Lunar Governance
- Paper number
IAC-07-A5.1.01
- Author
Dr. William Marshall, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Ames Research Center, United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Mark Lupisella, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)/Goddard space Flight Center, United States
- Coauthor
Dr. Julia Tizard, United Kingdom
- Coauthor
Mr. Robbie Schingler, Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC), United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Jessy Cowan-Sharp, United States
- Year
2007
- Abstract
Human settlements in space, in particular the first few to be established, provide opportunities to advance political systems. This may be potentially fruitful, even critical, since the inertia of terrestrial systems are slow to change from within, compared to the task of setting up a new one. These advances provide huge potential to the quality of life of those on the space settlement. But much more significantly, an alternative successful political system can be a catalytic source for improvements of political systems on Earth and setting precedents of future space settlements. In this paper we reflect on the downfalls of the best current political systems and explore how a first settlement on the lunar surface might best be internally politically administered.
- Abstract document