session 5

Title

Space Resources: Technologies, Systems, Missions and Policies

type

oral

Description

The field of space resources is rapidly maturing, in just five years the number of new space ventures has increased by 7000%; new process, patents, technologies and systems concepts are emerging in an unprecedented fashion. In parallel, the legal regime for identifying, extracting and beneficiating resources is undergoing a similarly rapid evolution. Led by the United States and Luxembourg, all aspects of national law fully compliant with the Outer Space Treaty are emerging. The United Nations General Assembly recently approved a non-binding resolution which allowed each nation to form national legislation which comports with the Outer Space Treaty with regard to space resources. The purpose of this session is to provide insight into the current state of the art in technology, systems concepts, economics, law and policy related to Space Resources and how to leverage the present status for the benefit of humanity. This session also deals with shortfalls in capability, that is, what is needed to further to objective of benefitting mankind with the immense resources of space. Our objective is to generate developmental roadmaps anchored in the realities of engineering and economics which can produce commercially viable space industries which are compliant with each nation’s perspectives of space resources in light of their interpretation of the OST. This session has produced two cosmic studies on space mineral resources which have achieved global acclaim.

Date

2019-10-24

Time

14:45

Room

144B

IPC members

• Co-Chair: Mr. Roger X. Lenard, LPS, United States;

• Co-Chair: Dr. Peter Swan, Space Elevator Development Corporation, United States;

• Rapporteur: Ms. Helen Tung, NewSpace2060, Australia;