Policy Implications from the 4th ISU SSP Mars Treatymaking Workshop

Paper number

IAC-16,E7,IP,7,x31912

Author

Ms. Kelsey McBarron, United States

Author

Dr. Miranda Bradshaw, International Space University (ISU), United Kingdom

Author

Mr. Harry Price, ISU, United Kingdom

Author

Ms. Elizaveta Orlova, ISU, KU Leuven, Belgium

Coauthor

Mr. Camilo Andres Reyes Mantilla, Colombia

Coauthor

Mr. Rainer Diaz de Cerio Goenaga, ISU, Spain

Coauthor

Mr. Christopher Johnson, Secure World Foundation, United States

Coauthor

Ms. Ruth McAvinia, Ireland

Coauthor

Ms. Andrea Harrington, University of Mississippi, United States

Year

2016

Abstract

In light of the expanding robotic and the impending crewed exploration and settlement of Mars, participants at the International Space University's 2016 Space Studies Program (SSP) held in Haifa, Israel, will act as governmental delegations at the United Nations to create a draft text representing a new international treaty for Mars. This is the fourth year the ISU SSP has conducted this Mars Treatymaking Workshop, done in conjunction with the SSP's Space Policy, Economics, and Law department. Participants in the workshop are the next generation of space professionals, and their attitudes, insights, and approaches to governance may demonstrably impact actual future space projects.
 
Set in 2026, this workshop features some nations with ambitious plans for Mars colonization, while others intend to commercially mine the red planet's rich mineral resources. The majority of delegations to the UN, however, hold fast the provisions of the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, whose Article II mandates that {\it “outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of use or occupation, or by any other means."}

Can these tensions be resolved in a single treaty for Mars? This paper, to be presented by the participants in the workshop, will relate the legal, political, programmatic, and ethical impressions and lessons learned from the simulation of an international intergovernmental negotiation for the governance for Mars.

Abstract document

IAC-16,E7,IP,7,x31912.brief.pdf

Manuscript document

(absent)