourage and accelerate the economic development of space. The Commission report lists several incentives that will likely entice private industry invest their resources and capital in space ventures. Specifically, Recommendation 5-2 recommends that Congress increase the potential for commercial opportunities related the national space exploration vision by: 1) providing incentives for in space; 2) creating significant monetary prizes for the accomplishment of space missions and/or technology developments; and 3) assuring appropriate property rights for those who seek develop space resources and infrastructure.7 The Commission suggests creating a one hundred million one billion dollar prize be offered the first private entity place and sustain humans on the moon for a specified period of time.8 One incentive has already been shown spark entrepreneurial investment in space technologies. In October 2004, the non-profit X-Prize Foundation awarded a ten million dollar Ansari X-Prize the spacecraft SpaceShipOne for achieving suborbital flight twice within one week.9 The Commission report estimates that over four hundred million dollars was invested by competitors in developing their technologies, which is a forty one payoff reward for the development of this technology.10 Corporate sponsors, including M&M Candies, paid an estimated two million dollars have their logos on SpaceShipOne. Richard Branson, CEO of the Virgin Group, which includes Virgin Airlines and Virgin Records, reportedly agreed pay up twenty-one million dollars over the next fifteen years provide spaceships and technology for a proposed sub-orbital space airline, Virgin Galactic. …
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