Political and Legal Issues

The current framework of space treaties is adequate for the preliminary steps in the human space exploration and should be respected. However, this framework may evolve as the strategy progresses and humanity moves out into the Solar System.

The 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST) is considered the magna carta of space law. While it has been suitable for space activities to date, some of its provisions may need to be reconsidered in the future. Currently, space objects have to be registered by a registration state in order to be under its jurisdiction and control. What is the justification for such a mechanism in the case of an exploration project initiated on a celestial body other than Earth? In addition, the principle of the liability as stated in the Liability Convention might disappear in the long-term if launches take place from other celestial bodies.

Any new settlements in space will seek novel methods of governing themselves. They may choose to adopt an existing terrestrial model, but might also develop a political system hitherto unknown to Earth.

Cost and Financing

While the space budgets of nations like China, India, and Brazil may increase as they work towards G7-level gross domestic products, the spending of the US, Europe, and Japan is expected to remain generally level. Hence, methods of controlling the cost of the strategy will be essential. Coordination through the IHECG and its follow-on consortia would result in cost control through the elimination of duplicated effort. By setting the project up with a corporate-like structure, the project may proceed even if 7one or more of the "investors" drop out.

For a project to be more robust to the occasional rise and fall of national budgets, specific steps should be taken:

• Do not proceed beyond critical junctures without assurances that financial support remains available.
• Reduce the influence of politics on decision making by forming consortia similar to INTELSAT.
• Keep the project fast-paced to reduce the opportunities for support to falter.
• Make more use of standard commercial business practices.
• Reduce the reliance on "in-kind" contributions.
  

The private sector is better suited than the public sector to exploit space once it has been explored. Mature government programs should be privatized after the development phase.

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