The Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act: A move forward or a step back?

Tronchetti, F

doi:10.1016/j.spacepol.2015.08.001

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…This shorter part of the Act transfers asteroids and their resources from no-ownership to private-ownership without the global consent, a contradiction to international law. For more on the matter see Nelson (2015) or Tronchetti (2015). Despite this contradiction, the bill passed 284 to 133.…”

Section: Legislation Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

NASA Funding in Congress: Money Matters

Machay¹,

Steinberg²

2020

EJOBSAT

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This paper argues that individual members of Congress engage in economic opportunism, voting in the best interests of their constituents based on economic heuristics, when considering space policy legislation. Multivariable logit analysis is conducted on five votes in the House of Representatives to test the hypotheses. The economic opportunism effect is captured in the models by the presence of NASA Centers, relative importance of space industry and NASA procurements. Findings suggest that economic benefits to a member's constituency can play an important role in legislative voting, particularly when legislation deals with federal aerospace funding, when space policy bills lack over-reaching bi-partisan support. In recent years the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has seen its funding fall prey to partisan budget battles and party line voting, but this was not historically the norm. As we move forward into a future where NASA funding may become more scrutinized and politicized, this paper supports the thesis that individual members of Congress care more about the funds for their constituents than the other aspects of space policy.

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Section: Legislation Of Interestmentioning

confidence: 99%

NASA Funding in Congress: Money Matters

Machay¹,

Steinberg²

2020

EJOBSAT

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“…They point to novel initiatives like SpaceX and the Google Lunar Prize as illustrative of this trend [17]. Firms are developing technologies necessary to extract resources from asteroids [18], and space tourism operations are working to expand private spaceflight. In the United Kingdom, the 2016 Queen's Speech to Parliament describes legislative measures to develop the country's first commercial spaceport, and some twenty other countries plan to develop ports to service commercial launches and space tourism operations [19].…”

Section: The New Space Economy and The Emergence Of Crowdfundingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fund Me to the Moon: Crowdfunding and the New Space Economy

2019

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The likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos now occupy the headlines once dominated by Apollo and Soyuz. Described as New Space versus Old Space, debate surrounds the emerging commercial space industry and the role of nontraditional actors in the evolving contemporary space exploration environment. This article enters this debate by adopting a sociological approach to investigate the role of crowdfunding in financing space exploration today. We interview crowdfunded space project creators in disparate locations, from Moscow to Silicon Valley, who attracted capital ranging from $200 to over $1 million. We attempt to uncover their experiences using this distinctly social financing mechanism and find that although crowdfunding is unlikely to solve all of today's research funding conundrums, it does appear to increase access to space in unique ways. We argue, however, that the most interesting dynamic of this phenomenon is the way in which crowdfunding contributes to an increasingly democratic exploration environment and how this might impact space science research and the power structures of the space industry. This article concludes by considering possible implications of this trend and derives practical suggestions for both policymakers and individuals who may be considering the use of crowdfunding to finance space science research and exploration projects.

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“…By claiming jurisdiction over the celestial body, the state violates Article II of the 1967 Treaty. The government in this case is granting title to the extracted resource and is thus claiming ownership by virtue of authorizing the transfer of ownership (Tronchetti, 2015a). This approach suggests that space mining can only be compliant with international space law if it is sanctioned by an international regime.…”

Section: Risks From An Uncertain Legal Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%